Digital Engagement

Building trust and community through authenticity

Digital engagement

Building relationships online using an authentic, personable voice.

Conversation, not broadcast.

Organic community growth.

Case study

‘The key to our success is we treat our consumers like they are people. We try to have a conversation and generally talk to people like we would with our friends down the pub but without swearing.’

‘Don’t try and sell too hard. Just try to be as authentic as you can in terms of your tone of voice and in terms of your brand. If your content is good and you don’t force it on people too much, people will engage with it.’

- Helena Langdon, Head of Social Media at innocent drinks

Case study

‘It’s about trusting your team to put out the right messages. Everything we do at

PEEK is based on trust, we do have

policies and procedures in place,

but a large part of it is relationships.‘

-Melodie Crumlin, CEO PEEK

Case study

‘If you're approachable, people will talk to you, and that approachableness is 24 hours a day. People do come to us and let us know what is going on. We're not judges – we don't want to humiliate people.’

- Sergeant Colin Taylor

5 reasons why authentic engagement matters

ONE

It will create a record of values, identity and storytelling that complements marketing focused on quantitative measures or sales.

This is especially important at a time when tolerance for digital adverts is dropping, enormous ad exchanges continue to serve up low quality, irrelevant or malicious ads and use of ad blockers is on the rise.

TWO

It encourages trust.

People trust those working on the front line and others like them more than PR messaging and broadcast from the top table.

THREE

It helps you build a community of evangelists.

People will create and share their own content about a product or service- you don’t totally own the message about your brand. By being personable and trustworthy, you can build a relationship with those talking about you online and keep it on the positive tip.

FOUR

Meaningful engagement will give you unique insights about customer values and their daily lives.

New demands mean people expect to be understood and engaged with as as individuals instead of a market segment.

FIVE

It is sustainable.

Creating content with your voice and about your business can be easily built into your day to day work.

For further thought and discussion

How do you measure qualitative information?

How will you apply comments and discussion to your business development?

How will you facilitate or manage community?

Where does engagement fit in with PR and marketing?

www.relatelab.co.uk

hello@relatelab.co.uk

@LockhartL