Principle 11: Give options for engagement

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Your morning routine may be to read the New York Times, check your email, and read a couple of blogs. Would you still consume the New York Times if it were only distributed as a four-hour videocast? The answer to that depends on how much you want that information and whether it can fit into your daily routine. And that’s the core decision every individual needs to make as to whether they do or don’t choose to consume a piece of media. The information may be of interest, but the way it’s delivered does not fit in with their lifestyle or the way they want to consume media.

Spreading the word

Make it easy for people to share your content. That means providing links to social news and bookmarking tools like Digg and del.licio.us or offering a “forward to a friend” link. Plus, go out of your way to personally contact sites that you think would have interest in your content. It’s best first to read and understand that site’s content before you make a plea for your own information. For example, refer to something you saw on their site. Let them know you enjoyed such and such aspect (everyone loves to get their ego stroked) and then offer up your content that you think would be of interest to them. A personal connection is a form of engagement that has a higher potential for interest and, therefore, response.

That’s why I’ve offered this article as a series of individual mini-articles on the Web (read any of the 12 that you’re interested in or print them out) or as a full PDF document that you can download to your desktop to read or print out. Have further interest in this subject? I conducted a series of interviews with experts in the field and compiled short edited conversation videos on each principle. Watch the videos, read the transcripts, or download audio files to your iPod.

I’ve given options for engagement. I know people are interested in the subject of new media, but I also know people have different levels of interest and time. That’s why I make the content available to support as many levels of interest and time commitments as possible.

Everybody operates in different ways. Digg and del.icio.us offer offer similar social bookmarking services. But I like del.icio.us better. That’s why I’d tag a story with del.icio.us and wouldn’t bother to post it on Digg if that were the only option left to me. But I’m sure there are people who prefer Digg, so I make both sharing options available on my blog, Spark Minute.

In addition, individuals change. For example, I used to work full-time at an ad agency. And my job required me to walk, take a bus, take a train, and then walk again to get to work. The entire experience took me 45 minutes each way. To pass the time I would consume podcasts. Today, I don’t commute, but I still need and want to consume that same content. So I’ve turned to blogs and news sites. Problem is many of the podcasts I tuned into don’t have compatible blogs. And as a result, they’ve lost me as a consumer solely because my lifestyle changed.

Keep your audience by offering options for engagement. Yes, it does take effort to do all these things. But when you take the effort to do it the first time, you’ll have created the structure. And if you want to repeat it again, it will be much easier. The trick is you have to begin by doing it once.

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