Marketing or hiring is about getting new relationships, but engagement is about doing more with the relationships you already have.

That’s engagement: it’s about maximising existing relationship, to get more value out of them. It wholeheartedly seeks value over volume.

A few implications, then:

  • A brand knows that engaged customers are worth 300% more, for instance.
  • An engaging public speaker isn’t engaging because they draw big crowds. They are engaging because they maximise the relationship they have with the audience when they are speaking, which as a result, draws the crowds.
  • An engaging brand Facebook page maximises the value of the relationship it already has with its followers. Hence, Facebook separates between metrics of reach and engagement.
  • A consultant can only up sell more to an existing client if the client is engaged!

Engagement is belief in human synergy. It’s a bit like ice. Ice is sturdier and stronger than steam or water because the atoms in a solid object are tighter and more closely knit together than they are in liquid or gas form.

Engagement is maximising value by being better together.