Viralogy

Website: ChrisBrogan.com
Twitter: @chrisbrogan
Bio: Chris is one of few people who can legitimately make the claim of “Social Media Expert”. Chris is the President of New Marketing Labs, and has worked in social media for over ten years. His blog is one of the preeminent sources of information and advice for connecting with new media, and he is well known for his community interaction.

I can’t think of a better place to end the first series of Social Media Tactics feature but with Chris Brogan himself. There are a hundred ways in which Chris Brogan employs crucial tactics to help raise awareness for his own brand, as well as those of his clients. Arguably one of the most important ways that he manages to maintain such a fiercely interactive user base is the way in which he engages his community. A recent post of his on the difference of “Audience” vs. “Community” illustrates his approach perfectly:

“The difference between an audience and a community is which direction the chairs are pointing… You have to feed the system to keep either an audience or a community alive. If the band doesn’t come out to play, the fans don’t stick around for too long. If the band doesn’t engage the crowd, you feel a bit more like an audience.”

Social Media Tactics discusses various ways social and new media users build relationships and add value to their audience. Each week, we will look at one social media influencer that has managed to use web marketing successfully. In Social Media Tactics, we’ll show you some of the best ways to enhance your own brand and social media presence while demonstrating how some smart users employ social media tactics.

The Social Media Tactics series can be found here.

• Engaging Your Community Pt. 1: Chris Pirillo
• Engaging Your Community Pt. 2: @RedheadWriting (Erika Napoletano)
• Engaging Your Community Pt. 2: Frank Eliason (@comcastcares)

Chris Brogan runs a community. It is an involved and extremely active community at that. One of the reasons for his great popularity in the new media space is the way he engages his community. One of the easiest people to get in touch with, Chris publishes his email address on his blog, as well as inviting anyone to connect with him on a number of social networks including LinkedIn and Twitter.

Chris has never (to my knowledge) distanced himself from his community and that is a big quality that sets him apart from others. Where some might use the blogging and social media platforms to put themselves on a talking box or pedestal, Chris puts himself in the center of it all, taking feedback and interaction to heart and making it a large part of who he is. Look at any one of his posts and you’ll see he has made by far the most comments. Look at his Twitter feed and you’ll see that the vast majority of his tweets are replies to others.

In order to engage his community, Chris will be the first to tell you that he spends an insane amount of time. Where I follow 150 people on Twitter, he follows nearly six hundred times that. He has around one thousand times more readers on Feedburner than me. You have to spend a lot of time to actively and responsibly engage a community of that scale. That said, Chris Brogan’s efforts should give you hope. If he can do it with the size of his community, there is no reason that you can’t. You may not have Brogan’s beard, (where it’s rumored that he derives his power), but you have the time, ability and wherewithal to do everything he does if you so desire.

How Chris Engages His Community

Blog Comments: Arguably the best way that Chris engages his community is with his own blog. If you take issue with something he’s said, or believe he’s spot on, Chris does a great job of responding to many of his blog comments. This may seem obvious to you, but it’s extremely important. If you’re using your blog to connect with other people, you can’t ignore it when people connect back. There are some bloggers who don’t allow comments, but they’re rare, and it’s usually because their traffic is so great that they can’t possibly respond to all of their comments.

Twitter: Chris might be most famous for his Twitter use. In addition to adding great value for his users with his tweets, he does a fantastic job of replying to other users, as well as keeping a close eye on his own tweetstream to find some great nuggets for retweeting. He is an example of how to use (as well as knowing how to not use) Twitter. Chris has historically followed back everyone who has followed him on Twitter, but that is a tactic that some speculate might not last too much longer.

Email: How many of you get around 500 emails a day and are able to respond to pretty much all of them? It’s an extremely difficult task, but Chris manages to rise to the task by scheduling his time well. There are few more personal ways to handle connections (at least virtually) than through email. It’s strange to think this, as emails are so much less personal than a phone call or a live conversation. However, emails are a private exchange that usually only benefits the two parties involved. The fact that Chris spends so much time responding to personal emails that range from any topic (regardless of the volume) shows his dedication to engaging his community.

Blogs: Searching blog feeds for your own name and you might find few results (or, too many if you happen to be named Michael Jordan or Brad Pitt). Searching for Chris Brogan on Technorati will come up with dozens of mentions daily. Though Chris won’t respond to blog posts about him daily, he does manage to respond to a surprising number of posts about him. He wants to know what you think about him (good or bad) and he is willing to open up a discussion. Chris also responds to blogs on any number of different topics and gives his own insight and opinion - something extremely valuable for a fledgling blogger. You can even track some of the comments he’s made on Disqus here.

LinkedIn: Chris accepts incoming LinkedIn requests from all comers, and invites anyone to connect with him. Hoping the signal:noise frequency isn’t too high, connecting with others on LinkedIn allows Chris the ability to connect like minds with one another, which can be extremely valuable.

Engaging your community can be one of the most important ways to build your own brand, but you’ll have to remember that it isn’t just about you. You have to engage your community because you genuinely care about them. If you’re just doing it for you, you will ultimately fail. Chris succeeds because he is as interested in working and learning from his community as they are in learning from him. Honestly engage your own community and the benefits you can reap are limitless.

As with all endeavors, your time is limited, so make sure you focus your efforts, but if you make a commitment to engage in a social network, you can’t do it halfway. If you say you want to engage your community but ignore half your emails and all your @replies, you’re doing it wrong. So optimize your time and your efforts. Take it from Chris Brogan: sometimes you just have to say no.

Jaremy Rich writes a technology, marketing and gaming blog called Techshots, and is constantly in awe of Chris Brogan’s time management skills.