New book teaches social business users how to "Engage"

The social media landscape has grown to bring immense opportunity to both individuals and  business as far as branding is concerned. Unfortunately, with that mass adoption has come the creation of many bad habits in terms of using social media as a broadcasting method rather than engaging with people. A new book, "Engage: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web" by Brian Solis, promises to explain how we're supposed to interact with each other.

Solis is no stranger to successful book writing. His most recent previous book, "Putting the Public Back in Public Relations", was published as a foundation for helping public relations professionals learn to navigate the new, somewhat confusing waters created by the influx of social media.

"Putting the Public Back in Public Relations focused on building new two-way roads of communications between the new genre of digital influencers, customers, prospects in addition to traditional intermediaries," he said. "It was written to give a voice to brand and also empower them to build relationships necessary to extend their story and the value they bring to the table."

According to Solis, "Engage" will provide the following:

• Create a space in the online ecosystem that truly represents your business and cultivates your customers’ loyalty and trust
• Participate in the unique culture of each available social media platform to engage your customers
• Establish an organizational structure that constantly targets the next new media trend
• Attract online champions and change agents who will uncover the social networks you need to reach and the influencers who will help build your reputation in the networked world
• Consistently adapt your company to market needs and trends based on the invaluable connections you forge and the empathy and insight you garner in the process

"The book is called engage for a very specific reason. As a verb, it implies action...and action is what propels the social web. And it is action, that speaks louder than words," Solis said. "Engagement is an act of connecting, but it is how we connect and why that determines the reaction and ultimately the impression and experience. And, engagement is the physical investment in the relationships we hope to earn."

Solis also examines the challenge of balancing a personal brand  while also promoting or managing a company brand.

"There's an entire chapter about this very subject. Engage examines the brand "you" as well as the brand you represent. They are different and I refer to this impending crossroads that each of us faces or already face, as multiple personality order,"he said. "We will build personae and social graphs around who we are and what we do...one size does not fit all."