Sharing the right content at the right time is a challenge for anyone that uses social media. So is offering the right rewards for people who participate and engage. It all really depends on the community.

This week’s #cmgrchat echoes a lot of what Jennita Lopez of SEOmoz recently posted, which is — as CM, you have to do what works for you/your community. See How to Manage Twitter: Do it Your Way.

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Q1) How do you map out engagement, and determine what you need to do to increase it in a community?

mhandy1 On FB I look at feedback ratios… what resonates best and then break it down further to types of questions/links

mor_trisha To map out engagement, start with 1) What pain points are we trying to improve? and 2) What actions are people already doing?

tmonhollon Start with primary research: observe current & potential community where they are engaging, and ask Where, When, Why & What

RachelYeomans Oh boy let’s see – Facebook insights, Google analytics, Twitter (of course!) – just started using TwentyFeet and love it!

momnonstop I use blog views, check mentions, insights on fb and response Percent to see when/what engages

evanhamilton Actions vs views. Length of time since last sign in. Number of actions per visit. Interactions with other members

bluephoenixnyc We measure more than Fbook+Twitter; we look at Quora, blog feedback, forums in our industry. It has to be a mix of channels

thebloggerspost Authenticity in communication is key. Are you messaging just to say something or your actual message?

pushingvision I think seeing what a competitor is doing gives can you an edge and way to do it better.

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Q2) What are the best times of the day/days of the week to engage your audience?

momnonstop According to an article release by mashable for my company (salon/spa) best times are sun/thurs after hours

mor_trisha Hmm, Q2 feels very ‘push’ related. We don’t use a schedule – it is ‘engage as we can’.

ottogrl here is a must read on how to improve engagement on your brand’s Facebook page: http://t.co/mEqIKl4

RachelYeomans Every platform is different with what time(s) are best to engage – plus audiences are different on each platform

omgitsamr depends on what platform you’re engaging… for ex: stats show retweets are highest 2-5 p.m. ET

JamesVKautz I’ve found only FB is time-sensitive due to the news feed. We are the most active there in the late afternoon.

momnonstop I’m limited to three updates a week

evanhamilton I go for 8am PST, though this report about retweets says 2pm PST for RT’s http://slidesha.re/1tSyHu

timbursch Also, some B2B communities that we manage engage 9AM, 12PM, and 4-5PM, checking networks= new smoke break

_faith Engagement = actively responding & *listening*, sometimes we need to know when to let other people talk

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Q3) How do you make it easy for community members to engage (contests/other activities…)?

sarahkayhoffman Open-ended questions. Questions that allow them to talk about themselves. Contests. Sharing tabs

JamesVKautz I use an observation instead of a command, i.e. “Wow” or “This is clever” – the link speaks for itself.

WriterChanelle Honestly, I prefer to avoid contests until the community is actively participating and loyal.

Fisherish identifying influencers within the community & giving them some extent of authority will spark engagement.

corecorina Supernova makes engages by having weekly live events with online voting, and content that changes based on user engagement

RachelYeomans Yes! For Twitter, you start w/ building an audience, then maybe host a twitter contest and then perhaps a twitter chat!

_faith For FB, it’s great to share visuals– allows ppl to share differing interps, find commonalities

bluephoenixnyc Contests always seem dicey unless you’re in B2C. Otherwise, just small talk is a great start. It’s daunting, but it’s sincere.

mhandy1 Twitter chats build engagement develop community… RT contests develop fans… both should play a role

JPedde I think the best way to increase engagement is making sure it’s easy to log in, easy to find you, you’re visible, easy site nav

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Q4) What kinds of rewards are in place (built in mechanics, or points, or sm tools to identify top members)?

RachelYeomans I think the badge system is the most recognized/popular right now – we’re trying to play w/ that out for our community

Fisherish Studies show that recognition by the brand and first time brand’s insight news for top members as the most important reward

evanhamilton In our product, we’ve built in game mechanics that encourage our customers when they make their customers happy.

timbursch We still use old-school #followfriday to call out advocates.

greghollings I think badges are great but the badge system needs to grow organically and naturally, not imposed

7Huck what about discounts?

_faith Hmm, tricky, prefer to share discounts with all fans/followers, they’ve already earned 1 level of engagement

JPedde Kind of blown away by today’s chat… thanks so much to @7huck & @mhandy1, and all of the new CMs who joined, along w/ the old!

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Post by #cmgrchat contributor @7huck, Judi Huck.

Thanks to all who participated!  Make sure to come back to #cmgrchat every Wednesday from 2-3pm EST for more chats!

If you have any ideas or suggestions for future topics, leave comments or get in touch with myself or Kelly!