Thursday, October 27, 2011

Is stickiness important for engagement?

Earlier today I was asked a question on twitter about whether or not @SmallRivers paper.li works for me.  So I started to answer, realized there was no way to do so via a tweet, tried to do it via twitlonger and realized I was trying to squeeze and fit the answer to the media format instead of worrying about providing the answer to what I beleive is a relevent question.

We know twitter is a stream and flow medium and both you and those that follow and engage with you can't be there 24/7.  There is some dialog out there about timing of posts and whether they can be in middle of the night, etc. (see Social Timing Insights infographic from Argyle ow.ly/7b43A) but even on this issue, with those engaging all over the world, while there may be prime times for immediate exposure, there won't necessarily be someone watching when your post flows by and unless caught via a list or direct reference; the post effectively becomes once and done.

So I believe it's about stickiness. paper.li is sticky content, @twylah is sticky dialog. Here's how I put it in my email signatures:

See what I'm discussing twylah/hbrofman, see what I'm reading 94bits Daily
Follow me on Twitter: @hbrofman Check out my blogs: hbrf.blogspot.com, iosvandrod.blogspot.com


There other tools our there as well to help solve the stickness problem (although some don't even realize that is the problem they are trying to solve).  Regardless, various solutions will improve engagement, especially in a global communication model where customers and peers are anywhere and everywhere.

-hb