Engaged

When people talk about social media, they’ll often refer to the importance of engagement. How engaged are your followers and friends? Does your page have regular engagement? This simply refers to how often or much your posts are liked or shared or commented on. It can start sounding very mechanical and focus-groupie. Hovering around this word is the question, “How do you get people to pay attention to what you want them to pay attention to?”

I don’t know. I don’t know how you get anyone to do anything, not even my wife or children. But I do know I’ll sometimes click on an ad on Twitter or Facebook. I do so with some reservations because I know I will soon be inundated ads for stylish men’s boots or weedwhackers, but such is the price I’m willing to pay to do a little exploring. It’s fun to want something, to poke around a product and imagine if it might please me. When imagining in this way, I feel engaged, and I always like being engaged. I wasn’t plopped on this planet to sit on a rock and watch everything go by. I’m here play, to be a part of the game ongoing.

I also know I like talking to people. Not about anything. There are lots of subjects I couldn’t care much less about. But I was having a procedure done recently, and as the doctor sutured up my wrist, she mentioned that she wanted to write a paper but was having trouble starting. I couldn’t help myself. I started talking to her about other people’s opinions and the imagination and trusting herself. I’ve done the same thing on airplane trips and in restaurants. So many people want to write but aren’t, and I find that very, very interesting.

For this reason, I like to remind myself to translate marketing-speak like “audience engagement” into what it means to the heart: people looking for more and different ways to play the game the way they want to play it. Everyone wants to be entertained, everyone wants to be inspired, everyone wants to want something. We all want to be engaged. That’s where the fun of life is to be found.

If you like the ideas and perspectives expressed here, feel free to contact me about individual coaching and group workshops.

Everyone Has What It Takes: A Writer’s Guide to the End of Self-Doubt
You can find William at: williamkenower.com