THE THIRD BARRIER TO ENGAGEMENT

Asking me what I think about an issue you've decided is important isn't engagement. Neither is me visiting your website, retweeting your thing, buying your thing, liking and sharing your thing, or just using your thing. Those are just interactions. Transactions. But engagement is how I feel about you and your thing before, during and after those interactions. 

Yes, the transactions matter because they have a profound influence on how I feel. And how they make me feel determines whether or not I come back for more and what I tell other people about you and your thing. So you need to get the interactions right, which won't happen if you think they are the point. Because they aren't the point. And yet they are so appealing because they are easier to track and measure than how I feel. So when you need evidence that you're making progress, it's convenient to be able to count hits and submissions and likes and whatever. And there is some value in that data. But it's limited. Because the transactions are the means but not the end. 

Engagement is the point. It's harder to measure and just plain hard. It's complex and fragile. It's a long game, not a short play. Engagement isn't what you do, it's how I feel about what we do (or don't do) when we connect.