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Creating Your Digital Engagement Ecosystem

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An ecosystem can be defined as a “biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment”.  This is fascinating to think about… a sophisticated interactive grouping of both elements and their environments.  Truth is, we all live in multiple ecosystems… families, work, education, friendships, local municipalities, governments, and so much more.  But what we’re talking about here is the idea of a digital engagement ecosystem?  

So I would define a digital engagement ecosystem as your collection of digital engagement points with your community.  These engagement points and tools should all be considered part of one larger system.  They do not stand alone. Your social media strategy should not be isolated from your blog strategy and so forth.  The tighter you integrate your digital elements, the stronger each one of them becomes.  So what are some examples of elements that fall into our digital ecosystem?  Here’s a start.  This isn’t comprehensive as you will certainly have others and technology is constantly changing.  

  • Social Media - this is probably the most obvious and known element in a digital engagement strategy.  We see most groups having social media accounts but primarily lacking good strategy in this area and especially lacking integration between social and all the other efforts.

  • Website - websites are still the foundation of how most everyone presents their digital persona and storefront.  These serve as great tools to educate and introduce yourself to the world.  

  • Mobile App - some organizations and initiatives have dedicated mobile apps to drive a specific strategy or business function.  Mobile apps are best designed when a single app serves the purpose of a specific user experience or function.  

  • Email - yes, email. Email seems to get the rap of the dark ages it seems but there are still great strategies for email engagement and the engagement data can still be really solid when done well.

  • Virtual Events - these could be webinars to full-scale virtual conferences.  These serve to bring people together at a specific point in time to learn and be equipped.  

  • eCouress - these deliver on-demand training and are equipped for people as they are searching for being equipped in something specific.  These are more point-in-time engagements but still great for equipping.

  • Community Platform - these are private login and membership access sites where your community can privately connect in your controlled environment to better bond your tribe together.  

These are just a few examples of what could be in your digital engagement ecosystem.  Your task is to explore which fit your engagement strategy best.  Here are some tips.

  • Dream Big + Act Small - dream big about all the things you could do in the world of digital engagement to build your ecosystem… but focus on acting small.  Don’t tackle all of this at the same time.  Have a roadmap for where you would like to be but don’t start by trying to do it all at the same time.

  • Prioritize - run through your list of potential engagement pathways and force yourself to prioritize them in sequential order.  That will help you allocate time and financial resources as you continue to build your engagement strategies.  

  • Natural Fits - look for the engagement pathways that make the most sense for your business strategy.  What are your people asking for and what would resonate best with them?  Meet them where they are vs. trying to force new habits on them.

  • Be Creative - these are only a few examples of engagement tools but there are so many more.  Be creative and add others that fit your strategy and meet your audience well where they are.  

And the last tip… once you do have a good idea of what fits into your digital engagement ecosystem, build a visual that you can share with your team.  These are helpful for you to solidify your ecosystem and also to help communicate to your team.  

Have fun!

 

Cause Machine Solutions

The Cause Machine platform creates a primary environment for your digital engagement ecosystem providing website solutions, e-courses, virtual events, email sending, memberships, and more.  The entire platform of Cause Machine is designed to facilitate your digital engagement ecosystem.  Schedule a demo today!

 

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