Setting up your Twitter profile, starting a blog, or a Facebook page usually isn’t the hard part. The question I get asked most often from clients and friends is how do you get any activity, establish a following or engagement? (e.g. “How do we get people to comment on Facebook or respond on our blog” or “we don’t have any followers on Twitter”). There are many ways to leverage social media to achieve different goals, but I want to share with you my thinking, specifically, about how to get activity and interactions.

If you build it, they won’t come.
First, you must come to grips that your blog, profile or page is a part of an already crowded space. There are over 133 million blogs. And 27 million+ tweets are sent per day. Just because you exist, does not mean you’ll attract a following. I tell my clients that the percentage of your customers or targets that are your super-fans (“people who will follow and like everything you do”) is a small percentage or almost non-existent. So don’t think there are a bunch of anxious fans waiting for you to click the “create” or “send” button, because your mere existence isn’t reason enough to generate any kind of activity or significant following.

Think about your favorite big brands or companies. Do you like them enough to visit their blog daily or read their latest Tweet? Possible, but not likely. Or let’s just say your name is Jane, and you run a small plumbing business. Do you think any of her customers care to read her blog daily or write a comment on her Facebook page? Not likely. Just because you exist, doesn’t mean people will interact with you on these social tools.

The “Jay Leno rule of Social Media”
It’s not about just you. I believe you earn the right, then- you can talk about you. There’s a great metaphor that explains what I mean by this. Steve Rubel shares (Edelman, Director of Insights) his thoughts about the “Jay Leno Rule of Social Media”. It’s simple, time-tested, familiar to all of us, and it’s effective. He says:

“If you think about it, the celebrity slots on The Tonight Show are pretty formulaic: guest walks on; guest engages/yucks it up with Jay about broad human interest topics (life stories, current affairs, etc.); guest promotes his/her book, movie, TV show, event, shows a clip, etc.; guest moves down the couch; rise, repeat, wash. It struck me that this is a great model for any company hoping to build relationships through social media.

…if you want to get people to care about what you’re selling, you have first to get them engaged by being informative and/or entertaining. You need to get us interested in what you have to say beyond your domain. Such pathways to engagement include stories, humor, links to interesting information, ideas, questions and participating in other discussions. Then, once you get us hooked, it’s easier talk about what you want to sell us. We’ll be more receptive.”

So what should you do?
Follow the “4:1 Rule”.

Be relevant. Follow the “4:1 Rule”.
If you want to generate activity with your social efforts, it takes hard work, passion and consistency. And given my earlier thesis, “if you build it, they won’t come,” you must give them reasons to show up and why they should come back for more.

You must be relevant and interesting. As a general rule of thumb, your updates and content in the channels should follow the “4:1 Rule”. This means, for every 1 social object* that is about you, there needs to be 4 things not about you. These should be social objects, that are one of the following:

• informative
• inspirational
• entertaining
• engaging
• re(markable); definition for this word

* Social Objects are things like photos, Tweets, blog posts, audio/podcast clips, videos, status updates. Social objects ideally are inherently social. Meaning, when they consume it, people naturally will want to make a comment, reply, “Like” it, or share it with others.

The 4:1 Rule gives you criteria to follow. By following this rule, it can help you get activity or engagement with your social efforts. More importantly, it ensures you “earn the right” (social currency) to talk about what you’re selling.

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