5 things that instantly engage

How do we instantly engage someone?

Here are 5 things we can do:

1. Sharedness: People Connect Through Commonality

Whenever I meet someone who I suspect has a different mother tongue to me, I endeavour to speak that language, even if it's just the tiniest shred of it.

The reaction is always the same — people immediately respond positively and with rapport.

You can do the same with anything. Just find a point of commonality. And almost always, people engage.

2. Prompts: People Act When Asked

Questions are an example of a prompt — a trigger that hooks someone and gets them to respond, because you've put out both the offer and expectation of a response.

Whenever a teacher or speaker says "Raise your hand if…", or an app says "Reply to this message", it's a prompt. Even road signs are prompts, because they expect our action.

If you ask someone a question, almost always, they instantly engage.

3. Unexpected: People Notice the Novel

Seth Godin's famous book, Purple Cow, is about how people remark on the remarkable. People notice it because it is novel.

One way to be novel with a newsletter used to be to use emoji in the subject line, as it wasn't normal. Another approach is using all lower case. If you do something unexpected, almost always, people engage.

4. Role: People Love to Play a Part

Notice how if someone gives you an object that has movement, you begin moving it — like a ball or a game controller?

At a higher level, if you want people to turn up to something, give them a role in it. It's why "Battle of the Bands" is such a powerful concept: every band brings all their fans to see them perform. Give someone a role, and almost always, they will engage.

5. Story: People Know Through Narrative

Have you ever had someone begin to tell a story and stop? It's agonising. We have to know how things end.

Begin a story, and people are hooked. It's also why subject lines like "5 things that instantly engage" are powerful — people want to know what those 5 definitive things are, and why there aren't 4 or 6.