Are We Engaging, Or Just Going Through The Motions?

I've been thinking recently about Facebook engagement and whether we're sometimes engaging simply because we've been told that engagement is important.

I see a huge amount of motivational content within the internet marketing and make-money-online niche. I think you know the sort of thing: it's Monday, take action, don't wait until tomorrow, believe in yourself, stop making excuses, your future starts today. There's nothing necessarily wrong with these messages, and I'm certainly not criticising the people who post them. However, when you've read variations of the same thing dozens of times, what are you supposed to say apart from "Great post", "So true" or "Absolutely"?

Maybe it's partly my background. I've been in business for many years, (since around 1983) including running my stump grinding business since 2004. When I visited a customer's property, we had a normal business conversation. We talked about their problem, whether I could get the machine through the gate, what the job involved, the price and when I could do it.

If I'd arrived telling them to "take action today", "stop putting off your dreams" and "your future garden starts now", they would probably have looked at me as if I'd gone mad! Obviously, Facebook is different from talking to a customer face-to-face, but we're still communicating with real people.

Interestingly, I've been spending more time on LinkedIn recently, and I find myself naturally wanting to join the conversations there. People talk about things they've tried, what worked, what failed, mistakes they've made and lessons they've learned. Nobody has to tell me to engage because there's actually something I want to respond to.

That's what makes me wonder whether good content should naturally make us want to engage rather than requiring us to consciously go looking for something to say.

I'm also curious about whether repetitive motivational content actually generates business. If a group of internet marketers are all commenting on each other's posts because everyone has been told that engagement is important, are we reaching genuine potential customers, or are we mainly creating engagement among ourselves?

I'm not against motivational content, and there's certainly a place for encouragement and lighter posts. I'd just much rather hear what somebody actually tried, what happened, what worked, what didn't and what they learned from it. That's when, for me at least, a genuine business conversation starts.

Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way, so I'd be interested to hear what other Wealthy Affiliate members think. Does this type of Facebook engagement genuinely generate leads and sales for you, or do you sometimes feel we're engaging simply for the sake of engagement?
I would be interested in what your thoughts are, as I think when we reply to posts, etc., we need to add value, but it's difficult to add value to these types of posts, as they carry no real value.

Thank you for reading.

Roy