Take this case - What do you do when you are in a financial crisis? What do you do as a person when you are unemployed? You borrow money from a close friend or take help from your family. You take help from people who like you and care about you. These are the ones that have spent sufficient time with you.
Drawing on this analogy, an ailing business can use social media to build a community around its truly loyal fans. These are the ones that still like or care about the brand. The ones that did not like the brand left it. These loyal fans have to be engaged and social media presents one such platform. It is important to note that it is still a platform, not the game.
The game of engagement is a different story. Engagement is based on the culture that exists within your brand, something you have fostered over the years or something that you aspire for. Engaging this community of loyals helps in generating word of mouth. We are living in a social era. Word of Mouth helps a firm from the perspective of stock prices, sales and branding. Considering social media's power in giving your brand the visible likes, it may just be the right platform.