Engagement happens in seven levels; you cannot skip them.

principle — attributed to Amanda Slavin

Slavin's framework, developed in her education master's thesis and adapted to business, treats engagement as a seven-step progression. Disengagement, unsystematic engagement, frustrated engagement, structure-dependent engagement, self-regulated interest, critical engagement, and literate thinking. Most brands try to skip from level one to level six and lose people in the middle. The framework's discipline is to identify where your audience actually is and to design the experience that moves them up one level. You would not ask someone to marry you on the first date. The progression is just common sense applied to engagement.

For marketers, brand strategists, and community builders thinking about how audiences move toward deeper engagement. The framework is most useful as a diagnostic when engagement metrics have plateaued at a specific level.

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