Creating interactive social media content is a great way to understand whether your company’s marketing messages are landing correctly. Social media interaction posts can also be used as an opportunity to learn more about your audience, build interest and engagement, and ultimately earn their trust and loyalty.
In this blog, we’ll cover:
- What is interactive content?
- Why post interactive content on social media?
- Best social media interaction posts.
“Engage me” is the new “tell me.”
We receive a consistent stream of content from businesses everywhere we look – our phones, driving, shopping, scrolling through social media, and more.
As with regular conversations, if you continuously hear the same story, the message won’t resonate. As much as brands love to toot their own horn, no one likes to talk into an empty void.
To capture the attention of your readers, your content needs to add value for your end user. Businesses should aim to publish high-quality content for customers and prospects to benefit from.
Having a firm understanding of how your content is performing can help you guide your content strategy, better tailor your content to your ideal customer’s needs, and develop binge-worthy content.
Social media interaction posts can help you measure whether your content resonates with your end users.
What Is Interactive Content?
In the simplest possible terms: interactive content is digital content you can interact and engage with. It encourages the viewer to take action, such as participating in an online poll or attending a live event.
This level of engagement helps boost the end user’s engagement and overall experience with the content. Rather than passively reading through a lengthy post, the end user is instead actively engaging with the content.
Interactive content also increases the time spent on a web page, as it sees 52.6% more engagement than static content, with buyers spending an average of 8.5 minutes viewing static content items and 13 minutes on interactive content items.
What Is Interactive Content?
To answer this question, you first need to ask yourself, why post content at all? Some marketers might say they do it to reach new people and inform them about the product/service. Others will say it’s to build brand loyalty.
Social media allows businesses to do both; reach new audiences through stories or posts and grow a following with consistent, high-quality content.
By adding interactive content to your social plan, your business benefits from standing out from the crowd.
Long gone are the days of generic text-only content.
Customers crave stimulation, and creating interactive social media posts is a compelling way to do this.
Types Of Social Media Interaction Posts
Social media posts have evolved from traditional text-based posts. Many different platforms allow for various elements to be added, from polls on Twitter to video content on Facebook.
Each element serves a specific purpose when connecting with online audiences.
As the number of posts has grown, brands have been tasked with developing creative new ways to interrupt the feed pattern, grab attention, and make followers react.
We’ve outlined below 10 proven-to-work interactive post ideas you can try to boost your engagement and grow your social following.
- Polls.
- Quizzes.
- Calculators.
- Live QA/AMAs.
- Contests and giveaways.
- Games.
- Fill-in-the-blanks posts.
- Trending conversations.
- Viral challenges.
- Share your story.
Let’s jump in!
1. Polls
Polls aren’t exactly new or revolutionary. In fact, some forms of polling have been around for several centuries. Polls are easy to create and are a simple way to understand attitudes and preferences.
And they can be leveraged everywhere – Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. People love sharing their opinion wherever they can.
Polls don’t need to be centered around your business’ products or services. You can ask your audience about their habits or thoughts or even ask them about their plans for the weekend – as Airbnb does below.
The long weekend starts now. What are your plans?#AirbnbLongWeekend
— Airbnb (@Airbnb) January 16, 2016
Get creative. People love to chime in and feel included, so ask them to vote on the new flavors of your product or a new color of the packaging.
The psychological effects are powerful because your audience feels that they’re helping to co-create the product or messaging with you.
Here’s a psychological trick: people love to know how (dis)similar they are to other people. So, if the results are locked, a good chunk of people will vote just to see the results.
2. Quizzes
We love quizzes. They’re fun, we get a sense of achievement once we’re done, and who doesn’t enjoy reading about themselves?
Remember when people would stop their work to go to BuzzFeed and find out what type of bread they were?
I never did the bread one, but I did take part in the “Which Disney Princess Are You?” quiz.
The fact is, people still take breaks throughout the day for enjoyment and validation in the form of a quiz. And brands would be wise to continue to provide this type of entertainment.
(In case you’re still interested in finding out the bread that matches you, take the BuzzFeed quiz.)
Quizzes can do more than provide an escape; they can benefit your business, too.
For example, say you’re a beauty brand. With many beauty, skincare, and fashion purchases happening online, quizzes can help your customers understand what product or line would suit them best.
This can help inspire customers to take action having a better understanding of which product is best for them.
Image from Skincare Finder Quiz (cerave.com), May 2023
3. Calculators
Topical calculators are a great way to increase engagement. They give customers a quick answer to a likely complex question. They’re also great for generating qualified leads – however, they do require more work.
You’ve probably seen a post like this one below from a bank, be it a savings calculator or a loan calculator.
For the latter, the user will pick the amount and number of months, and the online calculator will tell you the interest rate and monthly installment as many times as needed to get the best deal for you.
Image from Top 5 Interactive Calculators for Websites (outgrow.co), May 2023
4. Live QA/AMA (Ask Me Anything)
Live events are dynamic and unpredictable, and encourage open dialogue.
Opening a direct communication line with your audience is always a great idea, and social media makes it fairly easy to do so.
All you need is a simple post announcing you’ll be going live on a specific time and date, and that you’ll be answering all the pressing questions your customers have. It will likely encourage your audience to send you questions in advance, too.
The old adage “lead by example” applies to these live chats. When your audience sees other audience members engaging, they’ll likely be encouraged to speak up too.
We love this Origins example, where the brand creates a natural and authentic chat. At the same time, the chat entails a full showcase of their products.
In the chat, they open the product, touch it, and show its consistency – everything customers struggle with when buying online.
The main thing is that your QA should be valuable for the viewers.
Bonus tip: Why not invite your customers? Co-host with a customer that is willing to share their experience with the brand.
5. Contests And Giveaways
Did I hear you say prizes? Contents and giveaways are great not just for engagement but also for generating buzz and collecting some incredibly creative ideas from your customer pool.
Giveaway
Who doesn’t love getting something for free? Giveaway posts do just that.
They are an incredible way to grow a following, drum up more shares, and spread the word about your business. Instagram contests get 3.5 times as many likes and 64 times more comments on average than regular posts.
To win the giveaway, brands typically require something in exchange. This may include following their social media accounts and then following specific instructions – liking, commenting, tagging three friends, following other similar accounts, and more.
In this, Sephora asks its followers to follow its Instagram account as well as Marc Jacobs and tag friends (the more friends tagged, the more entries) to be entered to win a giveaway. This resulted in over 79,000 likes.
Contest
A contest requires more effort from participants, but the rewards are usually higher. You might ask your followers to film a 15-second video of themselves using the product or challenge them to come up with a new tagline.
For example, Starbucks created a Red Cup Contest, where customers were invited to decorate the iconic holiday cup and share their designs through Instagram and Twitter. Starbucks featured its favorites and shared the customer’s design with its massive audience.
Similar to giveaways, contests help boost followers, leads, and brand awareness in exchange for a prize.
6. Games
Gamification is all around us. And it’s because games work. It’s hard to resist the allure of color-grouping circles, solving a puzzle, or navigating a maze.
For example, during the lockdown in 2020, Lazy Oaf, a streetwear clothing brand, partnered with Animal Crossing, a social simulation video game series. The characters were dressed in colorful Lazy Oaf fits.
This helped promote Lazy Oaf to a new audience and also brought new exposure to Animal Crossing.
This one is the most difficult to implement out of all techniques listed so far and requires the largest investment.
However, even simple gamification elements (e.g., avatars) might help you stand out from the competition.
7. Fill-in-the-blank Posts
Here’s another way of getting your audience to share with you. Unlike polls, where you offer consumers predefined answers, your audience can write what they want in these posts.
Fill-in-the-blank posts encourage your audience to take a pause and interact with your content. In turn, you receive immediate feedback your business can use to learn more about potential customers and their likes, needs, and preferences.
This Applebee’s Grill + Bar post garnered over 58,000 likes and more than 800 comments, simply asking fans to fill in the blanks on a post about football.
8. Trending Conversations
This might be the simplest social media interaction post type yet. Listen to the trending conversations taking place. But don’t just listen and sit back silently – join in.
You can leverage the popularity of trending topics and start a debate in your comment section.
Keep in mind: you don’t have to use every single trending hashtag. And you shouldn’t. Some may be inappropriate for your brand, and your followers will probably recognize if you try to use every opportunity to drive traffic.
Find topics where you can add value and that make sense with your line of business.
With the amount of digital content produced every day, it will be easy to find interesting and relevant conversations you can join.
9. Viral Challenges
Social media challenges are a force to be reckoned with in driving interactions and engagement among users.
Big brands are creating their own challenges, but you might benefit even more if you look at what Gen Z consumers are doing. This generation is the one that older generations turn to in order to learn what’s currently trending.
Whether it’s a TikTok dance or charity initiative, there is something magical and communal about a bunch of people from around the world doing the same thing.
Sure, they are short-lived, but they make a splash in the short term. And you’ll probably have fun doing them.
That’s a win-win.
10. Share Your Story
People love to talk about themselves, and that’s not a bad thing. Businesses are no different, as most have a standard “About us” page that exists on nearly every corporate site.
Creating an emotional connection with customers is key to building trust and positive brand perception. When your brand’s story and messaging are relatable to a customer, this helps forge stronger customer relationships.
For example, a skincare brand might invite followers to share stories about their skin problems, how it affected their self-esteem, and how they solved it. They can then share these stories in a carousel image post or on their Instagram or Facebook Stories.
Conclusion
The aforementioned are 10 exciting ways to capture your audience’s interest, drive more visibility, increase your social media conversions, and build an authentic brand with enticing social media interaction posts.
When you’re creating interactive posts, always keep in mind your target audience and what they’ll gain by reading and interacting with your post.
Always ask yourself: will it be relevant for them? Will they respond?
This is a great way to evaluate whether the content will be truly engaging for your audience.
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Featured Image: Master1305/Shutterstock
