Many brands fall short in their social media efforts because they believe that simply posting content is the ultimate path to smashing their engagement goals. Yet, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. You need to interact with your followers to create a strong bond and gain loyal supporters. Interactive posts are a great tool for this. They invite your followers to take part, express their views, and create a community spirit around your brand.
1. Polls
If you want a simple and effective way to gather opinions and spark discussions, polls are a great option. They are a fantastic tool for hearing people’s views on a wide range of topics, from their favorite product features to the type of content they want to see more of.
Polls are quick and easy to create, and social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram have built-in poll features that make it a breeze to share them with your followers.
When creating polls, make sure to keep them simple and easy to understand. Use clear and concise language, and avoid using jargon or complex terms. You should also make sure to give your followers enough time to vote and share their opinions.
Example:
Domino’s Pizza is one brand that effectively uses polls to engage with their followers and gather valuable feedback about their products. By using a fun and lighthearted tone, they encourage their followers to participate and share their opinions, creating a sense of community around the brand.
One example of a successful poll from Domino’s Pizza asked followers about their preferred type of pizza. The poll received a high level of engagement, with over a thousand followers casting their votes. This resulted in the poll being shown to users on X over 20,000 times.
2. Live Q&A Sessions
Live Q&A sessions are a fantastic way to connect with your followers in real-time and provide a more personal and genuine experience. By setting a specific time for your Q&A session and encouraging your followers to send their questions in advance, you can prepare thoughtful and informative responses. This is an excellent opportunity to address common questions, showcase your expertise, and build a stronger connection with your followers.
Live Q&A sessions can also be used to introduce new products or services, or to share behind-the-scenes insights about your brand. By providing exclusive information and insights, you can make your followers feel valued and appreciated, which can help build brand loyalty.
Example:
Dragon Age is a popular video game franchise developed by BioWare, known for its immersive storytelling, complex characters, and deep role-playing mechanics. To engage with their followers and provide valuable insights into their latest game, #DragonAge: The #Veilguard, the team behind the game, recently hosted a live Q&A session on their Discord server. They invited followers to ask questions and interact with the team. The original post on X was viewed over 200,000 times and got 2.6K likes. This resulted in a high level of engagement with hundreds of followers joining the server to participate.
3. Caption Contests
Share an interesting or funny image or video and ask your followers to write the best caption in the comments. This type of content encourages creativity and humor, and also generates user content that feels fresh and genuine. Choose the winning caption based on engagement, like the number of likes and shares, and reward the winner with a prize or recognition. This will motivate more followers to participate and share their captions.
Example:
The Kansas City Chiefs, a well-known American football team, are active on social media. They often connect with fans by posting interesting content on X (formerly Twitter).
In one post, they shared a picture of some players and asked followers to create their own funny captions. This helps get fans involved and creates a community feeling among supporters.
4. Quizzes
Quizzes let you test your followers’ knowledge or simply provide them with a pleasant brand experience. To create a quiz, you can use platforms like Instagram or other quiz-making tools. Make sure to keep the questions entertaining and not too difficult, so your followers can enjoy and feel motivated to participate. You can also consider offering a small reward for completing the quiz, such as a discount code or a chance to win a prize. This will encourage more followers to participate and share the quiz with their friends.
Example:
Sephora, a well-known cosmetics retailer, uses an interactive pop quiz format, often incorporating humorous options to showcase their products.
Consider this example of a quiz, where the brand asked their audience to share their answer to a question about the nature of a new device from Dr Dennis Gross, LED for mouth lines and lip plumping.
5. Hashtags
Using a branded hashtag can be a great way to build a lively community around your brand! A branded hashtag is a unique hashtag that represents your brand and can be used by your followers to share content related to your brand. It acts as a central hub for user-generated content, making it easy for you and your followers to find and engage with content related to your brand.
Branded hashtags can also spark conversations around your brand and encourage user participation. For example, you can use your branded hashtag to run contests and giveaways, incentivizing your followers to use the hashtag and share their own content related to your brand. This can help increase engagement and build brand loyalty.
Example:
ASOS, a popular online fashion retailer, is known for its trendy and affordable clothing options. One of the most popular hashtags used by ASOS and its customers is #asosnewin. This hashtag is used to showcase new clothing and accessory hauls from ASOS.
Customers use the hashtag to share photos and videos of their new purchases on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, giving others a glimpse of the latest styles and trends available on the ASOS website. By using the #asosnewin hashtag, customers are able to connect with one another and share their love of fashion and ASOS with a wider audience.
More Tips for Engaging Interactive Posts
Here are some extra tips to make your interactive social media posts even better:
1. Use Eye-Catching Visuals: Grab your followers’ attention with interesting images, videos, or GIFs. This will encourage them to participate and engage with your post.
2. Keep it Short: People scroll quickly, so make sure your questions and prompts are concise and easy to understand.
3. Add Emojis: Emojis can make your posts more fun and engaging. Use them to add personality and make your content more interactive.
4. Tell a Story: Make your interactive elements more engaging by framing them within a story. This will create a more immersive experience for your followers.
5. Promote Everywhere: Don’t limit your interactive content to just one platform. Share it on all your social media channels to reach more people.
6. Track Performance: Monitor how your interactive posts are performing. See which types of content your followers like the most and adjust your strategy accordingly.
7. Offer Incentives: Encourage more participation by offering incentives such as discounts, prizes, or recognition for the best responses.
8. Be Consistent: Post interactive content regularly to keep your followers engaged and coming back for more.
9. Respond to Feedback: Show your followers that you value their input by responding to their comments and feedback. This will help build a stronger community around your brand.
Conclusion
By using these interactive post ideas in your social media plan, you can increase engagement, learn valuable insights from your followers, and build a stronger online community for your brand. So, get creative, enjoy the process, and watch your social media presence grow!
Many brands fall short in their social media efforts because they believe that simply posting content is the ultimate path to smashing their engagement goals. Yet, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. You need to interact with your followers to create a strong bond and gain loyal supporters. Interactive posts are a great tool for this. They invite your followers to take part, express their views, and create a community spirit around your brand.
1. Polls
If you want a simple and effective way to gather opinions and spark discussions, polls are a great option. They are a fantastic tool for hearing people’s views on a wide range of topics, from their favorite product features to the type of content they want to see more of.
Polls are quick and easy to create, and social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram have built-in poll features that make it a breeze to share them with your followers.
When creating polls, make sure to keep them simple and easy to understand. Use clear and concise language, and avoid using jargon or complex terms. You should also make sure to give your followers enough time to vote and share their opinions.
Example:
Domino’s Pizza is one brand that effectively uses polls to engage with their followers and gather valuable feedback about their products. By using a fun and lighthearted tone, they encourage their followers to participate and share their opinions, creating a sense of community around the brand.
One example of a successful poll from Domino’s Pizza asked followers about their preferred type of pizza. The poll received a high level of engagement, with over a thousand followers casting their votes. This resulted in the poll being shown to users on X over 20,000 times.
2. Live Q&A Sessions
Live Q&A sessions are a fantastic way to connect with your followers in real-time and provide a more personal and genuine experience. By setting a specific time for your Q&A session and encouraging your followers to send their questions in advance, you can prepare thoughtful and informative responses. This is an excellent opportunity to address common questions, showcase your expertise, and build a stronger connection with your followers.
Live Q&A sessions can also be used to introduce new products or services, or to share behind-the-scenes insights about your brand. By providing exclusive information and insights, you can make your followers feel valued and appreciated, which can help build brand loyalty.
Example:
Dragon Age is a popular video game franchise developed by BioWare, known for its immersive storytelling, complex characters, and deep role-playing mechanics. To engage with their followers and provide valuable insights into their latest game, #DragonAge: The #Veilguard, the team behind the game, recently hosted a live Q&A session on their Discord server. They invited followers to ask questions and interact with the team. The original post on X was viewed over 200,000 times and got 2.6K likes. This resulted in a high level of engagement with hundreds of followers joining the server to participate.
3. Caption Contests
Share an interesting or funny image or video and ask your followers to write the best caption in the comments. This type of content encourages creativity and humor, and also generates user content that feels fresh and genuine. Choose the winning caption based on engagement, like the number of likes and shares, and reward the winner with a prize or recognition. This will motivate more followers to participate and share their captions.
Example:
The Kansas City Chiefs, a well-known American football team, are active on social media. They often connect with fans by posting interesting content on X (formerly Twitter).
In one post, they shared a picture of some players and asked followers to create their own funny captions. This helps get fans involved and creates a community feeling among supporters.
4. Quizzes
Quizzes let you test your followers’ knowledge or simply provide them with a pleasant brand experience. To create a quiz, you can use platforms like Instagram or other quiz-making tools. Make sure to keep the questions entertaining and not too difficult, so your followers can enjoy and feel motivated to participate. You can also consider offering a small reward for completing the quiz, such as a discount code or a chance to win a prize. This will encourage more followers to participate and share the quiz with their friends.
Example:
Sephora, a well-known cosmetics retailer, uses an interactive pop quiz format, often incorporating humorous options to showcase their products.
Consider this example of a quiz, where the brand asked their audience to share their answer to a question about the nature of a new device from Dr Dennis Gross, LED for mouth lines and lip plumping.
5. Hashtags
Using a branded hashtag can be a great way to build a lively community around your brand! A branded hashtag is a unique hashtag that represents your brand and can be used by your followers to share content related to your brand. It acts as a central hub for user-generated content, making it easy for you and your followers to find and engage with content related to your brand.
Branded hashtags can also spark conversations around your brand and encourage user participation. For example, you can use your branded hashtag to run contests and giveaways, incentivizing your followers to use the hashtag and share their own content related to your brand. This can help increase engagement and build brand loyalty.
Example:
ASOS, a popular online fashion retailer, is known for its trendy and affordable clothing options. One of the most popular hashtags used by ASOS and its customers is #asosnewin. This hashtag is used to showcase new clothing and accessory hauls from ASOS.
Customers use the hashtag to share photos and videos of their new purchases on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, giving others a glimpse of the latest styles and trends available on the ASOS website. By using the #asosnewin hashtag, customers are able to connect with one another and share their love of fashion and ASOS with a wider audience.
More Tips for Engaging Interactive Posts
Here are some extra tips to make your interactive social media posts even better:
1. Use Eye-Catching Visuals: Grab your followers’ attention with interesting images, videos, or GIFs. This will encourage them to participate and engage with your post.
2. Keep it Short: People scroll quickly, so make sure your questions and prompts are concise and easy to understand.
3. Add Emojis: Emojis can make your posts more fun and engaging. Use them to add personality and make your content more interactive.
4. Tell a Story: Make your interactive elements more engaging by framing them within a story. This will create a more immersive experience for your followers.
5. Promote Everywhere: Don’t limit your interactive content to just one platform. Share it on all your social media channels to reach more people.
6. Track Performance: Monitor how your interactive posts are performing. See which types of content your followers like the most and adjust your strategy accordingly.
7. Offer Incentives: Encourage more participation by offering incentives such as discounts, prizes, or recognition for the best responses.
8. Be Consistent: Post interactive content regularly to keep your followers engaged and coming back for more.
9. Respond to Feedback: Show your followers that you value their input by responding to their comments and feedback. This will help build a stronger community around your brand.
Conclusion
By using these interactive post ideas in your social media plan, you can increase engagement, learn valuable insights from your followers, and build a stronger online community for your brand. So, get creative, enjoy the process, and watch your social media presence grow!