7 Ways to Increase Your Social Media Engagement
Benefits of Interactive Posts
Sometimes posting on social media feels like talking to a brick wall. You may be posting up a storm, but not really seeing much engagement from your efforts. To combat this, you can post more interactive content.
Interactive content is anything a user can click through, click on, answer, or play with. As your audience begins to get more involved with your posts, your content will start to reach a larger demographic.
For example, say Shelley and Jack are friends. Shelley follows your business on Facebook. If Shelley comments on your next Facebook post, or tags a friend, the chances of that post appearing in Jack’s News Feed increases. Facebook’s algorithm shares posts that receive a lot of engagement, such as likes, comments, and tags, so the more interaction, the more exposure.
Additionally, interactive posts allow you to get to know your audience better, thus helping you better cater your future content towards them.
To help you get started, here are 7 ideas for developing more interactive content:
- Quizzes
Here at ANKR, we love quizzes. In fact, this morning during our team meeting, we took a true colors quiz to get to know one another better. Quizzes can be a fun distraction for the user, or they can be educational.
Quirky quizzes, for example “What Kind of Pizza are You?”, is a great way to promote light-hearted engagement. As your follower is going through their work day, it can be nice to take a mental break. Plus, you can always tie it back to your business. For example, if you run a pizza company or a restaurant, this is a great quiz to promote. Your results at the end could all be items on your menu.
Additionally, quizzes allow you to dive into the mindset of your users. You can start learning more about their personalities and the demographic your company serves, allowing you to generate more content catered towards them. Quizzes are a great opportunity for you to give your brand a little more personality by being able to list humorous answers, too. Brands who can make their fans laugh win at social.
There are various websites that allow you to curate quizzes quickly and easily. Survey Monkey and Typeform are just two examples of websites that help you build quizzes.
- Polls
Polls show your audience that the conversation goes both ways, and that you want their feedback and their opinions. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram all have options for creating polls, making it easier than ever to survey your audience. You can control everything from how long your poll runs to the answers to choose between. On Instagram, you can run the poll in your Instagram Story, and it even shows you who votes for what. Facebook now allows you to add photos and gifs as poll options, which is a great way to engage with today’s social media audience. Landing pages have the ability to run interactive polls as well.
You can also utilize a third-party source for gathering data, such as Google Analytics. Sources such as these can provide helpful insights on your audience.
Mia Vallo, Senior Director of Marketing Analytics at National Geographic said, “Google’s analytics products helped us improve engagement by 33% and click-throughs by 21% for content promotions on our homepage.”
- Multiple Choice Posts
Let your audience choose for you! If you are deciding on a new product or packaging, ask your consumers for their opinion! One option is to make a graphic combining photos of the choices. If you’re not so graphic-savvy, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter all allow you upload multiple photos at a time; post pictures of the options and ask them to comment their favorite or their thoughts on the options. This is a great way to receive direct customer feedback, as well as make them feel involved.
- Contest/Sweepstakes
Giveaways are a classic idea. Facebook has very specific guidelines for contests run on its platform which you will need to consider before holding a social media sweepstakes. Instagram, however, is a great alternative to run a sweepstakes from.
A common Instagram contest ideas is running a “Double Tap Thursday” and encouraging your followers to tag three friends in the comments section for a chance to win. Remember to keep your brand in mind while running these contests, and that simplicity is key. If users can’t understand how to enter or what they’ll win, your contest may not work as well.
- Calculator
Don’t just tell your audience how much money or time they would be saving by switching to your business; show them! By crunching the numbers themselves in a quick and easy format, the consumer can see firsthand how much they would benefit from your business.
Additionally, by providing calculations, you can tie the numbers back to a larger message, driving consumers back to your website for supplementary information.
As a disclaimer, when posting a calculator, you will have to link to another website, where the customer can perform the calculations. However, this option benefits you in that you’re driving traffic to your website. If you’re using your Facebook pixel, you can even run retargeting ads to people at a later date who interacted with this page!
- Videos
Videos are one of the best ways to reach consumers. According to Buzzsumo, videos generate higher engagement than images. Buzzfeed is a company who has mastered the art of viral videos; they keep them short, fun, and timely. Utilize videos to expand on company culture, showcase a product being used, or elaborate on an industry tip.
Videos are also a great way to track interactions. You can track how many people viewed your video, and on Facebook you can even see the total amount of time viewers spent watching your video. This gives you an overall idea of the success of your video. You can compare the total watch time between your videos and see what peaked your viewer’s interest, allowing you to mold your video strategy for the future.
Click through rate (CTR) and Conversions are also two great ways to measure the success of your video, and to understand the ROI of your campaign through social ads. CTR is the ratio of people who click through to your website compared to the number of people who watch your video. Conversions indicates the number of people who take a desired action after watching your video. If you boost your video or run an ad through Facebook Ads Manager, you can easily see the breakdown of these metrics as well as other useful data for formulating your video strategy.
- Photo Contests
Have your users participate in a photo contest! By uploading photos via a social medium and tagging your company, you are extending your social reach. By associating a hashtag with the photo contest, you are also increasing your chances of trending, boosting your company and your brand even more.
By having more interactive posts, you are creating a more solid relationship with your audience, as well as extending your social reach. The farther your social reach, the more potential consumers are introduced to your brand.
If you need help curating interactive content, ANKR would be more than happy to help! You can contact us here.
