Engagement is the name of the social media management game. For starters, engagement is a sure sign that your content has been seen and understood by others. Taking it a step further, all those likes, clicks, shares, and social media comments give marketers more insight into who their audience is and what they respond to.
That said, not all social media content is created equal. Some posts might make you smile, while others will “stop the scroll” and make you think. And then there’s interactive content, which is engineered for engagement.
If getting real feedback or reactions from your audience is your goal, then you need interactive content in your social media strategy. Here’s how to create interactive social media posts and some examples from other brands that you can emulate.
Table of Contents:
What Is Interactive Content?
Why Should You Create Interactive Social Media Posts?
How to Create Great Interactive Posts
Engaging Social Media Posts Examples
What Is Interactive Content?
Interactive content is the all-encompassing term for content with which users can click, play, answer, or otherwise engage.
Based on that definition, you might be thinking, “But doesn’t that make all social media content interactive, since you can Like, Comment, and Share it?”
Not exactly. Those features are inherent to all social media content, regardless of the purpose of the content. Interactive social media posts, however, are intentionally crafted to engage your audience. It might be as simple as asking a survey question or as complex as an immersive experience.
The goal is to give people a reason for interaction with your media beyond the basic likes and shares.
Examples of interactive content on social media include:
Fundraising campaigns
UGC Campaigns
Quizzes
Surveys
360° videos
Filters & flair
Contests & giveaways
Asking questions
Using branded hashtags
Fundraising campaigns
Running a fundraising campaign, say for a social justice cause, can be an excellent way to inspire engagement while demonstrating your company's commitment to action beyond lip-service.
UGC Campaigns
UGC content has many benefits including strengthening brand awareness, deepening your connection with current customers, and identifying influencers. A UGC (user generated content) campaign encourages users to share branded content to their followers, or to tag you in a post typically for a prize of some sort. In turn, brands will often share pieces of UGC back to their profiles.
Quizzes & polls
One of the simplest and yet most powerful types of interaction posts on social media is a classic: the quiz. Since the early days of social media, friends have gathered intel on their followers preferences through quizzes and polls and now brands can also take advantage of this feature as well. Remember, polls don't have to be brand-centric either, you have surveys for that. Instead think outside the box to generate answers about your industry and consumer behavior.
Surveys
A cousin of the quiz, surveys tend to present as a more "serious" type of information-gathering. Use customer surveys to find out things like how they heard about you, product features they like or dislike, general feedback, and to learn certain demographic information that can help in your marketing.
360° videos
Creating 360° interactive videos provides unique high quality content for your audience to enjoy, and can do a lot to boost your engagement. There are many tools you can use to make a 360° video, and most platforms support them including Vimeo, Facebook, and Instagram.
Filters & flair
Some channels like Facebook and Snapchat offer this fun way to promote causes you support, by adding a bit of profile flair, either in your cover photo or around your profile picture. Other platforms have similar features, for example on LinkedIn users can add profile flair to indicate that they are "open to work".
Contests and giveaways
Another tried and true form of interactive content that's been around the block more than a few times: the contest. Running a contest is an easy way to drum up UGC and encourage customer loyalty through prizes.
Asking questions
Rather than a poll or quiz, you can simply ask a question as a way to generate engagement, shares, and comments.
Using branded hashtags
Giving your followers a branded hashtag to use makes identifying UGC much easier, and can spread your message far and wide.
Why Should You Create Interactive Social Media Posts?
Your audience already expects you to come up with quality content ideas. That’s why they follow you in the first place. But coming up with creative, engaging social media posts on a regular basis can be challenging. This is when many marketers fall into the rut of creating content for the sake of content, and then wonder why they aren’t seeing great results.
Taking an “interactive first” mindset is a great way to help you keep social media engagement at the forefront of your content creation process. When you focus on interactive posts, you’re intentionally thinking about ways to get your audience involved.
Our top tip: Think back to your why.
Why do you want to post content in the first place? For many brands, the final answer is to increase sales. To do this, though, brands first need to focus on generating social media marketing content that people notice and like. As more people engage with your content, you can get to know their preferences and start to create more content that they respond to favorably.
The more you get to know your audience, the more you can deliver on their expectations. Interactive media encourages engagement so that you can discover more about the people who follow you on social media. Using these insights to build out your social media calendar is a great way to ensure you always have something to share.
For example, let’s say you want to create interactive posts for Facebook. You decide to build your content around popular social holidays, such as National Pet Day or Popcorn Lover’s Day. Your interactive Facebook posts might be asking people to vote on the best popcorn flavors, or the best pet pic submitted by your employees, for example.
You can use interactive memes to connect with your audience, too. One popular example that gets people heated is deciding the “correct” placement for a toilet paper roll. You can post a meme image that shows both options and let your audience weigh in.
Making interactive content can mean taking a little risk if you really want to stand out. But don’t dare to be different to the point of sabotaging your efforts altogether. Consult our guide on things you should never share on social media for more insight.
Explore: In this free on-demand webinar you learn how to use Facebook and LinkedIn as marketing channels.
How to Create Great Interactive Posts
While there is no “secret formula” that makes interactive content effective, there are some things you can do to increase your chances of connecting with your audience.
Let’s look at a few engagement strategies you can use to make your interactive experiences more effective:
Run a contest or giveaway
Some social media users are happy to engage with your content, no questions asked. But others might be more encouraged to do so if they get something in return.
That’s why contests and giveaways are some of the most popular types of interactive content. Their participation could make them a winner, and it costs them nothing but a little time on their computer!
For example, beauty lines often run “Like and Share” contests to award a winner with a free product. Likes give the brand an idea as to how many people are engaging with their posts, while Shares help them to get in front of a larger audience.
Encourage others to “tag a friend”
Another way to grow your audience is to ask your audience to “tag a friend” who would relate to their post. Tag a friend posts are super shareable on mobile and can play into the audience’s emotions to inspire them to take action.
For example, a hospitality brand might ask its followers to tag a friend who needs a vacation. Clothing boutiques can use tag a friend posts to get their new season’s fashions in front of others who might look good in them.
Poll the audience
Want direct insight into what your audience thinks or feels? A poll can be a direct way to better understand them.
You might use a poll to gauge interest in a new product or service, discover hidden problems or pain points, boost student engagement, or find topics you can cover in upcoming content.
Use a hashtag
Hashtags can be excellent tools to capitalize on trending topics and bring more people into a conversation. Share the hashtag on your post, then encourage others to share related content using the same hashtag.
Add screen cards to YouTube videos
YouTube video cards can turn passive watching into a fully engaging experience. They are highly useful communication tools that work in conjunction with the video without distracting from it.
Cards appear at defined points during the video and serve a number of purposes. For example, merchandise cards can take viewers directly to a website link to purchase the items they see in the video. Some YouTube channels use video cards to make it easy for viewers to subscribe to their channel directly from the video.
End screens serve a similar purpose, except they are displayed at the end of a video rather than during it. The end screen usually offers several next-step options for viewers, such as recommendations for other videos, sharing with others, or subscribing to the channel.
Engaging Social Media Posts Examples
Need some inspiration? We’ve found some of the best interactive social posts to inspire your strategy:
1) Snapchat: layers and filters
Ok, maybe Snapchat is a little bit of a cop-out given that the app is basically all interactive posts, from its roots in fun filters to more advanced AI features and brand partnerships. But we feel it belongs on this list as a source of inspiration.
Featured above is an example of how Snapchat works with other companies to help facilitate interaction from users. People can use a map-layer feature from Ticketmaster to find nearby events, purchase tickets, and share with friends.
2) Calm: interactive video
Mental health and meditation app, Calm encourages their followers to engage...by not engaging. It's a powerful message, and one that's starting to be more commonly shared by individuals and brands alike, as more and more people understand the harm of endless scrolling.
Calm does it better than most, however, with simple animations that count down 30 seconds and give simple ways to slow down your breathing. The comments on this post say it all — with people sharing their experiences, struggles, and revelations from slowing down for just 30 seconds.
3) Royal Opera House: UGC campaign
The Royal Opera House in London has done an excellent job developing their social media presence, bringing stereotypically stuffy or old fashioned art forms like opera and ballet into a fresh and modern medium.
For World Ballet Day, they took it a step further, inviting their followers to participate in the fun by submitting videos putting their own spin on a piece of choreography. The opera house then shared submissions, showcasing diverse ages, body types, ethnicities, and genders. It was a great way to get a lot of people involved, encourage UGC, and develop even more brand loyalty from their audience.
4) LinkedIn: posing questions in polls
LinkedIn does a great job at demonstrating how to use their own platform with insightful posts about work-life balance, day-to-day issues encountered in the workplace, and engaging questions posed to the working professional network, like the one above.
Their polls are massively popular, and often spark lively discussion in the comments.
5) Coca-Cola: using a hashtag
Coca-Cola ran a wildly successful #ShareACoke campaign on Instagram. In addition to personalized Coca-Cola labels, the brand also encouraged its customers to share a picture of themselves enjoying their namesake soda using the hashtag. The campaign garnered countless pieces of user-generated content as well as multiple appearances by celebrities, such as Selena Gomez and Ryan Seacrest.
6) Sabra Hummus: running a giveaway
For National Hummus Day, Sabra Hummus launched a contest on TikTok, using the hashtag #SabraHummusChallenge. Participants were challenged to film funny or enticing content about their love for hummus, the winner receiving a grand prize of a free year supply of Sabra Hummus!
Mastering the arts of social media content development and being interactive can take some finessing, but the engagement you gain can help continue to guide your strategy.
Need help putting together your interactive content strategy? Reach out to the Meltwater team today and let’s discuss your goals!
