Social Media Interaction Guide

We want to engage with our followers, show them we’re genuine, trustworthy, fun. That’s where nailing your Social Media Interaction is super important.

If you have ever read a post and thought to yourself, “I wish I had thought of that” or “I want to learn how to make my posts more interesting”, then you’ve come to the right place. Of course, posting awesome pictures, creating contests, and sharing videos are great ways to get your readers’ attention. Still, if you want to get them talking, you also need to learn to use prompts or questions.

The more you engage with your audience, the more they will engage with you

The fun of Social Media Marketing is figuring out which ways of communicating work best for social media engagement across the different social networks.

Let’s add ‘Interaction Posts’ to your Marketing Strategy and dive in if you want more chatter.

Social Media Posts for Interaction are a great way to get people talking.

Interaction posts are an excellent idea for brands looking to build a community around themselves. If you want to spark conversation on social media, you need to find ways to get your audience talking. One way to do this is by creating interaction posts. An interaction post is a post that forces people to respond. The post will generate comments and shares, attracting more followers and building your brand’s community. Well, that’s the plan.

It is also a great way to talk about your topic, not just focussing on your brand.

Your feeds should be made up of 80% entertaining and engaging content and only 20% promotional content. (sproutsocial.com)

When customers are engaging, they’re allowing you to talk to them. It’s not a chance to sell to them, but rather to show that you’re paying attention to what they’re saying.

It is essential to know which type of interaction post suits your target audience best.

The importance of interaction posts for social media is often overlooked. Yet, they can be one of the most powerful tools at your disposal. The key to using them effectively is knowing which type of interaction post fits you best. Unfortunately, there is no “one size fits all” solution to interaction post success. We all have different personalities and goals. Some find writing their posts helps build their brand, while others prefer to use ready-made posts to avoid the hard work of creating new content.

If you’re using ‘in-jokes’ or trying to write content that only a small section of people understand, then your broader target audience may feel alienated from responding.

We’ve all seen it: the posts that get shared over and over. (In fact, some are so popular, they’ve become viral sensations.) Readers love them because they’re really fun or informative. They’re also the posts that get the most engagement, and that’s what social media is all about, right? Of course, that’s just the kind of thing you’d expect a social media content creator to say!

How to create a good interaction post.

The main goal of interaction posts on social media is to get people talking about a specific topic. It’s about engaging, entertaining, provoking and sharing ideas or topics. Of course, we’ve all seen the types of posts that get all the likes and comments. But, unfortunately, they’re usually the controversial ones. And while this is the social media equivalent of getting into a bar fight, it’s also a great way to generate tons of interaction.

You’ve got to think if controversy and divisive content is the type of content you want to be happening on your thread. If responses get out of hand, are you sure you want your brand up to the top of it all? It might be the case that is precisely what you want. So roll up your sleeves and dive in too!

A smiley face can boost interaction by 25% whereas a grimacing emoticon can increase engagement by 138%. (oberlo.co.uk)

There’s nothing wrong with soliciting feedback, sharing questions and playing a little game of “what’s on your mind today?” with your followers, but that’s not what we’re talking about here. Instead, we’re talking about asking your followers to respond to something—the more specific, the better.

Motivation

You might be family with the acronym WIIFM, which stands for ‘What’s in it for me?‘. Readers will likely tune out within the first two seconds of a post if they don’t see why they should care about what you’re about to tell them. That’s why it’s so important to ask yourself, “what’s in it for me?” (WIIFM) before writing your post.

There might be several reasons.

• To be funny
• To show expertise
• To show humility
• To be represented
• To be controversial
• To promote themselves or their business
• To have a conversation

There’s probably a whole lot more to think about too. But when you’re writing your post, you need to think about why someone would want to interact and engage. Would they want their friends/family/followers to see their response? How do they want to feel?

You will certainly get some people happier to put a single emoji or vote on a poll than take the time to respond.

How to get people talking with an interaction post.

If you want to get genuine responses, you need to ask real questions. That’s why Slack’s first interaction post went to the heart of what makes their app so unique. The team posted a simple question that followers could answer with a simple word or a smiley face. This made it easy for their team to quickly respond and opened the door to other customers offering feedback and suggestions. As a result, they got an outpouring of responses.

No one likes a question with an obvious answer, so you shouldn’t ask them on social media. Instead, ask questions like “Are there times when you are tired of work?” or “What do you think is the biggest challenge in being a teacher?” You want to ask questions that require more than a one-word answer. You want the reader to have to put some thought into the subject to answer you.

Open vs closed questions.

There are two types of questions. Closed questions, which people can answer with a single word or short phrase, and open questions require more than a yes or no response. Generally, there is a big difference in the answers to those two types of questions. Open questions lead to dialogue and make people feel like they are a part of a conversation. Closed questions tend to feel more like an interrogation and don’t allow taking the conversation in different directions.

Open questions can not only be more engaging, but they can also provide more insight into what your community is thinking if that is what you are after. You can even give some Socratic Questions a go.

Let’s look at a few examples.

Examples of Open Questions

• If you were on a desert island, what three things would you bring, and why?
• Have you seen any good blog posts recently?
• Which Social Media Influencers do you follow?
• Why did you choose to buy our product?
• Where in the world would you like to go?

Examples of Closed Questions

• Have you watched ‘The Boys’ on Amazon Prime?
• Should I buy an SEO Keyword tool?
• Would you recommend our product?
• Have you been to Spain?
• Do you go to the gym?

We have found that ‘Battle’ type questions can work well. Using PostMaker, we have created lots of ‘Do you prefer Harry Potter or Game of Thrones?’ type questions. We have an example on 7 Wonderful Affiliate Marketing Content Examples for Woorise using Post Maker blog post.

Make use of your super fans

If you have an existing audience who are fans of you or your brand - you need to make use of them to get the conversation started. An empty thread is a sad place, and you need people to begin interacting as soon as possible.

When others can see the chat going, they’re more likely to join in and interact themselves.

Maybe it is even friends and family who are adding their 2 cents to your post in the early days.

Adding images to Interaction Posts

Images tend to gain 150% more retweets than those that don’t include them, according to Buffer.