Think of your social media channels as a lively party with you as the host. To make it a success, you need your guests to be more than just passive observers. You want them to actively participate, laugh, and create memorable experiences together.
This is the power of interactive audience engagement in your social media strategy.
Creating content that sparks conversations and builds relationships with your audience is key to achieving this. Let’s show you why engagement matters and the best types of posts to drive interaction to your social media content.
Why social media engagement is important
Social media engagement is the lifeblood of your online community. When a customer leaves a comment on your latest product post, shares your hilarious meme, or your informative video, or asks a question about your services – that’s audience interaction in action.
It shows that people aren’t just passively scrolling by, but actively interested in what you have to offer. You can think of it as a virtual high-five of approval.
But why does this matter for your business? Let’s break it down:
1. Amplify Your Brand’s Reach: Each audience interaction sets off a chain reaction, extending your brand’s reach to a larger audience. For example, a fashion brand that runs a contest encouraging users to share photos of themselves wearing their clothes with a branded hashtag could see their posts reach thousands of potential new customers.
2. Turn Followers into Loyal Customers: User engagement is the first step towards building a dedicated customer base. When people consistently interact with your content, they’re more likely to become repeat customers and spread the word about your products or services.
3. Get Noticed by the Algorithm: When a post gets lots of likes, comments, and shares, it tells the algorithm “Hey, you should look at this and show it to more people.” This increased visibility can lead to more website visits and higher click-through rates, ultimately driving more business to your door.
How to calculate social media engagement rate
While there are various ways to calculate engagement, one metric that’s especially helpful for analyzing individual posts is the Engagement Rate by Post (ER Post). This simple calculation gives you a clear picture of how your posts are resonating with your followers:
ER Post = (Total Engagements on a Post / Total Followers) * 100
Let’s say you’re a small candle company with 2,000 followers on Instagram. You recently shared a post featuring a beautiful photo of your newest candle scent, and it received 100 likes, 20 comments, and 5 shares.
To calculate your ER Post, you would add up the total engagements (125) and divide it by your total followers (2,000), then multiply by 100. This gives you an ER Post of 6.25%.
This means that over 6% of your followers actively engaged with that specific post. And with some industries having an ER post of 1% to 3% this indicates a strong level of interest in your product.
But what about other metrics?
While ER Post is a valuable tool, it’s not the only metric to consider. Depending on your goals, you might also want to track:
– Engagement Rate by Reach (ERR): This measures engagement based on the number of people who actually saw your post (reach), not just your followers. It’s helpful for understanding how your content performs organically and through paid promotion.
– Engagement Rate by Impressions (ER Impressions): This metric is particularly useful for paid campaigns. It measures engagement based on the number of times your post was displayed (impressions).
– Daily Engagement Rate (Daily ER): This tracks how often your followers engage with your content on a daily basis. It’s helpful for identifying trends and understanding your audience‘s overall activity level.
There are 2 main posts types to drive engagement
Now that we’ve explored the why behind social media engagement, let’s get into the what. What types of content can make your audience stop their scrolling and start interacting?
The possibilities are endless, but all engaging posts share a few key characteristics: they are relevant to your audience, visually appealing, and offer something of value.
Interactive posts for social media
In the past, social media posts were primarily one-sided broadcasts: brands pushing out content without much opportunity for audience interaction. Think of those generic product photos with a simple caption or overly promotional posts that felt more like advertising than conversation starters.
Boring, right?
How – in 2024 – can you make your social media posts more than just one-way communication?
Interactive content on social media platforms requires direct input from users. This could be as simple as a poll where followers vote on their preferred option, or a question sticker on a story that prompts written responses.
Key elements of interactive posts include:
- User input: Followers take an action beyond just viewing.
- Immediate response: The post changes or reacts based on user input.
- Personalization: The experience differs for each user based on their choices.
Examples include Twitter polls, Instagram question stickers, or Facebook‘s reaction buttons beyond the standard “like”. These features allow for audience participation, creating immersive experiences that keep users engaged with your content longer.
Posts for Engagement
What makes a post engaging to your target audience? Well, it turns out there’s quite a bit of psychology at play.
Let’s break it down.
Hit ‘Em in the Feels
Emotional triggers are like the secret sauce of engaging content for your social media users. Remember that video of a family reunion that made you tear up? Or that funny meme that made you laugh out loud? That’s the power of emotion. Posts that evoke joy, curiosity, or even a touch of sadness are the ones that get shared and spark audience interaction.
The “Everyone’s Doing It” Effect
Ever notice how a post with a ton of likes or comments makes you more likely to join in? That’s social proof at work. We’re more likely to trust and engage with content that others have already deemed worthy. It’s like the digital version of FOMO (but in a good way!).
Once Upon a Time, on Social Media…
We all love a good story, right? And that doesn’t change just because we’re scrolling through our phones. Weaving a compelling narrative into your social media engagement posts can make your brand more relatable and your message stay with people for longer.
Lookin’ Good!
Would you wear sweatpants to a first date? Probably not. The same goes for your social media posts. Strong visual content is a must. High-quality images, consistent branding, and an eye-catching content format can make your posts impossible to ignore.
Creating social media engagement interactive posts
Next: let’s show you how to create interactive content that gets your audience excited and engaged.
Interactive Facebook post
Times and trends change and static posts are a thing of the past – your company needs Facebook Page ideas that jump off the page.
Facebook Live: Engage your community in real time with live Q&A sessions, product demos, or behind-the-scenes glimpses.
Carousel Posts: Craft engaging visual stories across multiple images or videos. Share customer testimonials, product features, or company culture highlights. Use design tools like Canva or CapCut to create eye-catching visuals that stand out in the newsfeed.
Interactive Videos: Lift your social media marketing with videos that invite participation. Let’s look at it step by step:
- Use Facebook Creator Studio to add polls and quizzes directly to live videos, sparking real-time interaction with your social media audiences.
- Leverage third-party apps like Wirewax or Mindstamp to create clickable hotspots or branching narratives, crafting a more immersive interactive experience for viewers.
- Produce high-quality videos using editing software like Adobe Premiere or DaVinci Resolve. Export in MP4 format for optimal compatibility with Facebook.
- Regularly monitor engagement metrics (views, clicks, responses) using social media analytics tools to evaluate the effectiveness of your interactive content piece and refine your content marketing strategy over time. We find Facebook A/B testing (below) to be very useful for this.
With a wide range of powerful tools and techniques available, interactive videos can take your Facebook social media interaction to the next level. It also offers a unique and engaging form of content to captivate your audience on a regular basis.
Facebook interaction games
Engage your audience with these modern Facebook interaction games:
AI-Powered Chatbots for Quizzes:
You could use ManyChat to design personality quizzes in Messenger. Provide instant feedback and bespoke product recommendations with friendly language and images. This interactive content experience can significantly increase engagement.
AR Filters and Effects:
Or create virtual try-on filters using Facebook‘s Spark AR Studio. Engage users with fun and stylish effects, promoting usage with clear instructions and visuals.
360-Degree Video Tours:
You could also create 360-degree video tours of your products or facilities. Provide an immersive experience that allows users to explore and interact with your content.
Use these videos to reach a broader audience and offer an interactive content experience. If giant brands like Star Wars are using 360-degree videos on Facebook (above), you know there’s great traction to content like this.
Virtual Reality Experiences:
Although there isn’t widespread evidence of businesses using it yet – Facebook‘s Horizon Worlds can be used for creating engaging virtual events. Your brand can host virtual meetups, interactive workshops, or themed virtual spaces related to your products.
Instagram interactive post
Instagram is also evolving rapidly in 2024. To create engaging interactive posts for your business, focus on video content, especially Reels. You can now reply to a Reel with another Reel (“Reels Remix”), add new effects and music, and upload 60-second video stories without cuts.
Or try AI-generated stickers for your Stories. Instagram‘s new AI features let you create custom stickers and backdrops based on text prompts.
You can also now use broadcast channels to send updates directly to your followers.
And experiment with “photo dumps” in carousels to show behind-the-scenes moments or user-generated content.
Instagram engagement post ideas
To increase engagement on your company’s Instagram:
- Have your social media managers create Reels as brand spokespeople. This builds personal connections with your audience.
- Create video memes using trending audio and your brand’s unique spin on popular culture references.
- Use Instagram‘s new multiple bio links feature. You can now add up to five external links to drive traffic to various URLs.
- Optimize for Instagram SEO by using relevant keywords in captions, tags, and alt text. Think of Instagram as another Google that can bring you traffic.
- Consider investing in paid promotions. With about 25% of feeds now consisting of sponsored posts, ads can significantly expand your reach.
Tips for engagement post ideas for social media
Let’s explore creative ways to turn scrolling into playing, comments into conversations, and likes into loyal followers.
Propose social media games
Here’s a couple of ideas to try with your customers:
1) Social Media Escape Rooms
You could create a series of posts that act like a virtual escape room. Each post can present a puzzle or a challenge that users must solve to “unlock” the next post in the series. These puzzles can involve decoding messages, solving quizzes based on your content, or creatively using your products in their solutions.
2) Meme Challenges
Encourage your followers to create video memes related to your brand or a specific theme. This taps into the popularity of memes and their viral nature.
Use Cap Cut to provide a “green screen” meme template (like the one above) and ask your audience to customize it with creative captions. Highlight the best entries and offer rewards for the ones that perform best in terms of engagement.
Create group interaction posts
Here are some more creative ideas you could use:
1) “Debate Time!”
You could pose a question with two clear sides and encourage followers to discuss their opinions in the comments, respectfully engaging with those who have differing viewpoints.
Example: “Is [Product A] better than [Product B]? Let’s hear your arguments!”
If you owned a mobile phone store, for example, you could pit the iPhone 15 Pro against the Galaxy S24, get your popcorn out, and watch the madness (and huge interaction) unfurl.
2: “Share Your Story”
Ask followers to share personal anecdotes related to your niche. This encourages them to connect with others who may have similar experiences.
For example, if you’re a home improvement store: “Tell us about your most rewarding DIY project. What did you create, and what challenges did you overcome?”
3) “Collaboration Station”
Propose a creative project where followers contribute individual elements that come together to form a larger piece. Example: “Let’s build a collaborative playlist! Share your favorite songs about [theme] in the comments.”
Use trends for social media
Finally: do you want to stay ahead of the curve on social media in 2024 and beyond?
Tools like Brand24 and Mention are your magnifying glass, helping you spot trending topics and viral content by tracking keywords and hashtags. And you can combine that with your platform‘s own analytics to see what’s really clicking with your audience.
Join online communities and follow influencers in your niche to get a feel for what people are buzzing about. And websites like Exploding Topics and Trend Hunter offer a wider view of emerging trends.
Pro Tip: Pay attention to the conversations happening on Slack, specialist sub-Reddits, and Discord – that’s where some of the best insights lie.
Looking for social media services?
Tired of low engagement? Want your social posts to stop being a one-sided conversation?
At Nomadic, we create interactive post ideas that get your audience talking, not just scrolling.
Book a free 30-minute consultation to see how we can get your social media buzzing.
Key Takeaways
- Design posts that invite users to interact directly, such as choosing options or responding to queries.
- Monitor engagement using metrics like Engagement Rate by Post to assess content performance.
- Employ compelling visuals and narratives to attract and engage the audience.
- Keep content up-to-date by tracking trending topics and hashtags to ensure relevance and engagement.
