For many marketing teams, much of their time is devoted to content development. They focus on creating blog posts, interactive videos, quizzes–all of these different online experiences to give their target audience what they’re looking for at every stage of the journey.
But sometimes when it comes to the promotion phase for those assets, they run out of steam. The follow-through is lacking, and as a result, only a small portion of the potential audience for this stellar content is reached.
This can easily be remedied, however. With a social media promotion strategy for interactive content, these pieces of content can reach the interested audience you’ve already built – plus there’s endless opportunity for reaching new people with the organic sharing possibilities on most social platforms.
To get inspired, let’s look at some examples from brands that do a nice job of integrating interactive content with social media.
The New York Times
The New York Times has been experimenting with interactive content on social media for several years now. In fact, back in 2013, of all the pieces they shared over the course of the year, the most-clicked story was an interactive assessment on country-wide dialects.
Since then, interactive quizzes and assessments have become an integral part of the publication’s content strategy–and they regularly share them on different social channels like Facebook and Twitter. For example: Take a look at the romantic relationships quiz that was recently posted on NYT’s Facebook page below.
What’s effective about this approach is that it drives engagement with the audience, which is evidenced by the reactions, comments, and shares on this specific post. But what’s more: It also drives social media click-throughs, getting readers from the Facebook page to the company website. Once the user is there, he or she can complete the quiz, and is presented additional relevant content that keeps them on the company site (which increases value and interest).
Boston Content
Marketers behind the scenes at Boston Content know that contests have the highest conversion rate of all content types–so when it comes to event promotion, they create interactive experiences with contests. Leading up to the Annual Bash event, they launched a voting contest for “Boston Content Marketer to Watch” to drive engagement and awareness around the upcoming event.
They also made another smart move with this campaign: By including photos with the names of nominees, they made the contest feel more personal and memorable. According to Buffer data, images with faces are more memorable than images without them.
BuzzFeed
BuzzFeed has almost become synonymous with the online quiz. We see their pop-culture quizzes circulating Facebook and Twitter on a regular basis…and they’re just, well, kind of irresistible.
But their approach with interactive quizzes shared on social media is founded in reason: Data shows they get more than 75% of traffic via social media. In fact, one of their quizzes has been viewed more than 22 million times.
When we see these pieces of interactive content on Twitter (like in the example above) the something very strategic is happening: They’re leveraging a curiosity gap and the promise of greater self-understanding. This drives social media from point A (social platforms) to point B (the company website.) Once the user is on the website, there’s a greater opportunity for lead conversion, data-gathering, etc.
Alabama Outdoors
Adventure-loving brand Alabama Outdoors uses interactive content on social media to foster an engaged digital community. Featuring the best parks and gear reviews, they’ve become a go-to source of information for those who love being outdoors.
They kicked up their social media engagement efforts with an interactive contest promoted on Twitter. 10 True Grit pullovers were offered up as prizes for those who shared where they’d wear the cozy sweater.
The benefit of this for the brand was that it helped them learn about the…
