Interactive content is one of the best ways to create a relationship with your customers and gather the attention of potential customers. Creating interactive content can prove to be a difficult task, however, with the arrival of social media it has become easier than ever. Companies are now using social sites such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to allow customers to interact with their brand.

1. One of the ways they do this is through polls. A relatively new addition to Instagram and Twitter, you can now generate a poll and post it either on your Instagram Story or as a Tweet. This allows customers to vote for a favorite flavor or a favorite piece of clothing. Not only to the customers enjoy being a part of your brand, but they also feel as though their opinion matters. The downfall of this type of interactive content is that it works better if you have a larger following on your social accounts.
2. Creating contests for customers using social media can also be a successful marketing technique. Before social media, creating contests for consumers was a difficult task unless you were a larger company that could get the word out easily. Now brands of all sizes are creating contests, for example, clothing brands have been offering a free article of clothing to one lucky winner when you like the post, tag three friends in the comments, and share the post on your own page. This type of contest can be done through Facebook and Instagram and it provides a large amount of exposure for your company. Interactive contests are an amazing way to gain publicity for your brand, however, if you do not lay down specific rules you may find yourself in a bind. For example, SunnyCo is a bathing suit company that decided they were going to give one free suit to everyone that reposted the photo of said suit. This contest was amazing for exposure, but SunnyCo did not put a limit on how many people could repost their picture (i.e. the first 100 people to repost this photo will get a free bathing suit). SunnyCo ended up getting way more people reposting their photo then they expected and had to cancel orders on hundreds of people who followed the contest rules; this goes unsaid, but people were not happy. Moral of the story is, lay out specific contest rules and give customers no reason to be angry with your company.
3. Facebook or Instagram live videos are a newer and great way for companies to interact with customers. Customers now have the opportunity to ask questions in real time, which makes them feel more of a connection to your brand. Have a new product to offer? Set up a DIY live video to show consumers how it works and they will feel more inclined to purchase. Going to an event for your company? Stream it on a Facebook or Instagram live video, consumers will feel as though they are part of the event even when they are not there in person. Although Facebook live is a great concept and can be used successfully in many different ways you should use moderately. If you are constantly posting live videos for content that doesn’t need to be streamed in real time then consumers will start to get bored with your company. It’s up to you to decide which content could warrant a live video and which should have a static image.

Creating interactive content is not lucrative for every business and it may not be as result-driven if you operate a bank, lawyer’s office, etc. Interactive content works best for companies that are selling a product, so if you’re having trouble creating interactive posts it may just be because your business is better suited for a different type of content. Try creating blog posts or keeping up with holiday posts to keep your content unique to your company.