They say social media is the place to have conversations with your target audience — but when’s the last time you asked your followers how they’re doing?

Social media questions let users weigh in on the conversation more directly, which encourages them to interact with your posts, share them with their own following and come back to your brand for more engaging content.

Ready to start a two-way conversation with your social media followers? Here’s what you need to know.

Why Social Media Is Important For Content Marketing

Social media platforms continually earn their spots among the top digital destinations, which means social media remains an important and often necessary component of your content marketing strategy.

Boost Brand Awareness and Authenticity

As an element of your company’s digital presence, social media as a marketing tool allows your company to increase brand awareness, boost visibility on the platforms your target audience is already engaged on and connect with potential customers.

What’s more, social media is a place to show off your brand personality and give users a glimpse at the more human side of your brand. Authenticity is the name of the social media game, so the more transparent you are on social media, the more trust and authority you’ll build among your following.

Go From Conversations to Conversions

Social media further provides opportunities to grow and maintain relationships with your followers, ultimately increasing customer loyalty. The platforms inherently break down barriers between company and customer, allowing you to provide instant support, answer questions and engage your followers in ways that feel easy and natural to them.

Your social media strategy is also increasingly connected to your sales conversions because today’s consumers are conscious buyers who look into companies before making a purchase decision. A quick search for your brand should lead users to a website and social presence that gives them an idea of what you offer, the values you lead with and reasons why they should choose you over your competition.

Dazzle and Delight Your Following

By opening up the conversation with your audience, social media also gives you a chance to attract and delight users. At its core, social media is an entertainment platform, so your brand awareness and relationship building should lead with a focus on engagement.

That leads us to today’s topic of asking social media questions. This tactic is a smart addition to your social media strategy because it provides entertainment value to your following and encourages users to actively engage in conversation with your brand.

35 Social Media Engagement Questions To Ask Your Followers

Much like in-person connections and conversations, asking questions on social media is a tried-and-true way to learn more about your followers and boost their interest in your brand’s online presence.

These examples will give you an idea of what we mean — though it’s worth noting that you may not be able to straight-up copy and paste. Oftentimes, they’ll need extra context or personalization to tie them back to your brand or industry and ensure they resonate with your followers.

Now without further ado, here are some social media engagement questions to work into your content calendar.

Fill-in-the-Blank Questions

Let your audience finish your sentences with a fill-in-the-blank prompt. These are easy to tie back to your brand and allow your follower’s creativity to shine.

1. _____ makes me smile.
2. _____ inspires me to _____.
3. The best thing about my first job was _____.
4. My top interview horror story is _____.
5. Tell us a love story in five words or less: _________________________.

This or That Questions

From hotly debated opposites to simple preferences, this or that questions are quick and fun ways to engage your followers.

6. Would you rather [option 1] or [option 2]?
7. Are you more likely to [option 1] or [option 2]?
8. Disney or Pixar?
9. Coffee or tea?
10. Team iPhone or Team Android?

What If Questions

When you’re looking for a more open-ended question, consider posing a hypothetical scenario to get your followers thinking. You can also make it easier on them by providing options to choose from.

11. What if you could travel back in time? What decade and why?
12. What if you and your boss traded spots for a day?
13. What would you do if Oprah called you?
14. If you won the lottery today, what would you do with the money?
15. If you could invite one celebrity to your holiday dinner, who would it be?
A. Brad Pitt B. Reese Witherspoon C. Lizzo D. Lil Nas X

Feel-Good Questions

Cut through the negativity with some mood-boosting questions that will bring a smile to your followers’ faces.

16. What’s your superpower?
17. What’s a bucket list item you crossed off the list this year?
18. What made you smile today?
19. Who deserves some love right now? (Tag them!)
20. What’s your love language?

Entertainment and Lifestyle Questions

Ask your audience about the content they’re consuming and plans they’re making. It’s usually easy to make a connection to your brand or industry, and you’ll also learn a bit more about your audience from their responses.

21. What are you binge-watching right now?
22. Top 5 business podcasts for fresh graduates?
23. Do you have a pet? (Pictures, please!)
24. What’s your favorite GIF to use in your work chat? Share it below!
25. What’s your ideal Friday night?

#Trending Questions

Find inspiration in trending topics to engage your followers in social media questions that are as “now” as it gets.

26. What do you think our astrology chart looks like?
27. Tag yourself: Which Timothée Chalamet character are you?
28. Which Taylor Swift era are we feeling today?
29. New year, new ______?
30. Tell us that you’re in marketing without telling us that you’re in marketing.

Product or Service Questions

While you don’t want all of your social media content to be about promoting your product or service, you can gain some helpful insights from your followers. Plus, they’ll feel more connected to your brand if they feel like they’re part of your decision-making.

31. What do you want to see us launch next?
32. Would you rather get 50% off one purchase or 10% off your next 5 purchases?
33. If we gave you a $150 gift card, what would be in your shopping cart? (Spoiler alert: One lucky winner will receive said gift card)
34. What do you want to see more of from us?
A. [Option 1] B. [Option 2] C. [Option 3] D. [Option 4]
35. Ask us anything!

The Best Ways to Ask Engaging Social Media Questions

Our top tip for asking engaging social media questions is to stay true to your brand voice and personality. Random questions are more likely to confuse than engage, so be sure you’re weaving questions into your social media strategy in ways that complement the content you typically share.

Case in point: Hulu makes this question about emojis relevant to its Twitter feed by including a video where the stars of one of the streaming platform’s new shows answer the same question.

With this golden rule in mind, you can explore the features each platform offers to share your questions and take your posts to the next engagement level with replies, strategic timing and other tricks of the trade.

Take Advantage of Platform Features

While each social media platform has built-in features for asking questions, it goes without saying that you can also pose a question in a basic post format. Simply ask your question in the social media post copy, include a visual or link and send it into the universe.

On Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, you can spice it up by using the poll feature and giving users answers to choose from. These work well for anything from light-hearted jokes to product-related questions.

Instagram Stories are a great destination for social media questions because they offer multiple interactive features in addition to polling. Choose from question emoji sliders, question boxes with fill-in answer sections and more.

Host a Live Question and Answer Session

Social media users love the authenticity of live video content, so why not flip the script and let them ask the questions for you to answer in real time?

If your audience responds well to the live format, consider doing it again and teasing it in the days leading up to the live session. This will build momentum and encourage more engagement from your followers.

Reply to Your Audience’s Answers

Don’t let the conversation end prematurely! React to comments and reply back to the answers you get, so that your followers feel seen by your brand.

The answers can also become a form of user-generated content, so don’t stop there. If you get a lot of answers, choose some of the best ones to share on your story or in a follow-up post.

Make it a Contest or Giveaway

Incentives always prove to increase response, so turn your question into a contest or giveaway to boost engagement with the promise of a gift for the winner.

Sustainable and trendy underwear brand Parade executes this tactic with finesse, asking their followers to come up with names for new product colors. This makes users feel part of the team and the top answers win a free sweatshirt for a friendly amount of competition and compensation for their creativity.

 

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Parade (@parade)

Measure, Improve and Repeat

As with any content marketing tactic, the results will vary by audience. Have fun with experimentation, collect data and figure out what’s actually boosting engagement. Make data-informed improvements where you can and only repeat what’s working!

How to Track Social Media Engagement

There are several social media metrics that fall under the engagement umbrella. It takes likes, comments, retweets, clicks, shares and account mentions to paint a full engagement picture, so make sure you’re looking at a combination of metrics rather than stressing specifically over likes or comments.

Each individual social media engagement metric adds up to a total number of engagements for a post or profile as a whole during an observed window of time.

To calculate an overall engagement rate percentage, add up a post’s total likes, comments and shares. Divide that number by your total number of followers on the platform and multiply by 100.

Source: Hootsuite

Don’t worry — tracking your social media engagement isn’t about to take you back to math class every time you need updated metrics. Once you decide on the social media key performance indicators (KPIs) you want to target and how often you want to dig into the data, there are two main ways you can find the metrics you need:

  • Log into your social media accounts and review the metrics provided by the platform.
  • Use a social media marketing tool like Hootsuite, Sprout Social, CoSchedule or HubSpot for more detailed analytics reports.

Remember to pull a fresh set of engagement metrics before you start implementing social media questions into your content strategy. That will be your benchmark to compare with metrics after you implement your new engagement tactic.

Let the Conversations Begin!

With this highly effective engagement tactic up your sleeve, get ready for a boost in social media interactions. Which question will you ask first?

Stevie Snow is a writer at Brafton. Yes, she is named after Stevie Nicks. She’s a believer in "to life, to life, l’chaim!" because life is what brings us the Obamas, a really smooth vodka tonic and that moment on the dance floor when your favorite banger plays.