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Are you having difficulties getting people to engage in your social Media? There’s a good reason why bloggers are enticed by social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. It’s because of the potentially large amount of readers to their blog.

For Facebook alone, there are 1.23 billion daily active users worldwide and 1.74 active mobile users. These figures show there is a steady flow of users to the popular social site, providing a constant audience from all over the world. This means that Facebook can be used as a handy tool for your social and business media marketing. However, there is a downside to the amount of daily traffic Facebook gets, and getting your posts noticed above others has become increasingly difficult with the amount of high user traffic. Facebook also has an algorithm which basically determines how they show your post updates to new users. The more interaction and engagement it sees your posts getting, in the way of comments, likes and shares, the more it will show your posts to other people. This also leads on to attracting new page likes. When new users can see that you post interesting content and there is an interaction between you and your audience, the more likely they are to “Like” your page.

One of the best ways to invite your audience to engage with you is to ask questions as your status update. Questions are often entertaining and sometimes they can be slightly controversial. Asking questions to encourage your users to engage with your post and page is not only a great way to attract more likes and users but is also a great way to improve and expand on your product or informative page and what you can offer to people. It’s all about giving your page users the opportunity to post a comment. Always respond back to comments by thanking them for their interest and support and even respond with a question if you would like them to elaborate. Even sharing their comment on your page if it’s particularly entertaining or informative. Asking a variety of questions really help you to see and understand who is following your page. When you see (in the form of comments) who is using your page, you can post useful blogs to target a certain audience and adjust your posts accordingly to make everyone feel they are being heard and listened to.

Gary Vaynerchuk

Here are some handy tips on what sort of questions to ask.

1 Ask open-ended questions.

Ask open-ended questions. For example, if you have an online Magento store selling baby bags for new parents, you could ask them what features they are looking for in a good baby nappy bag. How large or small they would like them to be for convenience sake etc. Using this information can be great for a business because it lets you know what parents are really looking for in a product, meaning you can adjust your products to suit these preferences.

2 Invite users to interact.

Invite users to interact by asking them possible hurdles they may face. You may have a wellness or healthy living page and you may want to ask questions that invite other page users to share their own stories about diet and healthy eating and their struggles. For example, you could ask how busy people work in their daily exercise routines when they are short on time, or what is their preferred choice for the first meal of the day or how they plan their weekly meals. Questions like this really get the conversation threads going and invite many readers to share their experiences, this being informative to others who may be new to a healthy living regime. Questions like this can often be therapeutic for some users if they express their struggles or hurdles and others reply to the thread with ideas on how to solve the issue or just a pep-talk and esteem boost.

3 Ask users to fill in the blanks in a sentence.

Another great question to ask is for users to fill in the blanks. Example, you run a Stay at home mothers page where you may ask “I drove the kids to school in my PJ’s because…”. Or you may have a funny pets page where you may ask a fill in the blank question such as “Today I put my dog into time out…” Everybody loves a good pet shaming story. Again this will get people chiming in with their own pet shaming stories and other users responding to their own stories with similar embarrassing pet moments, even if a reply comment is a simple “LOL”.

4 Asking a true or false question.

Asking a true or false, or a this or that question is a good way to get the conversation going. This lets everybody express their opinion on a this or that brand, the pro’s and con’s and why they prefer it. This again can be very informative to newbies who are looking out for real opinions on a particular product or service so they can then make their own choices. For example, you may like to ask “PC or Mac” or for gamers “PC or Consol” or “Playstation or X-Box”. Be prepared for some in-fighting!

5 Ask users how they solve problems.

Asking users for their own problem-solving tips can be another great way to share information (and give you ideas on a new blog to write). This can be targeted at beginners on a certain subject or people who have tried various way to combat an issue to no avail. It may be tips on homemade cleaning products or tips on keeping destructive insects from eating your veggie garden or even tips for getting a toddler to bed at night.

6 Invite users to reply with photos or videos.

Invite your page community to post photos or short videos. As a page rule, you should have privacy laws enforced to a degree, like you won’t want people posting photos of people while making accusations about them, phone numbers or addresses etc. This is to be used more for entertainment purposes. You may have a parenting tips page, which is always good to get conversation threads happening, and you may ask your users to post parenting fail photos, or a pet’s page, ask for pet fail videos or cute photos of animals being bros, or photos of gaming or computer enthusiasts stations. People enjoy bragging when they have done something they are proud of and want to show the world their own setup.

7 Post-Ironic images as ask for replies describing what is happening.

An extension on photos. Perhaps you’ve taken come across a strange, funny or creepy photo that has you wondering “what’s going on here? You could post the photo and ask your users what they think is happening in the image. This sort of post often gets a lot of shares and comments, especially when it is particularly peculiar or hilarious.

8 Ask for users to post their daily or weekly Goals.

Ask people what their goals are for the week. This is great for any sort of lifestyle change or support group type pages. Not only does it encourage your users to set goals and achieve them, but saying them out loud can then hold them accountable for said goal. Now obviously you wouldn’t bring someone down if they didn’t achieve what they set out to do but help bring the community together to support and encourage each other. Try heading back to the thread and ask people who posted their goals if they were successful. If they weren’t then using this interaction to boost confidence and words of wisdom like “Well it’s not a bad thing that you didn’t achieve this, our plans don’t always work out, but you’re already ahead as you set a goal, you got half way there, what did you learn from not achieving, what will you change next time?”.

9 Run interactive competitions that require a response.

Another awesome way gets people to interact with your page is to run a competition style question. Take Boaty McBoatface for example, this went viral when users were asked to help name a new research vessel owned by the Natural Environment Research Council which was to be used as a research and logistic vessel. The new vessel was eventually named “RRS Sir David Attenborough”, however, as it was the most popular choice, they decided to name the vessels underwater craft Boaty McBoatface instead, giving value to their user base and including them for the long haul while also giving them a sense of community inclusion.
Perhaps you have a love of animals and have your own mini zoo at your house, one of your beloved animals has recently had offspring, you could run a competition to name the new baby, much like your local city Zoo does with their animal’s offspring.

10 Asking controversial questions.

Asking questions that may be a slightly controversial topic can really turn the heat up, so you do have to tread reasonably lightly here. Maybe there’s been a local issue in your city, like just last week a group of women petitioned to have the ‘Green Man’ road crossing signal to be 50% ‘Green Lady’ figures. Or when are an appropriate age to let your children walk to school on their own, or, should freedom camping be banned and even politic and local or national government elections? There is always a multitude of people who want to voice their own opinions.

11 Asking for a response on personal topics which friends normally discuss.

Perhaps you run a fashion blog that integrates with your Facebook or Instagram page. You could post a contrast photo of outfit combinations asking people to vote and comment which outfit you should wear that day. Or post a photo of what you plan to wear and ask others to post what they have chosen to wear. Or which lipstick colour your should wear, which shoes go best with the jacket you are wearing. Maybe it’s the holiday season and you can post your ugly holiday sweater and encourage people to also post theirs. What are you dressing up as for Halloween or what are you wearing to the Adele concert tonight.

I attract a crowd, not because I’m an extrovert or I’m over the top or I’m oozing with charisma. It’s because I care. Gary Vaynerchuk

12 Ask for an insider perceptive.

Things don’t always have to be directly related to your page. Maybe you have decided to go on a holiday. Here’s an opportunity to ask where to go, see and do in your chosen destination. Ask for “off the beaten track” destinations and local’s secrets spots. Questions like this can quickly gather interest as most people have are eager to find new places or do new things they may not have ever thought of and the locals of your destination are always keen to show off their cities and towns.

13 Ask for local information.

Asking Questions about local cafe’s restaurants is also a great one to get people sharing their own experiences, both good and bad, especially when certain dietary needs are to be met. If you are a sufferer of Coeliac Disease, for example, you might ask which restaurants have a good selection of (seriously) Gluten Free options, or great organic or vegan cafes and restaurants. If you are on the hunt for a new coffee haunt, there’s always a variety of coffee lovers opinions.

As you can see, there are endless options questions to ask to get people engaging and interacting with your page, which hopefully gets your page new ‘likes’ and shares as people share posts and tag their friends in the comments section. You keep your user base constant and growing, do your best to be creative and interesting with your questions and posts in status updates as this keeps people interested in your page, which means they won’t unfollow you anytime soon.