Instagram Questions—Creating Conversations With Your Followers | Social Joey
Been on Insta lately? If so, you may have recently seen a new feature introduced where users can include a “questions” sticker in their stories—and then respond to those questions in an Instagram story post.
This is similar to the polling feature that Instagram recently implemented, where you can poll your followers to answer a certain question, giving them two options to vote on. If you’re wondering how you can benefit from this new questions feature, the answer is simple—it can help you create real conversations and engagement with your followers.
How Do I Use This New Feature?
If you’re discovering this sticker for the first time, you’re not alone!
First, go to create a story on Instagram and locate your stickers button. Try swiping up if you don’t see it. You can then stick it wherever you want on your story, type a prompt and see what happens!
Shortly after doing this, you should begin receiving responses in the viewer’s list on your story. Pick one of the questions you’d like to answer, and it will create a brand-new section of your story.
You’ll be able to see the name of the person who asked the question, but to your followers, it will appear anonymous. The question and your response will appear public to your followers.
How simple is that? Real, honest and entertaining questions that you can answer for the rest of your audience to view. So how can this benefit your business?
A Few of the Perks
1. It promotes real, meaningful conversations with your friends and followers. We all have a few friends, family members or even strangers that we’re dying to ask a few questions! Some users are also posting things like, “I’m bored, ask me anything,” giving followers the opportunity to ask a series of random questions. Now’s your chance! All you have to do is tap the sticker, type out your question and boom! Your followers can then watch your story, click the sticker and respond with their replies. If you aren’t able to see your replies, search in the bottom left area of your post where it tells you who has viewed your story. Go ahead, ask away!
2. It invites influencers and followers to engage with your brand. You can really improve your social media presence with the help of influencers. Influencer marketing is growing at a rapid pace and becoming highly successful. So, what is an influencer you might ask? Influencers are social media “celebrities” or social media users with a large following. When an individual has a large following, he or she has the potential to make an impact on a bigger audience. The influencer will promote a specific product or service on an Instagram story or post a picture, and everyone following the person will be exposed to the advertisement. Sponsored posts are on the rise, and may be the next big way to advertise on Instagram for your business.
3. It increases vulnerability with your followers. Instagram has long been known as the photo app where people can put a bunch of filters on their photos, making them appear superficial and (sometimes) unrealistic. This can make businesses appear unapproachable and distant to consumers. With the new questions feature, you can personally ask your followers direct questions, connecting with them on a deeper and more vulnerable level. You’ll receive real and direct insight from consumers, which will help you establish relationships and become more personable. Not only that, but posting answers from happy customers, positive reviews of your products and real testimonials will help your brand appear trustworthy and reliable to the rest of your followers. This type of “social proof” is invaluable.
4. It attracts attention with lots of visual content. Pictures and videos have been known to attract viewers’ attention and receive a lot of engagement, and this is the perfect platform to post amazing visual content of your brand and products. Here, you’ll really want to display high-quality photo and video content. Not only will this help you get likes, but it will also help you define a clear message for your brand. In fact, not only does visual content reinforce your marketing message, but it also stays in your audience’s mind longer. A person who hears a piece of information will remember just 10 percent of it three days later, while someone who sees that same information in a picture will recall 65 percent of it. Instagram is a free tool that your business can use to create amazing video content that will engage your customers!
5. Use it to direct customers to your other social channels. The great thing about stories? You can make them whatever you want, and use them to direct followers to your Facebook, Twitter and Google+ channels. Ask questions, get results and then direct your followers to your other social media pages for optimal engagement across all platforms. Think of this as the “interactive extension” of your social media feeds. Think about the things that are timely, relevant and engaging to your audience—and post away. Perhaps you’re franchising and you want to take a poll about where your newest location should be? Ask on Instagram, and see what your followers have to say about it.
What do you think? Is this new feature beneficial? Do you like asking your friends, coworkers and family members questions over Instagram, or reading other peoples’ responses? There are ways to maximize this feature to help your business create more engagement and direct followers to your other channels.
Not seeing the new questions sticker option in your Insta app? Try updating your iOS or Android to the newest version.
If you’d like to know how Social Joey can help you connect with customers and come up with the perfect content strategy for your business, get in touch with us today. We’re here to make your marketing hop!