The Instagram Questions feature encourages followers to engage with your Story posts, which in turn, can help you get to know your audience and sell products and services as well.
Most importantly, when followers engage with your Stories, the algorithm is more likely to put your content in front of those people again—thus driving further engagement.
If you want to boost engagement in your community, don’t ignore Instagram questions. Here are some strategies for creating fresh question-based content and making the most of each Story share.
Nail Your Strategy Now!
Do Community Research
The most successful companies conduct extensive research to understand their audience before executing a marketing strategy. This same research is essential to your Instagram success too.
As Olga Rabo wrote: “To experience Instagram greatness at its fullest, you need to know a lot about your audience FIRST. Actionable insights into your audience’s interests, preferences, and behavior ultimately pave the road to a successful Instagram strategy.”
Instead of running detailed surveys doing extensive audience research to understand your audience, Instagram Questions to create mini-surveys.
Break down what might otherwise be extensive survey sent via email into individual questions and polls. You can only publish one question at a time, so create a Story post for each one. Not only does this allow you to create more Stories content, but it helps you avoid overwhelming your followers too.
What’s more, it encourages people to take part as they can leave an answer in seconds.
You can ask questions like what type of posts they want to see, if they like videos or photos more and who they follow. You can combine the answers with your Instagram insights to create more engaging questions and ultimately get to know your audience.
Remember to keep your questions simple and specific, like this one from Hubspot.
This question style will get more responses because it’s simple and straight-forward. Hubspot will benefit in two ways from this:
- They’ll start to understand what types of marketing interests their audience.
- They’ll get an idea about what they’re audience is being told and where there may be gaps to fill in with their own content.
Keep Reading: 10 Instagram Story Ideas to Boost Engagement
Run a Quiz
Nothing beats a quiz when the goal is to generate engagement. This is especially if you offer a gift for the winner(s). The competitive aspect will ignite participation even further. You could also transform the quiz into a full-fledged giveaway or contest. Coconut Bowls did this and they generated 41,820+ sign-ups and 37,703+ new followers.
Here’s a step-by-step process for creating an Instagram story quiz.
- Use the Data: Use the answers from your Instagram question surveys to choose a quiz idea that will attract participants. It must be creative and entertaining.
- Determine the format: Do followers simply have to submit an answer through your Instagram Questions post? Do they also have to follow you or sign up for your email list?
- Choose a prize: After you set the steps, you can choose a prize. It has to be something your followers crave. They should want it so much that they’re willing to go through all the steps.
However, remember that a prize isn’t always necessary. A simple quiz that takes a few seconds to answer can just be fun. Take this example from WeWork.
Don’t forget to announce the winner at the end of the 24 hours. Tag them in another story post, along with what they won—if a prize was involved. This will also drive engagement by encouraging them to share the story to their audience as well.
Conduct an AMA
AMAs, also known as Ask Me Anythings, are extremely popular on Reddit. There’s even an AMA subreddit with hundreds of thousands of members.
People like AMAs because they get to ask questions to celebrities, subject matter experts, and people who have unique experiences.
“These experiences can be a breath of fresh air from the ordinary, scripted content that your audience is used to seeing. When done successfully, AM sessions can boost engagement and promote transparency with your audience, and allow them to get to know your brand on a more personal level,” says Sarah Aboulhosn.
You can replicate the AMA format through Instagram Questions. All you have to do is post a question sticker and wait for followers to submit their questions. Remember that this can be general, like “Ask me anything” or more specific, like “Ask me anything about my new book” or “Ask me anything about our new product.” This can be a great way to both boost engagement and drive buzz around an upcoming announcement.
Make sure to reply publicly to keep people checking back to see what other questions were asked. Finally, remember that this Instagram questions style is most effective if you have a large following or are a well-known person or brand.
Keep Reading: 7 Steps to Organically Increase Your Instagram Followers
Ask Followers for Product or Service Feedback
You can use Instagram Questions to get feedback, boost engagement, and sell products on Instagram. After you release a product, for example, create an Instagram Questions story to ask your followers for feedback about the product.
This will drum up chatter around your product, which will ideally generate more sales. You can also use the answers to improve your products and promote them better.
BeardBrand did this well by asking about specific products. If you carry multiple products, be clear about which ones you’re asking for feedback on. Using a product photo as the background can also help catch people’s attention and help you get more responses.
Don’t forget to share positive responses, which then act as testimonials. If you have 10K followers or the Swipe Up feature you can pair this response with a Swipe Up to purchase the product.
Remember that you can use this technique not just for physical products, but also for digital products such as courses, SaaS products, and ebooks.
Boost Engagement With Instagram Questions
Instagram Questions are a fun way to invite your followers and customers to become a part of your community. They also help you strengthen the relationship and boost engagement and sales with quick and easy posts that are simple to create.
These methods are only a few creative ways to use Instagram questions. If you look around, you’ll find Instagram accounts posting several creative stories every single day. Take note and consider how you can use those ideas with your audience too.
Don’t forget to download the Instagram Caption Checklist to drive more engagement and tell your story!
