With interactive video, businesses can connect, engage, and convert users in new ways. The addition of interactive video to Facebook makes the content type even more enticing for companies, as the social media platform boasts more than 1.4 billion daily users. While Facebook offers access to a substantial number of users, those users demand compelling content — whether it’s interactive or static.
That’s why it’s essential that you create interactive videos on Facebook that encourage engagement, shares, likes, and more. How do you do it, though? Keep reading, as we’re highlighting seven easy and creative ways to engage users.
What is a Facebook interactive video?
Interactive videos on Facebook encourage participation from users, such as voting in a poll, answering a multiple-choice question, or competing in an online game. Content creators can also monetize their interactive videos with advertisements.
Types of Facebook interactive videos include:
- Polling: A polling feature is available for live and on-demand interactive videos. The Facebook Watch series, “Help Us Get Married,” utilizes polling by allowing users to plan the wedding of a couple, such as by picking the wedding theme and venue.
- Gamification: A gamification feature is available for live interactive videos. A Facebook Watch show from INSIDER, “Confetti,” utilizes gamification by allowing participants to guess the contents of a box for a prize.
Learn more about marketing gamification in the video below!
Many businesses, as well as influencers, use interactive video on Facebook.
7 easy and creative ways to engage users with Facebook interactive video
With more than 92 percent of marketers seeing results from interactive video, it’s valuable to know how to create interactive video content for your Facebook audience that generates results, whether it’s improved engagement, social shares, website traffic, or revenue. Here are seven easy and creative ideas to inspire your next interactive video on Facebook:
1. Make personalized product quizzes
People love personalized content, whether they’re receiving an email or participating in an interactive poll. That’s why a personalized product quiz is an excellent option when creating an interactive video on Facebook. You promote your product and brand, as well as provide value to the user.
Companies have offered personalized product quizzes for years, and often on their websites. iRobot, a manufacturer of robotic vacuums, for instance, includes a quiz on its website to help users find the perfect robot vacuum model for their home. Another company, Taylors of Harrogate, used a personalized product quiz with success too.
Unlike iRobot, however, their quiz appeared as a clickable link — or annotation — in a company video. When users clicked the link, they could take a quiz to find their perfect coffee flavor. Afterward, users could purchase products and join the company’s email newsletter.
For Taylors of Harrogate, the campaign became a massive success. They saw their engagement rate increase by 35 percent, which resulted in almost 4,500 likes on their Facebook page. The quiz also generated 400 shares and more than 250 comments.
If you offer several varieties of a single product, a personalized quiz is an excellent option.
2. Create new product voting polls
Lay’s popularized the idea of consumers picking a new product with its, “Do Us a Flavor,” contest. For years, users have nominated new chip flavors, which Lay’s then produces for users to vote on. While ambitious, many companies can create their own, “Do Us a Flavor,” campaign.
With this type of interactive poll and marketing campaign, you want to do some social listening. That means you’re reading reviews and comments left by users — in some instances, you may even conduct surveys to understand what shoppers want from your company, products, and services. Those findings will influence the products you opt to use for your campaign, as well as the suggestions you choose to create for public voting.
While this campaign requires a bit of time and planning, it can generate news coverage and exposure for your brand.
3. Recruit candidates with quizzes
For many companies, it’s a natural part of the recruitment and interview process to investigate the social media presence of candidates. With an interactive video on Facebook, you could take recruitment and social media a step further. Deloitte, a professional services network, did just that with their first-person interactive video.
The video used gamification to introduce scenarios that would help a user see if they’d fit into the company and its culture. One prompt, for instance, saw you spill coffee on one of the company’s partners. It then prompted you to respond, either by rubbing the coffee in, letting the partner know about it, or saying nothing at all — spoiler, the best response was letting the partner know.
4. Host product-related trivia games
Like a personalized quiz, a product-related trivia game can make users feel important. Plus, a trivia game can encourage users to play with their friends and family, which can garner even more visibility and coverage for your brand. If you opt to create a trivia game, make sure you minimize its focus on your product.
As an example, if your company manufactures peanut butter, you could create a product-related trivia game about peanuts and the history of peanut butter. Afterward, you could highlight your products. It’s a similar approach to what Taylors of Harrogate did.
They provided their audience with a fun, informational experience — only afterward did they ask audiences to take action by purchasing their products or joining their email newsletter. Focus on the experience of your users first, as that’ll encourage more people to share your interactive video. In fact, more than 90 percent of users share videos, so if you make one that’s fun and engaging, you can expect a positive reception.
5. Sponsor interactive videos
Another way to create a share-worthy and compelling interactive video on Facebook is to partner with an influencer in your market. The advantage of this approach is that more than 90 percent of users trust someone’s recommendation over a brand. By sponsoring a video, you can also learn more about your audience.
For example, an influencer may ask followers what they think about your brand and what they like about your products. They can also convert these questions into a poll for quick review by your team. In most cases, influencers will create a video that’s not so direct.
Instead, they’ll opt for a natural approach that’s less sales-orientated. If you’re a furniture manufacturer, for instance, they may talk about redecorating their kitchen and comparing different brands or showcasing their revamped room.
6. Offer a giveaway
With the polling feature on Facebook interactive videos, you can also create quizzes on your live and on-demand videos. This feature makes giveaways, such as for a product or trip, feasible. While it may generate traffic from non-valuable leads, it’ll also encourage valuable ones to participate.
As an example, you may create a simple quiz that highlights your new service for emergency oil delivery. If a user scores well enough, they can enter your giveaway for a free oil delivery, which can generate valuable traffic from consumers in your service area. If you opt to create a giveaway, make sure you use the Simple Success Metric (SSM).
This metric calculates the success of your giveaway by dividing the total number of entries by the number of Facebook followers your campaign reached.
7. Educate with quizzes
For non-profit and public-sector organizations, interactive videos on Facebook also offer value. An excellent example of their potential is from the UK Resuscitation Council, which wanted to educate users about CPR. In their interactive video, they not only quizzed users on what they knew about CPR but also on how fast they responded to the question.
The UK Resuscitation Council also went one step further, having you move your phone or tablet to perform CPR and tracking the frequency of each chest compression. 
While this type of feature isn’t available on Facebook interactive videos, you can still quiz users and time their responses. With this quiz format, you encourage users to share their results with their friends and family, which can improve engagement even more.
Have a favorite Facebook interactive video?
We’d love to hear about it! Send us a tweet @webfx to tell us about some of your favorite interactive videos from Facebook.
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