Organic reach is hard. A nice photo with a caption gets a few likes and disappears. Interactive social media posts work differently: they ask your followers to do something, like vote, guess, answer or play. That gets more comments, more clicks and, if you link to a campaign, sign-ups you actually own.
Below are 20 engaging social media post ideas, grouped by type, plus a note on tagging and sharing in contests and a simple way to measure what works.
Native vs linked interactive posts
There are two kinds of interactive posts, and they do different jobs.
Native posts use the tools built into each network: polls in stories, quiz stickers, question boxes, countdowns, "comment below" prompts. They are quick to make and great for engagement in the feed. But the answers stay on the platform. You do not get an email, and you cannot use the data later.
Linked posts send people from the post to a campaign of your own, like a quiz, a poll, a scratch card or a calendar on a landing page. It takes one more tap, but now people can leave their email, say yes to your newsletter and win a prize. As we say on our social media page: likes and comments are nice, but you don't own them.
The best plan uses both. Use native posts to start the conversation and linked posts to turn followers into contacts. Dansk Outlet is a good example of the second kind. Its last-minute Easter scratch card was shared with one organic Facebook post and a pop-up on its webshop, with no ad spend. 16,000 people visited, and 13,000 took part. Read the Dansk Outlet story.
Polls and votes
People love giving their opinion, and a vote takes one tap.
- "This or that." Two products, two flavours, two colours. Ask followers to pick in a story poll, then share the result.
- "Which one should we launch next?" Show two to four product ideas and let followers decide. Link to an online poll to collect votes with an email and a prize draw for everyone who takes part.
- "Name it." Let people vote on the name of a new product, a mascot or the office dog.
- People's choice award. Nominate shops, players, recipes or customer photos and let your community crown the winner in a vote game. Give each nominee a link to share with their own followers, and they will do much of the promotion for you.
- Player of the match. For sports clubs and sponsors: a vote straight after the final whistle, while emotions are high.
Tip: decide whether people can vote once or once a day. Daily voting brings people back, while a single vote keeps it simple.
Quizzes and guess-the-picture
Quizzes give people a small challenge and make them think about your brand for a minute or two.
- Guess the zoom. Post a close-up of a product and ask people to guess what it is. Reveal the answer in the next post.
- True or false. One surprising fact about your product or industry. Ask followers to answer in the comments or a story quiz sticker.
- The five-question quiz. Link to a short brand quiz with a prize draw. EYDA ran a true-or-false brand quiz for its summer collection, promoted on Meta, and generated 12,000 leads at €0.30 per lead, 35% cheaper than its usual ads. Read the EYDA story.
- "Which one are you?" A personality test is made for sharing, because everyone gets a result about themselves. WWF Denmark's Spirit Animal test reached 10,557 participants, with most of its traffic from Facebook. Read the WWF Denmark story.
- Guess the price. Show a product and let people guess the price. The closest guesses get a discount.
- Emoji riddle. Describe a product, place or film with emojis and ask followers to guess.
Contests (and a note on tagging)
Contests are the classic social media gamification idea. A few social media contest ideas that work:
- Instant-win game. Link to a scratch card, wheel or mystery box. Everyone gets an answer straight away, and you get a sign-up with consent.
- Photo contest. Ask followers to share a photo with your product, then let the community vote for the best.
- Caption this. Post a funny photo and ask for the best caption. You pick the winner.
- Guess the score. Before a big match, let fans predict the result. Everyone who guesses right goes into a draw.
A note on tagging and sharing
"Like, share and tag three friends to enter" is a common contest mechanic, but be careful with it. Rules and authority views on tagging and sharing as an entry condition differ between countries and can change, so check the current guidance in each market before you use it. In Denmark, the Consumer Ombudsman (Forbrugerombudsmanden) is a good place to start reading.
An alternative is to let people enter by playing a game or answering a question on a campaign page, where they can choose for themselves whether to sign up. Also check each network's own rules for promotions, and always write clear terms: who can enter, how winners are chosen and when the contest ends.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Rules differ between countries and change over time, so check the current rules and get legal advice before you launch a campaign.
Countdown and calendar posts
Countdowns build excitement and give people a reason to check your profile every day.
- Launch countdown. Use a story countdown sticker for a product launch, and link to a pre-registration page so people can sign up to hear first.
- Daily door. Run a calendar, such as an advent calendar or a campaign calendar for Black Week or summer, and post today's door every morning.
- 12 days of giveaways. A new prize every day for 12 days, each with its own post.
- Hint of the day. Run a lucky number game and reveal one digit or hint per day on social media. People who follow along have the best chance.
- Behind-the-scenes countdown. Show a little more of a new product each day, ending in a game or offer on launch day.
Make the posts easy to make
The hardest part of social media is often keeping up. A few shortcuts:
- Let Rex write the posts. Rex, the AI assistant built into Scratcher, can write ready-to-post texts and make images for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and more when your campaign is ready.
- Design for the phone. Most people will play on their phone, so preview your campaign on mobile while you build it.
- One campaign, many posts. The same game can be shared in a post, a story, an ad and your bio link.
- Reuse the results. Poll and vote results make great follow-up posts: "You voted, here's the winner."
Measuring organic engagement on interactive social media posts
Likes are easy to count but hard to turn into business results. Measure in two layers.
On the platform
- Comments and replies to see if the question started a conversation
- Saves and shares to see if the post was worth keeping or passing on
- Story replies and sticker taps for native polls and quizzes
- Link clicks for linked posts
In your campaign
- Visitors and participants per post or channel
- Sign-ups and newsletter permissions, the contacts you now own
- Conversion rate from visitor to participant
- Answers, the zero-party data from polls, quizzes and surveys
Give each channel its own link, so you can see whether Facebook, Instagram or your newsletter brought the most players. Scratcher shows visits, players and sign-ups per channel in near real time, and works with Meta, TikTok, Snapchat and Google Analytics if you also run ads.
Compare posts over time, not one by one. After a month, you will see which types of interactive posts bring comments and which ones bring sign-ups. Those are often not the same.
Turn your followers into contacts
Interactive posts give your followers something to do. Linked campaigns turn that into contacts and data you can use for months. Start a free 14-day trial and build your first poll, quiz or game for social media, or book a meeting if you want ideas for your channels.
