What is interactive content?
Interactive content is content that requires active engagement from users.
Not to be confused with passive content, i.e., a blog article, which is great for building brand awareness but may not be essential in creating leaders or boosting conversions.
Active content, like interactive posts, involves a collaboration between audience and content, creating a far more compelling experience. As audiences become more and more demanding over finding engaging content, the more traditional content types have dramatically decreased. Interactive content, on the other hand, is here to stay.
As a matter of fact, you’ve probably encountered interactive content at some point in your internet journey without even realizing it. The most common forms of interactive content are as follows: infographics, interactive videos, quizzes, ebooks and whitepapers, polls, data visualizations, and augmented reality (AR).
7 Types of Interactive Content:
Infographics
Although a static infographic is better than no infographic—what can we say, we’re visual creatures—it can be easily improved further with interactive elements.
Engaging your audience with an interactive infographic is one sure-fire way of making your campaign memorable. You can display a ton of information without having to worry that you’re boring your audience enough to opt out. Because of this, they’re great to use around the start of your social media campaign in order to increase brand awareness as well as education for your audience.
Interactive Video
The interactive video is a great way to create a more fun and engaging experience for your audience. No longer limited to the linear “click and play” model, an interactive video allows the user total control and thus a deeper engagement with your content.
Here are the more common formats adopted within interactive video:
- 360˚ viewing allows the user to see in all directions instead of the typical 145mm x 70mm format.
- Data inputs: users can input data within the video, creating different results.
- Hotspots: different elements within the video become highlighted and can be accessed depending on what the user clicks on; this can sometimes lead to an external page being displayed.
- Branches: effectively allow the viewer to act as the video creator and customize the content they see throughout the video!
Interactive videos can be incorporated into your social media channels at any point, although it’s best to use them as the stellar product they are and not completely overload your audience. An occasional interactive video will do the job of providing a breath of fresh air from static content.
Quizzes
Not only is this type of interactive content super engaging for social media, but it’s also a great way to discover more about your audience.
Who are they? Where are they based? What are they more likely to click on and interact with? You can ask all these questions in a cleverly disguised quiz; the user gets to complete a fun piece of interactive content, and you gain some priceless insight!
The leading independent digital media company, Buzzfeed, has become known for their fun and kooky personality quizzes, one of their most popular being “This Sorting Quiz Will Tell You Which Hogwarts House You Truly Belong In.”.
It’s important to know that just because a light-hearted personality quiz isn’t your brand, there are still plenty of options for you to choose from, including:
- Career quizzes allow the user to fill out some information and be assigned a potential career based on their choices.
- Health quizzes: users are given suggested health stats and advice based on their choices.
- Marketing quizzes: whether through social media or standardized digital marketing, these quizzes allow your business to gain insights into the habits of the consumer and thus create higher-quality, more tailored content.
E-books
Essentially, an ebook is more of a collection of interactive content than a singular piece. There can be many touch points within an ebook that the user can interact with, including video, audio, links, and more.
Interactive ebooks are also an effective way of figuring out the pain points or opportunities for your brand or product, creating a more seamless feedback experience for both business and customer.
Polls
Similar to quizzes, polls are a very handy way of gaining immediate (and valuable) feedback from your audience. The difference is that polls usually contain one question, so receiving feedback through this format is a much quicker process.
For their effective and reliable harboring of information, polls are one of the more favorite interactive content types for social media giants; Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat all have poll features on their respective apps.
As a type of content, polls can really be used anytime and anywhere. They’re super easy to incorporate into your campaign, and they take no time to set up! Plus, if you’re ever in need of some quick feedback, a poll can save the day; nobody can resist engaging with a poll.
Data Visualization
Data visualization involves using the latest in data analysis software to allow users to directly work with or explore graphical representations of data. Although they may be less fun than an interactive infographic when it comes to displaying data, they can be incredibly insightful for a user to engage with.
Here are some common interactions used within data visualization tools:
- Brushing: the user controls a paintbrush that directly changes the color of a plot, either by drawing an outline or by using the brush itself as a pointer. Brushing is typically used when multiple plots are visible and a linking mechanism exists between the plots.
- Painting: similar to brushing but more persistent, the user follows subsequent operations to compare the groups.
- Identification: the user hovers over a particular element within the plot, causing the appearance of an identification label.
- Scaling: the user can change a plot’s aspect ratio and reveal different data features, including zooming in on dense regions of the plot.
You want to make sure your data visualization content is accessible and actionable for your audience; don’t make something too complex that your customers won’t want to interact with!
If you’re stuck with where or how to begin, maybe consider hiring a developer or programming expert to help shape the right data visualization content for your business.
Augmented Reality (AR)
Augmented reality, or AR, is a great way of immersing your audience in your product. Not to be confused with virtual reality (VR), augmented reality provides an altered experience of real-world surroundings and products using digitally generated imagery and content.
The elevated use of sensory perception—through various graphics and media—can seriously help showcase your brand, as well as make it stand out amongst the competition.
Plus, AR content is great on social media, as it can be easily accessed through mobile or tablet! That way, your audience can engage with these types of posts from the comfort of their sofa.