Pro Tip: Use Facebook’s New Questions Feature To Increase Engagement

If you are not already using Facebook Questions on your news organization’s Facebook page, you are really missing out.

Formulating poll questions is simple, and there is high potential for a poll question to go viral, placing both the question and your news organization’s brand on the walls of many “strangers.” Every time someone votes on the question, their vote gets recorded to their wall, which will also display on the newsfeeds of all their friends.

Those friends also can vote on the question, which, in turn, will show all of their friends the question. They need not “like” your news organization’s Facebook page in order to vote. However, in my experience, I have noticed an increase in “likes” after a question is posted to a Facebook page.

Facebook users passionate about a particular topic asked can “follow” the topic and be notified about new votes. Like most things on Facebook, questions can be commented on. Write-in answers are also allowed.

It is a lot easier (and typically more engaging) for people to vote on a question than to share a link they first see posted to a Facebook page. For this reason, I believe using Facebook questions should be imperative for all news organizations.

Author and journalist Susan Orlean (left) has written two nonfiction pieces that have been turned into films. She’ll discuss her new book, Rin Tin Tin, in Mediabistro’s first online Literary Festival & Workshops starting July 16. Other speakers include Rebecca Skloot, Jason Boog, and Jason Allen Ashlock. Register now.