Interactive social marketing for brands and publishers

Some brands have mastered it, others ask: how do they do it? Interactive social marketing is so powerful because it’s more engaging than typical marketing, while also seeming much more natural. But how do you go about mastering interactive social marketing? Here are three ideas we for publishers to try out.

Give a Peek Behind the Scenes

For a lot of your audience, the closest they’ll ever get to a magazine’s office is by watching The Devil Wears Prada. The process behind putting together a publication is a fast-paced, intense, and interesting one. It’s also one that your audience probably wants to see. Behind the scenes looks at brands are a way to bring your audience into your process. It’s also a great way to humanize your brand to your audience. Show them the faces and personalities behind the content!

How exactly do you give people that behind-the-scenes look that isn’t just people sitting at their desks writing or laying things out on InDesign? An effective way is to highlight your team members’ distinct personalities. A great way to start is by having them write short bios and creating a section on your website devoted to your team.

Beyond that, short Instagram live Q&As, bite-size interviews, social takeovers and social Stories are great ways to promote your brand. Think of it in terms of emotional investment: the more you get to know someone, the more likely you’ll be to check on them from time to time. Ideally, that’s the kind of relationship you’ll build with your audience.

Related: How to optimize PDF content for mobile

Ask Questions

Another great way to involve your audience in your marketing is to have them participate. This (along with providing you with free data) helps draw others into your brand. When your audience sees the involvement that some have with your brand, they’ll want to be just as involved.

What’s the best way to achieve this? There isn’t just one way, but here are a few ideas. The most basic form of this is asking your audience a simple question. “What did you think of our latest issue?” “What was your favorite piece from our latest issue?” These are good, but barely scratch the surface of what’s possible.

The next level is polling, whether that’s on social or via email. Brands are finding clever ways to use it. Ask questions about your brand’s latest initiative and watch the results pour in. You can use these polls to test the water on certain topics, too, to see how they resonate with your audience.

Use Social Media and Stories to Interact with Your Audience

More and more brands are using social stories as part of their marketing strategy. Social stories are the rising format in the marketing landscape. It’s important to use the tools you have to your advantage to interact with your audience. Use Issuu Stories to engage with your audience via the social platforms of your choice. Issuu Stories help to optimize your content for mobile and share them with a wider audience for greater engagement.