In this current state of lockdown and self-isolation, brands have embraced the use of more profound and impactful interaction with their communities and fan bases over social media.

Lately, we’ve seen a lot of brands using techniques that involve and engage their users; requesting them to ‘tap’ on gif to reveal what mood they’re in, or to ‘swipe’ along an Instagram post to reveal the full crux of the post. This form of interaction truly engages the user base, as they are becoming active participants in branded content, or in some cases targeted ads.

Asking users to tap on an Instagram story to see a character jump over a snake does a great job at blurring the lines between generic branded content and content that transcends into a more memorable experience. For example, the GIF from Papa Johns makes the user forget that it’s an ad and instead, remembers the interaction they just had.

Posts like these, however, come with drawbacks. As without the involvement of user interaction, content doesn’t truly exist. And this is where the problem lies. If no one interacts with your Facebook Carousel and they miss the main point of the post, then was it worth it?

It’s a hard question to weigh up, as when a piece of content becomes sharable outside of its intended audience, while also being an interactive experience, well then, we are cooking with gas. These posts will then become more memorable, shareable, talked about and even blogged about social posts that expand into something their own.

All in all, this deeper delve into how brands can interact with users through social posts leads to creating more disruptive and creative content, pushing the boundaries on what can be achieved. And we can’t wait to see more of it.