There is a technical, industry-recognized term for people who go on social media to consume content, but not to engage with it. Do you know what it is?

“Lurker.”

Kind of creepy, if you ask me.

But here’s the thing: most people are lurkers. And that makes being on social media as a business very, very hard. Because if just a handful more people were to like/comment/share/save your content--that could translate into additional sales. So below we’ve included 4 ways to engage a following that is reluctant to engage with you. Really easy, entry-level ways for people who don’t usually comment to add something to the conversation.

• Let them choose options based on their battery life percentage.

The steps here are easy. First, come up with a question or scenario. Then, break down possible responses by how much battery life a person has on their phone. 

Example: You and a character from television are trying to pull off the greatest heist in the history of crime. Tell us who your partner is based on your current phone battery percentage. 100% - 75% is James Bond. 74% - 50% is Andy Dwyer. 49% - 25% is Michael Scott. 24% - 0% is Homer Simpson.

• Let their comment be an autocomplete sentence.

Think of this as “autocomplete mad libs.” Just write a sentence, have one of the words (a noun usually works well) be blank, and then ask people to rewrite the sentence in the comments with their autocompleted answer. 

Example: My parents went to _____ and all I got was this lousy_____.

Autocompleted answer: My parents went to my house and all I got was this lousy weekend.

• Run “this answer” or “that answer” type polls.

Open ended questions can be hard for people. But people can often choose between just two options in a poll.

Example: Do you refrigerate your bread?

Answer: Who would do that? / Doesn’t everybody?

• Ask how they take their tea or coffee.

This might sound highly specific but the vast majority of people have OPINIONS about how coffee and tea should be fixed.

Example: Woof! What a Monday. Except it’s Tuesday. Yikes. Tell us how you take your tea or coffee. We’ll go first--Coffee gets cream, Tea gets milk!

There you have it. Four ways to make it extremely easy for your following to engage with you.

Please note: Even though it takes little time and effort, it may still take people time to become comfortable enough to actually do them. If you try some out and they don’t work right away--keep trying.