Quizzes: The Secret Weapon of the World’s Best Content Creators

Mar 8, 2016

Online quizzes have rapidly risen to the front of the social media revolution. “In 2014, 8 out of 10 of the most shared articles on the Web were quizzes,” states Owen Fuller of content company Movement Ventures. Content creators leverage quizzes to successfully drive customer engagement and increase customer website conversions (to take action such as filling out a form, supplying an email address or making a purchase.) Federal agencies may benefit from using quizzes as part of their communication strategy.

Quizzes: The Secret Weapon of the World’s Best Content Creators, presented by USAGov, is the latest DigitalGov webinar that provides a deep look at how social media online quizzes can quickly, cheaply and effectively help government agencies achieve their communication objectives. The USAGov team, led by Edgardo Morales and Jessica Milcetich, describe how they used the free, federal-friendly, quiz software solution, Qzzr, to successfully test a new engagement model with their customers. (Remember that Facebook quiz about “Which first family’s holiday traditions match yours?” Yup, that’s them.) Chief Quizzer, Owen Fuller, then provided an overview of how and why quizzes work so well as part of an organization’s social media strategy.

Fuller states that when creating quizzes the “Bottom line is, go make something memorable.” Some of his recommended best practices for creating a great quiz are:

  1. Do some research on what works.
  2. Decide on the quiz type and title.
  3. Work backwards from the desired results (such as a call to action).
  4. Create the quiz, media and embed.
  5. Share and promote.
  6. Learn, adapt and improve.

Not all quiz questions come answered straight out of the box. When using social media quizzes, organization must still consider issues such as 508 compliance. However, results can be achieved quickly. As Owen cautions, “A really good quiz takes maybe 1 to 2 hours to create, not because of the interface but because of the thinking behind it.”

To learn more about quizzes, you can view the entire webinar.

John Paul is an IT project manager for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). He has worked in information technology since 1999, and specializes in strategy, enterprise architecture and infrastructure.