Engage Your Facebook Followers With These 5 Word Games

These classic games can help breathe life into your Facebook page.

You might spend your time pouring over content strategies to find ways to keep your audience engaged on social media. Hey, we don't blame you -- the reward can be quite high. But has it ever crossed your mind that you might be overlooking the simple, creative options that have a rather broad appeal?

See also: Social Psychology and Marketing Tactics

Instead of putting together a flashy new infographic or polling your Facebook fans about which movie character they are, consider classic word games. Many word games don't require extensive resources -- which is one reason why it's a perfect option to increase your Facebook reach and engagement by getting your audience involved. Like articles or various types of content, games have the potential to go viral as well -- especially if your audience is particularly good or witty. Below are a few game ideas to buff up your Facebook strategy today.

1. Mad Libs

Mad Libs is an excellent choice for social networks, as it's easy for players to provide answers that users want to share. This word game sets up a story framework for players, and puts blanks for key nouns and verbs that requires player input. Use a text post to set up the first part of the Mad Libs game, and let users submit their additions to the story in the comments. Post the funniest and most well done entries, and consider giving incentives such as coupons or other prizes to the winners.

2. Hangman

Hangman is a classic word game that helps keep your audience engaged. One way to go about this on Facebook is to create an ASCII character hang man to update how close your audience is to winning. Respond in comments with the latest game updates as people guess letters.

3. Boggle

The premise of Boggle is simple. You start with a 3x3 square of randomized letters and you need to create as many words as possible within a certain time limit. A game of Boggle is easy to set up through your social networking page, as you just need to produce a picture of the 3x3 grid for your audience to work off of. Set a time limit and come back when you're done accepting input. The person with the most valid matches wins the game.

4. Jumble

Jumble is a word game that's a bit more complex in setup, but provides a longer running game that you don't have to monitor. You create a word puzzle and a clue to the answer of the puzzle. You can also create an illustration that also reveals the clue.

A set of words are jumbled into anagrams and need to be solved to create the correct answering phrase. If your audience is having a hard time figuring out this puzzle, provide additional clues within the comments or in a follow-up status.

5. Anagrams

Anagrams is a fun word game that traditionally uses tiles to create words from a jumbled mess of letters. Tiles that aren't used in a particular round are available for additional word creation in subsequent rounds.

The best way to set this word game up on social media is to provide pictures of the tile setup. Keep track of the tiles that don't end up getting used by the selected winner so you retain it going forward. This game has the potential to be long running on your page, especially since it doesn't require a great deal of active monitoring and hands-on help.

Playing word games with your audience is a great way to diversify your social media content and engage your followers (see also: How to Grow an Audience on Facebook Will Convert). If you are able to keep the contests relevant and creative, you're loyal followers might even create content that broadens your brand's reach.

Have you tried playing word games on social media with your followers? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.

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