Engaging Questions to Ask on Facebook
Twenty questions to post on Facebook that people actually answer, whether it is a personal profile that has gone quiet, a local group, or a business page that gets likes and no comments. Each note says what kind of reply the question tends to pull, and where it falls flat.
20 questions, each with the reason to ask it · includes a conversation guide
The questions
Open any question to see why it works.
- 1
What is the best thing you have eaten in this town, and where?
The most reliable post in any local group, because everyone has an answer and nobody has to be clever. Naming the place is what keeps it going: people defend their choice, and the thread turns into a list other people save.
- 2
What is one thing you would tell somebody moving here next month?
Frames answering as helping a newcomer, which pulls in people who never comment. Expect practical replies about parking, bin days and which road floods, and expect the first joke reply to set the tone for everything after it.
- 3
Recommend me one thing: a book, a series, or a podcast. No explanation needed.
The no explanation clause is what makes it work, because it removes the effort barrier that kills most recommendation posts. You get a long list of one-word answers, which looks like engagement and is genuinely useful.
- 4
What is a small thing that made your week better?
Low-stakes and quietly popular, particularly with people who avoid anything that looks like an opinion. Answer a few replies yourself, since this one dies fast if the poster disappears after posting.
- 5
What did you believe as a child that took you far too long to unlearn?
Produces the funniest thread on this list because the answers cannot be predicted and nobody is competing. It also travels well from a personal profile into comments from people who have not spoken to you in years.
- 6
Which local business deserves more attention than it gets?
Works in community groups and generates goodwill rather than argument, unlike asking for the best of anything. Owners often reply, which is why group admins tend to allow it when they ban other promotion.
- 7
What was the first concert or gig you ever went to?
An old standby that keeps working because the answer is a fact, not an opinion, so nobody can be wrong. It sorts a friends list by age instantly, and people reply to each other when they were at the same one.
- 8
What is on your kitchen counter right now?
Oddly effective because it is specific, immediate and requires no memory. The answers are mundane and that is the appeal; it works best posted in the morning when people are actually in their kitchens.
- 9
What could you teach someone in ten minutes?
Lets people mention a skill without it reading as showing off, which is why it outperforms asking what they are good at. In a local group it often turns into people arranging to actually show each other.
- 10
What is the most useful thing you own that cost almost nothing?
Reliable in any group and it produces genuinely useful answers. Setting a price ceiling is what keeps it out of gadget territory and keeps the replies concrete.
- 11
Settle an argument for us: is a hot dog a sandwich?
A deliberately trivial dispute is the safest way to generate volume, because everyone can join and nobody actually cares. Keep the stakes this low, since the same format applied to a real disagreement will cost you a comment section.
- 12
What job would you do for one week just to see what it is like?
Invites a small daydream rather than a claim, so people answer honestly and at length. The replies often reveal something about the person that would never come up otherwise, which makes it good on a personal profile.
- 13
Who in this group helped you out this year?
Made for community groups and it changes the mood of a page that has become complaints only. Ask people to tag rather than describe, because a tagged name notifies somebody and pulls them into the thread.
- 14
What is a photo on your phone from exactly a year ago today?
The instruction to check is what makes this work: people open their camera roll, find something, and are then committed. It generates images rather than text, which behaves differently in a feed.
- 15
What is your unpopular opinion about something completely trivial?
The word trivial is doing all the work and must stay in. Without it you are inviting politics into your comments, and the thread you wanted about tea temperature becomes something else entirely.
- 16
What are you working on that you would like people to ask you about?
An invitation rather than a question, and it is unusually good at surfacing quiet people with side projects. Follow up on the replies individually, since the point is the conversations rather than the comment count.
- 17
What do people always ask us about, so we can answer it properly?
For a business page. It gets your customers to write your own frequently asked questions for you, and it gives you a month of follow-up posts on subjects your customers have already told you they care about.
- 18
What should we make more of, and what should we stop?
Also for a business page, and only worth asking if you intend to act on it. The stop half is where the useful answers are, and you should be ready to reply publicly to a criticism without getting defensive.
- 19
Where should the next one be, and who is in?
For events and group meet-ups. Pairing the venue question with a headcount converts a thread into an actual plan, whereas asking only where produces twenty suggestions and no attendance.
- 20
What is one thing you want to have done before the end of the year?
A good closer for a personal profile, particularly in autumn. It gets sincere answers, and going back to the thread months later to ask people whether they did it is a post in itself.
Posting questions that get answered
Practical guidance for the conversation itself.
Where each type belongs
Where each type belongs
Personal profile
Nostalgia, small confessions and anything answerable in three words. People who have not spoken to you in years will answer a question about a first concert and will not answer a question about your job.
- Post to a smaller audience if the question is personal. A question that reads as fishing gets ignored.
- Reply to every comment for the first hour. Threads live or die on whether the poster is present.
- One question per post. Two questions halves the replies rather than doubling them.
Local groups
Recommendations, practical help and appreciation posts. Read the group rules first, since many ban anything that looks like promotion or a poll.
- Say why you are asking in one line. Groups are suspicious of questions with no context.
- Ask for one answer each, otherwise three people will list everything and the rest will not bother.
- Post mid-morning or early evening on a weekday. Weekend posts in local groups get buried.
Business pages
Questions that help you make something, not questions that fish for compliments. Asking customers what they want more of works; asking them to say what they love about you does not.
- Answer every reply in your own voice and sign it if more than one person posts.
- Do not ask an open question you are unwilling to see answered honestly in public.
- Follow up publicly when you act on an answer. That is the post that earns the next round of replies.
What kills a question post
What kills a question post
- Asking something answerable with yes or no. There is nothing for anyone to add and the thread ends at four comments.
- A long preamble. The question should be readable before the more link, or most people never see it.
- Anything that could be read as political, even sideways. The comment section stops being about your question within about six replies.
- Asking again too soon. Once a fortnight is fine on a personal profile, and a group will tolerate less.
- Posting and leaving. An unanswered comment tells everybody else not to bother.
Keeping a thread going
Keeping a thread going
- Answer your own question first, briefly and unimpressively. It sets the length everyone else copies.
- Reply with a follow-up question to two or three people rather than liking everything. Replies bring the thread back into other people's feeds.
- Tag someone whose answer you actually want, but only one or two, since a wall of tags reads as a chain post.
- When it slows, add one comment of your own with a second example. It restarts more reliably than editing the original post.