Tip Tuesday: Struggling to get replies? Try framing your questions like this...

EmilyN

Hey Vanilla Community,

It’s Tip Tuesday, and today’s tip comes from my perspective as a content marketer, pulling from some copywriting techniques. Let’s talk about how to drive better engagement from your community posts.

Whether you’re prompting a conversation or genuinely looking for advice, try opening with a specific example or scenario. It grabs attention and gives people something concrete to relate to.

Here’s an example:

• Broad: "What’s the best way to welcome new members?"
• Specific: “If a new member joins but doesn’t post in their first week, what’s worked for you to encourage that first interaction? Do you have a specific message that gets a response?"

Notice how the second version gives just a bit more context, making it easier for others to jump in with their experiences. Here’s another:

• Broad: "How do you encourage members to share feedback?"
• Specific: "If you're rolling out a new feature and getting crickets from your power users, what tactics have helped you drive meaningful feedback? Have you used polls, direct outreach, or other strategies to get them talking?"

A few things to keep in mind:

• This works best when asking for best practices, rather than technical questions.
• Apply this to the body of your post. For titles, you have fewer characters, so keep it concise but descriptive. Framing the title as a question helps invite more input, e.g., "Engaging members during product launch" vs. "How are you engaging members around your upcoming launch?"
• Stick to the copywriting rule of one: focus on a single topic or goal. Asking too much at once dilutes the post and makes people less likely to respond.

Kelly D

These are really great tips, thanks for sharing 😃

Hopoatem

I like the best practice vs technical distinction here. @borme