Ask Me Anything About AMA’s
The metaverse’s informal interview where any question (within reason) is on the table
The AMA, or “Ask me Anything,” has become a popular outreach tool mainly because of its personal nature. Where traditional interviews can seem canned and stuffy as a conversation between two people with scripted and vetted questions, AMA’s open the conversation up to anyone, allowing for a different experience with a potentially more diverse slate of questions. When done right, an AMA will do wonders to increase engagement and allow consumers to familiarize themselves with you or your company on a more intimate level.
That’s all well and good, you can’t just rush into it. An AMA needs to be done right with a specific goal in mind. Is it awareness of a promotion? Is it awareness of the company? Is it both? If you lack the focus, you’re likely to lose control of it and have people asking all kinds of random and weird questions, such as your favorite food or the destination of your last vacation, or even having participants asking about the color of your underwear or other potentially image-damaging questions. A plan of attack with no plan likely won’t get you where you want to go with the AMA. While general sessions can be used to learn about an audience in order to drive future engagement, Whatever your goal, a basic framework must be set.
Preparing for your AMA
After deciding what you want to get out of the AMA, just as important as the topic is the decision of who within the organization will be the face of this AMA. Who is going to be your show pony? Whether it is one person or a panel, these are the people who will be representing the company. Company leaders are generally a bigger draw for audiences, but not all CEO’s are comfortable in this setting. Choosing participants wisely is key to keeping the AMA on message. Someone who is comfortable handling the unexpected is preferable. The last thing you want in an AMA is to be asked questions that catch you off guard, so prepare for the worst. In addition to having answers prepared, have questions ready in case of a lull or lack of engagement.
Lastly, decide ahead of time if you want to field questions live only or allow your audience to submit questions ahead of time. Set a specific date and time for your AMA and answer questions that come in during that time, or field questions for a few days leading up to the event and then choose a specific time to answer those specific questions on social media.
Once these decisions are made, you have to choose the platform you will use. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are the most popular platforms to use for AMA’s. But they all have their advantages and disadvantages. Regardless, to promote the AMA, treat it as a major event. Be sure to start promoting the session at least a week ahead of time to generate enough interest. It doesn’t matter which platform you are using for the event — you can promote the AMA on all social media platforms and drive participation to your chosen venue.
To Stream Live or Not to Stream Live…
- Twitter Spaces
Twitter Spaces is currently the most popular platform for AMA’s seeking a mainstream audience and considered the industry norm. The platform’s scheduling tools allow for advanced scheduling and notifications for you and your followers in the Twitterverse. Recording an AMA is also a featured option not offered on some other platforms. And utilizing specific, customized hashtags to tag questions is the best way to track which questions to address. Having followers live-tweet their questions during the event also can increase traffic. Again, it’s best to have a moderator or two monitoring the hashtag. You can use links, images, and video when appropriate to give followers more detailed answers to the questions they ask. Use the opportunity to link to blog posts or other content on your website that will help answer their questions more thoroughly than 280 characters you get on Twitter.
2. Using Discord Stage Channels and bots for an AMA
A lot of communities are already using Discord as their central nervous system, so given its wealth of connectivity tools, it would make sense to run an AMA within this platform. Discord recommends using Stage Channels. Stage Channels first gives you options of setting up moderators, which can be humans or could also be bots programmed to sift through questions and assign queues for those looking to participate. Stage channels allow for the use of voice or text channels as well as allow you to open and close comment periods, so as to keep that particular channel’s message on point. Either way, by assigning different channels for different roles and reasons and customizing the channels to meet your chosen levels of engagement, your audience can interact with you in various ways. Best of all, it won’t likely be a free-for-all and you can still somewhat control the crowd.
3. Facebook Live
Using Facebook Live is a great way to connect with audiences in real time and provides a perfect platform for fielding questions. Sessions can be recorded to view later or to use as future marketing materials. You can create a post prior to the event and ask users to post their questions as comments on that specific post. Additionally, users can maintain their anonymity by sending their questions via Facebook Messenger. You can then go through the questions, choose the best ones, and prepare answers to those specific questions and answer them in depth during the event. During Facebook Live AMA’s, users can drop their questions in the chat of the video. But these questions can be overwhelming if you don’t use at least one moderator to organize and feed questions to the host. This can be disruptive. Facebook Live’s screen sharing also can be a useful tool if it helps answer specific questions.
4. Instagram
Instagram AMA’s are similar to Facebook Live when using live video, but individual Instagram video stories can be used as well. You can record these individual story videos with responses to questions, or create text responses and post them to your story with the corresponding questions. Again, you’ll be able to save them as Instagram story highlights and create an AMA highlight on your Instagram profile that followers can access and reference later. Similar to Facebook Live, Instagram Live has a scrolling onscreen chat where users can submit their questions during the live AMA.
Aftermath
Using the social media platforms for the AMA ultimately leaves you with a lot of easy-to-handle material to work with moving forward. You have visual marketing materials in the form of videos, charts, and posts. And you are also left with a wealth of information that can be gleaned from the event. You have questions and answers about you and your project/ product. You have insight into the wants and needs of your audience. Results.io has a wealth of experience interpreting and building off of these kinds of resources. Let us help you with your next AMA.
About Results.io
Results.io is a Web3-focused growth agency specializing in marketing and community cultivation looking to help industry-leading projects drive engagement for NFT, P2E, and IDO’s. Learn more about the company at Results.io
About The Booknerd.eth
The booknerd.eth is the founder of Block Capital and one of the country’s foremost digital marketers. A leader in the growth of blockchain and the NFT Space, he is a founding member of the WhalemakerDAO and has invested in top metaverse and Web3 companies, including IVC, SimWIN, YGGSEA, and HubSpot. He is also the president and co-founder of Results.io, a marketing venture focused on increasing engagement for gaming organizations entering and operating in the metaverse.
