Social media is a fantastic way to brand yourself, get your business noticed, showcase your products, and much more. Through many different apps and outlets, reaching your target audience is only a photo, status, or double tap away. But how do you further incentivize audiences to interact and gain brand awareness? Easier said than done, but many social media users find success through the use of contests.
Sweepstakes, contests, and promotions may be exactly the boost you, your business, and brand need. Before you start your contest with whatever prize you may have in mind, here is a compilation of some of the do’s and don’ts on running social media contests through different platforms.
Do’s:
- Have fans like the page before they can enter your competition
- This will benefit you in numerous ways. It will increase your following, increase participation in the contest, and raise brand/company awareness.
- Promote your contest
- Facebook is one of the best outlets to advertise on. Post statues updates, graphics, videos, blurbs, anything to get your name and brand out there. This will help get more exposure and bring in new followers as well as maintaining old ones.
- Make sure it’s legal!
- Map out contest rules and regulations and make sure they are clear and easy to understand. Also be sure to follow Facebook’s terms of service and their guidelines on advertising and promotions.
Don’ts
- Give away an irrelevant prize or something everyone will want
- Your goal is to target your audience and stay focused on your brand. A good prize is something that is relevant and corresponds to your brand. Another great prize idea is your product! If applicable, having one of your products as a prize is a great way to build brand awareness and consumer loyalty.
- Use Facebook’s contest functions, use a third party app instead.
- Facebook’s method for running promotions through its Pages isn’t as easy or straightforward as compared to running one through a third party app. A third party app is more comprehensive and flexible.
- Forget the follow up
- Track your progress and results; don’t forget about this important information. This will give helpful information, feedback, and stats to see how you did and where you can improve. Once you see how you did make sure to thank your followers and those who participated!
Example:
If you need a bit of inspiration, checking out what other brands are either currently doing or have done in the past is a good way to help the brainstorming process. Like the Eggo Waffles Facebook contest, “The Great Eggo Waffle Off” where contestants were asked to submit their crazy Eggo Waffle recipes.
Eggo Waffle Off Recipe Contest from Xavier Wynn on Vimeo.
Do’s:
- Choose a prize with high relevancy to your brand or one of your products
- Use one of your own products as a prize – what better way to gain brand/product awareness?
- Encourage users/followers to use unique, brand related hashtags
- This helps followers connect with your brand one-on-one. In 140 characters or less, a hashtag is one of the best ways to tell who your audience is and in turn, help determine their interests.
- Also, using hashtags like #win #giveaway #sweepstake will help get you noticed by more people.
- Make sure it’s legal!
Don’ts:
- Create multiple accounts
- If Twitter catches on, all accounts will be shut down including possibly your personal one
- Overdo it or overuse it
- Yes, tweets do have an extremely short “life” span, so tweeting a few times a day won’t hurt, but there is a point when tweeting too much may blur the line between updates and spam. This also pertains to hashtags. You don’t #need #a #hashtag #for #everything.
Example:
A great example of successful Twitter contest-ing comes courtesy of Kentucky Fried Chicken’s “earn a scholarship with a tweet” campaign.
Do’s:
- Remember quality over quantity
- When having a contest on Pinterest, the amount of pins should not matter (because then you will just end up with an overload), but the quality of the pins is what is important and most beneficial.
- Promote on other social media platforms
- Promote your contest on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and/or any social outlet you have an active presence on. Although Pinterest is a platform with over 100 million active monthly users, using other channels to spread the word across audience bases will only help your cause.
Don’ts:
- Use a sweepstakes
- Pinterest prefers voter-based promotions, so a random selection is not going to be a good idea.
- Require a certain number of pins or pins from a selection
- Your contest should be straightforward and easy to follow with a realistic barrier to entry. For more Pinterest don’ts, view their advertising standards page.
Example:
ModCloth’s “Something ModCloth, Something You” contest. Pinterest is extremely popular for wedding planning so ModCloth spun the concept of “Something new, something borrowed” and turned it into a contest.
Do’s:
- “Follow and like” to win contests
- Short, sweet, and simple. An easy way to engage followers and grow your audience.
- Weekly contests
- Generate more views, participants, followers, and also help increase brand awareness rapidly.
- Mix it up
- Of course Instagram is a picture-sharing app, but when promoting a contest, posting the same or similar pictures over and over again can get boring or repetitive. Try using a GIF or a video to promote.
- Have a photo contest
- Encourage people and followers to post photos with your products and your tag with the chance to win a prize. This is a great way to engage and gain product/brand awareness.
- Stick with your theme
- If you’re a makeup company, stick to your product and feature people using it. If you are an alcohol brand, go along with the theme of drinks, people enjoying responsibly, recipes, and chances to win product.
Don’ts:
- Have the contest last too long
- One month is long enough. Small, weekly contests are recommended in conjunction with building up to larger prizes. If a contest lasts too long, people may tend to forget and lose interest.
- Leave your participants hanging
- A thank you upon entry and at the end of a contest goes a long way and shows followers you care.
- Post bad photos
- Aesthetic is important! As stated before, Instagram is a photo-sharing app; hence the photo is going to be the most important part. Avoid bad, blurry, and stock photos.
- Inaccurately tag people, content, or locations
- As prompted by Instagram’s Promotions Guidelines, you cannot falsify any of the 3 in a promotion or contest to either help win or gain participants.
Example:
Lipton is one of the best brands at successful Instagram contests. One of their biggest ones was a 4-week trip to Kenya for 2 back in 2013. They continue the good work with their Instagram contests, which revolve around winning trips. Their most current contest is a trip to Chef Fest.
With these do’s and don’ts in mind, a successful social media contest is within your fingertips. Contests, promotions, and sweepstakes are beneficial pieces in the puzzle that is social media marketing. According to Statista, benefits of social media marketing range from 89% increased exposure to 51% increased sales and everything in between. So remember, when it comes to promotions, always read through the platforms guidelines and promotion rules, don’t spam, represent your brand, and have a relevant prize worth competing for.
The post Win or Lose: The Do’s and Don’ts of Social Media Contests appeared first on Social Media Beast.
