6 Useful Tips for Social Media Contests
The festive season is on the way…This is the time of the year for Contests and GiveAways and here are some useful tips for a really successful campaign on Social Media Platforms. Understanding that there’s more to running a contest or giveaway with a “Like our Page to enter” and “Tag a friend” in the comments section under the post on Facebook for example, will help you get the most from this effective marketing approach.
1. Identify your Goal
Setting your goal is the most important part because it will shape the entire rest of the process. Some goals could be:
– To increase brand awareness
– To increase sales ( e.g. by offering discount coupons)
– To build an email list
– To gather a collective opinion — crowdsource — from your audience (e.g., “What should our new recipe be?”)
– To collect content from your audience ( pictures, videos, etc.) that can be used for further marketing.
2. Create a UX (User Experience)
A UX, or “user experience” will be what your contest or giveaway participants experience when they interact with your campaign e.g. their emotions, their opinion, their demands… The flow-through in which your participants interact with the campaign, and receive any follow-up communication about your contest or giveaway will tie in with your goal. Coming up with the UX will be actually the way in which you achieve your goal.
3. Choose your Prize
The prize is very important because it will help you weed out those who will potentially become a customer of your business vs. those who will participate in your giveaway and run off when this is over… Pick a prize that’s always relevant to your business. For example, if you’re a restaurant owner, giving away free dinners for 2 will attract people who are in or near your area and interested in coming to your restaurant, therefore, qualifying your participants as potential future customers.
4. Define Your Rules, Terms, and Conditions
Brainstorm all of the possible things that could go…wrong. This is extremely important. What if a 14-year-old wins your prize, and it happens to be a case of whiskey? You can prevent mishaps like this simply by writing restrictions into your rules. Once you’ve brainstormed all of the “worst case scenarios” you’re ready to write your rules, disclaimers and terms and conditions accordingly. Furthermore, keep in mind the GDPR.
5. Set your Promotion Plan
If you’ve made it to this point with a goal, a beautifully built campaign, your terms and rules, and your prize hit the publish button!!! But be extremely careful and do not forget: You’ll need to shout about it and keep on tempting your audience. Just Publishing the campaign to Facebook, for example, doesn’t do really much on its own… Organic reach has really tanked. Not just on Facebook, but Instagram as well. What this means is, when you post something on your Page, as few a 2% of your followers may see it….Announce status updates, promote your entries and of course, let everyone know when a winner has been chosen!
6. Build your Follow Up Plan
The best part about running a contest or giveaway is all the precious data you collect after from your audience. Did you get email addresses? Birthdays? Make sure you capitalize on this valuable info – whether that means setting up an email to go out on birthdays, or tracking how many of those coupon codes were redeemed.