Run a Social Media Giveaway
Social media is an important marketing channel due to the audience of millions of potential customers. The tricky part is capturing their attention! With organic reach on the decline, social media giveaways are an effective way to boost your brand online with minimal promotional budget.
Here are a few brand benefits of running social media contests:
Increased engagement
Improved brand awareness
More subscribers
When done correctly there is plenty of planning, preparation, rules and guidelines. To ensure that you grow your reach, amplify your brand, drive site traffic and generate leads, let’s dive in and look at the ins and outs of running social media competitions.
Goals and Platforms
While it feels good to reward your loyal followers, there is generally an ulterior motive to running a social media competition; boosting brand awareness, increasing engagement, more likes/follows or to drive more traffic to your website.
Decide what your goal is and select your social platform accordingly. Want to increase engagement, Instagram is a solid choice. Looking to drive more traffic to your website, Facebook is your best bet.
If you are looking to generate more traffic to your website, and ultimately more leads, you may want to think about creating a link from the post, directly to your website with an entry form, directly on your landing page.
PRO TIP : Following the S.M.A.R.T goals format is a great way to ensure that you stay focused and realistic about your goals. (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timebound). An example could look like this; We hope to gain 300 new newsletter subscribers within 1 week of running this Facebook contest.
Determine the length and frequency of your contest
Again, your prize is ultimately going to dictate how long you can run your competition. A grand prize will remain on a person’s mind long after they enter, and can often allow an individual to enter multiple times throughout the running time. The brand owner may choose to run only one or two large contests per year.
A small but in demand prize however, would be run over a few days, with these host brands choosing to do these giveaways regularly, keeping brand engagement constant.
Whichever method you choose, the balance is to keep the urgency of entry, so contestants enter as soon as they see the post.
What to give away
Naturally, the prize is crucial to the success of your social media competition. The balancing act here is to have a reward valuable enough to gain attention and be taken seriously, while not so expensive that you don’t see a return on your investment (ROI). Remember, you don’t just want entrants. You want entrants who will convert to customers.
Here are a few ideas to kick your brainstorm into action:
Your own products or services
Another product related to your brand
A unique experience
A gift card or win your money back deal
Hook your entrants
Once you have decided what your prize will be, you’ll need to determine the hook for your contest. Is the prize epic enough to sell itself? If so, the prize can be the hook.
However, not every brand is in the position to offer two-night mystery escapes, so get your thinking caps on, and come up with an interesting spin to engage your audience.
This is a good opportunity to make the conversation about your audience rather than you! Ask about their lives or opinions and build your community along the way.
Facebook loves text, so asking your entrants to engage through writing in the comments section is an effective hook. Similarly, Instagram is image based, so asking entrants to post a picture of themselves or with your product is recommended.
ADDED BONUS: You can then use user generated images for your social media posts, just make sure you add this to your T&C’s.
Hook ideas to capture and engage your audience:
Post a fun photo with no context, ask the audience to “caption” the image and then crown the best answer as the winner
Ask entrants to offer up their best Dad joke
Ask their opinion on your products or service
Ask entrants to post a photo about a specific task
FIll-in-the-blank content; One thing I love about Mother’s Day is……
How many words can entrants make with the letters of your business name
Follow the Rules
Social media platforms have strict rules in place around competitions, mainly due to liability issues. You must provide official terms, rules, and eligibility requirements for your contest. Equally important, ensure you provide Disclosure Information, meaning that any personal information provided by an entrant is going to YOU and not the chosen platform.
Competition rules should include:
Who can enter your contest
How people can enter
A description of the prize
How you’ll choose the winner
How you’ll deliver the prize
When the contest starts and ends
Not meeting the rules could result in the removal of your competition. It also pays to note the rules set in place by your government, as there can be limitations around alcohol or restricted products.
Build Excitement
Make the most of your competition by building hype with a pre-competition post, email or ad. This gives your audience a heads up and a chance to share it with fellow friends, so that when your competition launches there is already interest, not to mention the added bonus of the additional engagement.
PRO TIP : If you are posting multiple times, make sure you change up the format or presentation to keep your audience interested.
Unsure how to build hype:
Post on social media
Send out an email announcing the competition
Create a landing page on your website
Launch your competition, promote and engage
This is where your hard work and planning shines. Before hitting the GO button, make sure you are keeping it easy for viewers to understand the full scope of your contest: the prize, requirements for entry, along with the terms and conditions.
It is your choice if you wish to boost your campaign via a paid promotion to ensure that your competition is seen by an audience most likely to convert to customers, or allow it to grow organically.
PRO TIP : Remember, when you engage one person with your promotion, you have the potential to engage all of their followers, who in turn can become customers. It may be worth the additional investment to maximise your audience over the short time your campaign is active.
