13 Steps for Running a Successful Contest on Social Media

February 06, 2017

By Elizabeth Harmon

Are you thinking about running a social media contest? If managed well, they can be a great way to help raise awareness of your brand, increase engagement, generate new followers and much more. However, before you jump in head first and start giving prizes away, there are several things you need to consider. In fact, here are 13 vital steps for running a successful contest on social media.

1. Decide What You Want to Achieve

Take some time to think about what you want your contest to do. For example, do you want it to help you raise brand awareness, collect customer email addresses, or generate more conversations on your social media platforms? Understanding your goals right from the start will help you during the planning stages.

2. Choose a Social Platform

Decide which social media platform you want to run your contest from, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest. You could even run it from multiple platforms at once, using hashtags, or tools such as WooBox, Rafflecopter and Wyng (previously named Offerpop).

3. Plan the Contest Type

Make sure you choose the right type of contest for your platform, audience, and objectives. Here are some suggestions:
• Sweepstake
• Photo/video contest
• Poll/questionnaire
• Caption competition
• Pin it to win it promotion
• Hashtag contest
A sweepstake for example is the easiest to enter, so you’re likely to get more entrants. However, it’s not as engaging as a photo contest, where consumers are encouraged to submit user generated content. It’s therefore important to reflect on your goals when choosing the contest type.

4. Think Outside the Box

Lots of businesses are running competitions, potentially at the same time as yours, so stand out from the crowd by being creative. You want to come up with something new, exciting and fun for consumers to get involved in.

5. Set the Timeframe

Consider the length of your contest. If a contest is too short, people may not have a chance to enter, but if it’s too long, you may find that people get bored and entries start to dry up. 1 or 2 weeks is normally a good starting point. You can always try this out and decide whether to increase or decrease the timeframe for your next contest.

6. Pick Your Prize

Choose a prize that will get consumers interested. Make sure you consider your target audience too and set a prize that is relevant to them and your business. Far too often, businesses give away prizes that are not relevant and they therefore end up attracting lots of people who are not interested in the business. As a result, they see a high rate of unsubscribes or unfollows once the contest ends.

7. Set up Your Contest

If you are using a contest tool such as WooBox, Rafflecopter or Wyng, then you will need to sign up for an account and build …read more

Source:: Social Media Explorer

      

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