Everyone likes to win prizes—particularly from their favourite manufacturers. Create a social media giveaway or contest to feed this need whereas bettering your social media engagement and supercharging the thrill round your model.
Giveaways and contests enhance your follower rely, convert leads, amplify model consciousness and improve loyalty.
On this article, we take you thru launch a social media giveaway or contest and share 12 concepts that may show you how to join along with your viewers and convert clients.
What are social media giveaways and contests?
Earlier than we leap into examples, let’s evaluate what social media giveaways and contests are and why your model ought to create one.
What’s a social media giveaway?
Throughout social media giveaways, manufacturers, influencers and creators ask folks to finish a process (resembling tagging their buddies, following accounts and liking or sharing posts) for an opportunity to win a prize.
Giveaway winners are chosen at random, which implies it’s honest recreation for all entrants. Giveaways show you how to attain a wider viewers, in order that they’re a powerful platform for selling new product launches and model partnerships.
Picture Supply: TikTok
What’s a social media contest?
Throughout social media contests, individuals are challenged to submit their finest variations of an assigned process, like their finest photograph, caption or reply.
The winner(s) of the competition obtain a prize primarily based on their efficiency, which implies your most artistic or gifted followers have a bonus. Difficult your followers to be artistic units the scene so that you can foster relationships, construct a distinct segment group and supply user-generated content material.
Why your model ought to create a giveaway or contest
At a time when short-form video is dominating social feeds, it may be a problem to create advertising campaigns shoppers will truly interact with. Views are nice. However engagements are an indication you’re creating enduring buyer relationships.
That’s the place social giveaways and contests are available in. They’ve the facility to:
- Enhance your follower account: You’ll be able to ask somebody to love or comply with you as a method of taking part.
- Convert leads: Request folks enroll or submit their entry by finishing a kind in your web site. Ask for his or her title, e mail handle and different related data.
- Amplify model consciousness: By partnering with totally different manufacturers or influencers, you faucet into a brand new viewers and improve your attain.
- Enhance model loyalty: When you provide thrilling prizes and alternatives, your followers will keep tuned for extra sooner or later—particularly when you proceed to reward your superfans.
Tips on how to run a social media giveaway or contest
Now you understand the advantages of working a social media giveaway or contest, so let’s undergo the steps to launch one.
1. Set your objectives and determine your giveaway or contest sort
Decide whether or not you’re making an attempt to extend social media followers, generate extra leads, retain clients or bolster model consciousness. Use your objective sort to form your giveaway or contest.
2. Pinpoint your finances and prizes
What’s your advertising division prepared to spend on the competition or giveaway? When you plan on doing these frequently—to maintain your followers excited and engaged—make sure you embody them in your annual finances.
As soon as you understand the finances, you possibly can distribute it between advertisements and prize prices. Resolve when you’ll give away a product, money prize or one thing else altogether. Select a prize that’s related to your target market so that you’re attracting entrants which are most probably to transform.
3. Know your viewers and select the correct platform
You want to know your viewers demographics to find out which platform(s) to host your giveaway or contest.
Make sure that to learn and comply with your chosen platform’s giveaway and contest tips, so your marketing campaign is compliant.
4. Plan and run your giveaway or contest
Create a venture plan that features the next steps::
- Chart your timeline, decide deliverables and set your guidelines.
- Construct your content material and communication calendar.
- Kick-off the giveaway or contest by alerting your viewers and asserting your prize. Use a tagging instrument like Sprout Social to trace all outgoing content material.
- Run advertisements and cross-promote (e.g., on different social platforms, in your e mail publication and in your web site) to extend your attain.
- Watch the entries pour in.
As soon as your plan is accepted, you’re prepared to maneuver ahead and run your giveaway or contest.
5. Measure your outcomes
The competition has ended, you’ve introduced the winner and despatched off their prize. It’s time to measure its efficiency primarily based on the goals you set earlier. How effectively did your social media contest or giveaway carry out? Did you obtain your objective?
Use instruments like Sprout Social’s platform-specific reviews to gather all the info you might want to measure hashtag and key phrase use, follower rely and engagement fee. This evaluation will help you enhance your future campaigns.
Social media giveaway concepts
Now that you’ve the instruments to launch your giveaway, it’s time to search out the correct thought. Use these seven giveaways for inspiration.
1. Model partnership bundle
A tried-and-true approach to attain extra of the correct viewers is to group up with manufacturers they already comply with to co-host a giveaway. Mix your sources to create the last word prize bundle. Make use of a “comply with to win” technique by asking entrants to comply with you and every of your companions.
Picture Supply: Instagram
Notice: The perfect model partnerships are between complementary manufacturers who don’t compete with one another. Analysis which merchandise your viewers makes use of outdoors of your class, and assemble a dream group.
2. Journey to a dream vacation spot
Doesn’t everybody fantasize about an all-expenses paid trip? Your followers will flock to a journey giveaway. Tease it with photographs from the vacation spot and particulars concerning the lodging.
Picture Supply: Fb
3. Win a thriller field
The one factor folks love greater than free prizes? Free prizes with a component of shock. Assemble a field stuffed with thriller goodies to pique your viewers’s curiosity. To maintain the momentum going, ask the winner to movie an unboxing video after they obtain their prize.
Picture Supply: Instagram
4. Reward loyal clients
Encourage clients to hitch your loyalty program to allow them to get early entry to your finest offers and new merchandise. To up the ante, give premium freebies to people who enter inside a sure timeframe.
Picture Supply: Instagram
5. Follower milestone giveaway
Thank your followers whenever you hit a serious milestone. Whether or not you’re celebrating 100 or 100,000 followers, present you respect them to nurture loyal followers for the lengthy haul.
Picture Supply: TikTok
6. Let buddies get in on the enjoyable
Encourage your followers to tag their buddies in your feedback part or ship their buddies your giveaway particulars by way of direct message. Phrase of mouth suggestions from family and friends are trusted and valued, so tapping into your model evangelists will assist improve your giveaway’s consciousness.
Picture Supply: Instagram
7. Give again
In keeping with the 2023 Sprout Social Index™, 25% of shoppers assume it’s necessary for manufacturers to lift consciousness and take a stand on social points. Use your giveaway as an opportunity to donate to folks or organizations in want.
Social media contest concepts
When a social media contest is the only option to your model goals, flip to those 5 examples to encourage your successful thought.
8. Seasonal and holiday-themed contests
Whether or not it’s constructing one of the best gingerbread home, discovering essentially the most cute Mom’s Day photograph or filming the spookiest Halloween scare, individuals are wanting to get within the vacation spirit. Seasonal contests are a well timed approach to drive engagement and spotlight a services or products.
Picture Supply: Instagram
9. Award for finest photograph, caption or video
Ask your followers to share their artistic passions along with your model—whether or not it’s a lovely photograph or a hilarious caption. Use this as a chance to supply content material that options folks utilizing or interacting along with your product, service or location.
10. Full a digital scavenger hunt
In in the present day’s hybrid world, you possibly can create a digital scavenger hunt for social media customers everywhere in the world. To kickoff your contest, make an inventory of challenges for entrants to finish. Have them submit photograph or video proof after they end every problem or discover the correct objects. Award individuals who submit one of the best content material. Tie again the theme of your scavenger hunt to an ongoing marketing campaign or upcoming occasion.
11. Win a trivia or guessing contest
Whether or not it’s testing their data at a recreation of trivia or guessing what number of objects are in a photograph, individuals are eager to compete for prizes. Design a recreation associated to your model or product, and you’ll hit the engagement jackpot.
12. Submit an essay, story or poem
Host a writing contest to search out gifted writers who will help your model inform a narrative. Award the winners with prizes, plus ask them to talk at an upcoming occasion—a terrific instance of how contests can foster relationships offline, too.
Picture Supply: X (Twitter)
Flip social media giveaway and contest entrants into clients
The true objective of giveaways and contests isn’t social media clout. It’s constructing real relationships with folks.
What would possibly appear to be enjoyable and video games is definitely the start of a connection that may hold shoppers coming again for extra. It’s a part of the method of turning into a model your viewers loves and trusts.
Be taught extra about what individuals are in search of after they work together with manufacturers on social by downloading the most recent Sprout Social Index™.
