If you spend quite a number of hours on Facebook, Twitter or any social networking sites, I’m sure you’ve stumbled-upon social media contests before.
I love seeing how businesses are using contest to promote their business, especially brands that I’m already a fan of. I participate in most of them and it turns out that I am not very lucky, but hey, that’s life!
I’ve even organized several contests on my blog before and I must say that picking a winner is definitely one of the hardest tasks after seeing how hard they try.
The benefits of social media contests are many when done properly and effectively, they are a great way to give businesses a boost in terms of awareness, building brand awareness, and really connecting with your audience.
Here are some of the benefits of social media contests and how you should consider running a contest for your business.
Key Takeaways
✅ A contest spreads through each entrant’s friends and family, so new people first hear about your brand from someone they already know.
✅ A contest brings new people to your social media accounts, and the ones who find your prize relevant tend to stay and follow.
✅ Most contest platforms include a lead capture form, so entrants can join your email list as part of entering.
✅ Offer your own product or service as the prize. A random prize like an iPad attracts people who want an iPad, while your own product attracts people who might buy it.
✅ The engagement a contest creates only lasts if you keep your page active and keep answering the people who joined.
When a contest is run effectively it is a great way to build a strong following. People might not know about a brand or a business until they have heard about it after their family, friends and social cliques share them – and a contest would definitely help them do just that.
Building a community is definitely a strong point to bring up when talking about the benefits of social media contests. To think about it, businesses spend so much time building communities in their local neighborhood.
With social media contests the way it is today, contestants are often urged to voice out and tell their friends and family about it. It almost feels like businesses today are not building their own communities, but simply getting accepted by their audience’s respective communities. And that’s important, unintrusive and extremely valuable.
I can tell you that I’ve seen my fair share of them, and when it’s relevant to me, I would participate.
2. Incentivize people to follow
I have been following Sprout Social on Twitter for a while. I’ve used their platform and reviewed their social media management platform last year.
They recently ran a Facebook contest which I got to know about from Twitter. I clicked on the link and was directed to their Facebook Page to find out I have not liked their page yet. I immediately liked their page to participate in their contest.
A contest is a great way for a new audience to find and follow your social media accounts. The chance to win your prize gives them a reason to show up, and the relevant ones stay and follow. On Facebook, though, the like-to-enter step in the Sprout Social example above is no longer allowed. In August 2014, Facebook announced a Platform Policy change barring apps from rewarding people for liking a Page. That includes gating app content behind a Page like, and apps had until November 5, 2014 to comply. The same policy still lets you reward people for entering a promotion on your app’s Page. So build your contest around the entry itself rather than a Page like.
3. Build awareness
A contest is a great way to build increased brand awareness about a product or a page. This is because most contest platforms come with a share button that entrants use to pass the contest on to their friends. It pushes the contestants to spread the word out.
When Leneys, a women’s apparel company started business on Facebook back in 2011, not many people knew about them. They didn’t have prior knowledge in running an online apparel store and it had less than 500 people on the page.
They decided to run a Facebook contest so that people would know about their page. Their Facebook contest posts were promoted using the help of Facebook ads and people started sharing the contest with their friends and a group of people flocked to the page. A lot of them ended up to be buyers up to this day.
Leneys passed 21,000 likes on the back of that early head start. That figure dates from when this post first ran in 2013 and has not been rechecked since.
4. Increase subscribers
A social media contest is one of the best ways to generate leads and get people to subscribe to your email newsletter. Most social media contest platforms come with a lead capture form that fans fill in to join.
Here is an example from Abhaya Yoga Dumbo, a yoga and pilates class giving away free yoga classes as part of their prize to their fans.
This is a great example of a social media contest idea as the prize is related to their company and subscribers who join the contest would be relevant leads too. Businesses today realize that shouting in a random crowd of people may not be the way to go forward. Sure, you would increase brand awareness like mentioned above, but if your product is not relevant to the audience, then you most likely will not be heard even if you shout. What’s worse, if you shout too much and too loudly – that’s called SPAM.
Today’s social media consumers want what’s relevant to them and you definitely want to capture the people that deem your product relevant to them.
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5. Increase sales
The logical and necessary evolution of the benefit of your contest after building awareness and increasing your subscribers is increasing your sales. Contests are a great way to convert your business leads into valuable customers – especially in the case of the winners because they had just tried your product for free (if you chose the wise path of offering your product as a gift and not a random iPad) and they will most likely return to purchase more if your product satisfies them.
Remember, if the product is relevant to them then chances are they were looking for it in the first place and by giving it to them for free just made you move forward ahead of your competitors. Additionally, the data collected from these contests can be used for future marketing efforts and thus further increase sales.
6. Increase engagement
A contest is an excellent way to increase engagement on a page to when it’s done properly. When a page attracts new and relevant fans it helps to increase comments, shares, retweets, likes, pins and more as they have attracted the right audience to be part of their page. And because it is relevant, they will stick around to see what goes on in your page. Additionally, encouraging user-generated content through these contests can further enhance engagement and build a strong brand community.
I’m sure you’ve all heard the saying “the money is in the list” right? I disagree. I would say the money is in the relationship built within the list.
The key thing here is to make sure the engagement lasts between you and your list of audience. You could connect with them via the mailing list you have or simply keep your page active and responsive toward the conversation that is happening.
The key thing here is to make sure the engagement lasts between you and your list of audience. You could connect with them via the mailing list you have or simply keep your page active and responsive toward the conversation that is happening.
Frequently Asked Questions
A well-run contest builds community, brings new followers to your accounts, and spreads awareness of your brand through entrants’ own networks. It can also grow your email list, move entrants toward a first purchase, and lift engagement on your page. Each of those works best when the contest attracts people who care about what you sell.
Give away something you sell, the way Abhaya Yoga Dumbo gave away free yoga classes to its fans. A prize tied to your business brings in entrants who are relevant leads, and the winners get to try your product for free. A generic prize like an iPad tends to bring in people who only want the iPad.
Most contest platforms include a lead capture form that entrants fill in to join. That form lets entrants opt in to your email list, so you can keep reaching them after the contest ends. Keep the prize relevant, because a list full of prize hunters is unlikely to buy from you later.
No. Meta’s Pages, Groups and Events Policies do not allow personal Timelines or friend connections to be used to run a promotion. That rules out asking entrants to share the contest on their own Timeline or to tag friends in the post to earn an entry. Run the promotion from your Facebook Page or through an app instead.
Keep your page active and respond to the comments and conversations the contest started. Follow up by email with the subscribers the contest brought in. The relationship you build with that list probably matters more than the size of the list.
Ready to Run Your First Social Media Contest?
Start with the prize. Choose something you actually sell, so the people who enter are people who could become customers. A winner who tries your product for free is the entrant most likely to come back and buy.
Decide what counts as an entry before you announce anything. Build it around an action you can use after the contest ends, such as filling in your contest platform’s lead capture form. On Facebook, keep friend tags and Timeline shares out of your entry rules. And don’t make a Page like the price of entry through a contest app.
Plan the follow-up before you launch. Decide what your new subscribers will get from you in the weeks after you announce the winner. Keep answering comments on your page during the contest and after it. The people who entered for a relevant prize are the ones likely to stick around.
If the list is what you care about most, Neal Schaffer’s free Definitive Guide to Email Marketing shows how to segment it and which email campaigns to send. To see where contests fit in a full strategy, read his guide to social media marketing. It lays out a six-step framework, from business outcomes to a measurement plan.
Author Bio
Aaron Lee, a.k.a. @AskAaronLee, is a social media manager and entrepreneur from Malaysia who writes at AskAaronLee.com and has built an audience across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
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