When done right, social media contests are effective and can help brands increase their brand awareness, followers, sales, and engagement.
Today, social media plays a huge role in building a business, with a previous survey suggesting that more than 80% of leading brands integrate social media in their sales master plan. Here are various ways through which brands can position themselves for success through social media contests.
1. Identify and Endorse Your Best-Selling Product
If your eCommerce platform is always running out of a specific product, that could indicate that buyers love it. Under such circumstances, you can bank on the popularity of the product to generate more sales and earn leads for your brand.
Suppose your business specializes in different chocolate flavors, but you get the most engagement from one specific flavor. Consider hosting a giveaway on your social media platforms for the most popular flavor. The social media giveaways allow brands to reach a wider audience and educate them on the uniqueness of their products.
2. Obtain User-Generated Content
User-generated content is an effective strategy when it comes to building trust than some self-promoting strategies that many brands prefer. That explains why a big percentage of consumers believe that content is more powerful than brand-related videos or even photos.
User-generated content enables your followers to visualize themselves adoring a specific product even before they can buy it. Many consumers trust user-generated content more than ordinary advertising practices.
As a result, brand managers can integrate it into their social media contests. Some eCommerce companies have mastered the art of hosting annual contests where they request their followers to share photos of their preferred products. The most liked image wins an exciting prize.
3. Leverage the Purchase-To-Enter Social Media Contest
Encourage your followers to buy a specific product to get an automatic entry to your brand’s social media contest. This method is a win-win approach where your followers don’t enter the contest to win free stuff at the company’s expense.
Instead, you will already have made some sales before concluding the contest. Remember, you will need to consider the price limit. If your limit is too high, then you will be putting many people off the contest. Make the entry process as simple as possible and choose your winner in a transparent manner. The entry method you choose determines the number of people who will participate.
4. Obtain Testimonials and Reviews from the Social media Contest
Social media reviews are as critical as user generated content. Both strategies contribute to your brand’s integrity, helping you attract new customers. A survey revealed that over 85% of customers read reviews before interacting with local businesses or visiting new hotels and restaurants. Further, the survey showed that customers often read at least 10 reviews online before trusting a new business.
Obtaining brand feedback from social media contests is a great way of connecting with your audience and obtaining bragging rights for having a big number of fans. A particular eCommerce cosmetic brand hosted a giveaway after hitting 100k followers on their social media platform. They requested their followers to mention their preferred products and tag someone.
At the end of the giveaway, they noticed that nearly all contestants mentioned two specific products and decided to pack them as a bundle. Allowing your followers to get their favorite product free of charge not only attracts more participants, but they (The participants) will also spread your content far and wide.
5. Organize a Brand Collaboration Contest
Brand collaboration is one of the most effective strategies you can use for business promotional purposes. Look for a brand whose services and products compliment yours host a giveaway or social media contest and encourage people to participate.
By hosting the contest as a team, you are presenting your brand and products in front of a mixed audience. This strategy facilitates networking and makes it easier for both brands to work together on future projects such as product discounts, deals, and bundles that can win you leads.
6. Collaborate with an Influencer
The influencer marketing industry is growing rapidly. To attract new customers to your brand, consider hosting a social media contest or giveaway with an influencer.
Social media influencers bring an audience from different social media platforms that are willing to interact with your brand. Where possible, identify influencers with a large following who use your products regularly. Doing so ensures your followers are getting honest reviews.
What are the Benefits of Social Media Contests?
When done effectively and correctly, social media contests can have numerous benefits which include:
· Helping a Business Develop a Powerful Community
Social media contests help businesses reach a wide audience and acquire numerous followers. Many people may not know your business exists until someone or you share about it on your social media pages. In today’s digital world, businesses can leverage social media contests to encourage participants to discuss the brand with their loved ones and followers on their platforms.
· Increase Engagement
To increase engagement online, businesses should publish valuable and interesting content regularly. Doing so triggers your followers to contribute to the discussion, spread the word, and reach diverse crowds. Are people commenting, liking, sharing, or even tweeting your social media posts? Running a social media contest can boost your consumer engagement.
· Grow Brand Awareness
One of the easiest ways to grow brand awareness is by hosting a social media contest. People who do not follow you will get an opportunity to know your brand because nearly everybody will be discussing it on social media.
For example, you can consider requesting your followers to post videos or images of your brand and tag their friends and family to participate in the contest. Such fun contests are highly likely to grow your brand tremendously.
This type of word-of-mouth marketing usually works because social media users get an opportunity to interact with and see your products. To make your social media contests user-friendly include various shareable links to all your social media platforms.
Takeaway
Your brand can benefit from social media contests in various ways. To gain considerable value you want to set a goal before creating the contest. Do not just aim at increasing your followers. Instead, strive to increase your brand awareness and boost sales.
Special consideration
In some countries, it is not allowed to organize promotions with the obligation to buy the product before entering it. Before starting the contest, you should check the legislation of your country.
