We’re sure you’ve seen and maybe participated in some of them on social media: contests and giveaways. These contests are great ways to engage with your audience, drive traffic to your blog or website, and get new followers. In this article, we’ll show you how to run a social media contest and giveaway by following four simple steps.
What is a giveaway and what does it mean on social media?
A giveaway is a contest or promotion that involves giving away one or more prizes to entice people to take part in the promotion. It’s often used as a marketing technique, especially by brands and influencers on social media.
Organizing giveaways can be an effective means of stirring up public attention and excitement about your product or service. It can be as straightforward as providing free samples of what your business has to offer, or it could be something more involved like a sweepstakes with multiple winners chosen at random.
Giveaways are a great way to get your product or service in front of a new audience and can also help build brand awareness. They’re also an excellent way to encourage people to like, share and comment on your social media posts which can help drive traffic back to your website.
Decide what you want to give away
Decide what you want to give away.
The variety of prizes you can offer is endless, but some are more popular than others. Here are some ideas:
- A product or service (such as a beauty product or a book)
- A gift card for a specific store or restaurant (like Starbucks)
- A prize pack with multiple items (e.g., an Amazon Echo Dot and $50 worth of Amazon credit)
Gift cards tend to be most popular among social media users because they’re easy and they don’t require shipping costs or other logistical hassles on your end. If you do choose this route, keep in mind that many restaurants have restrictions on how often customers can use their gift cards (some limit it to once every six months), so make sure that your terms adhere closely enough with theirs so no one gets frustrated when they try using their prize only to find out it won’t work!
Pick the best social media platform for your giveaway
If you want to run a social media contest and giveaway, choosing the right social media platform is crucial. You have to consider what platforms your target audience uses, where they spend most of their time online and how much visibility you want for your contest.
Twitter is a useful platform to organize a giveaway campaign. You can run a poll and ask people to vote and retweet. If you declare that you will choose the winner(s) among those who retweet, your post might reach out to a wider audience.
Reddit is also a great place to run a contest if you’re looking for high engagement: it has an active community with strong opinions on almost everything! You can also use Reddit’s subreddit system to target specific audiences if necessary, which makes it easier to reach people who are interested in what you’re offering (and less likely that someone will enter just because they don’t know anything about what’s going on).
You might want to consider using Facebook if you’re looking for maximum visibility since there are so many users on this platform, but keep in mind that many businesses have had trouble getting their contests approved by Facebook lately because they weren’t following certain guidelines or regulations related specifically to giving away prizes through social media platforms like theirs (see Step 4 below). If this sounds like something worth considering, then go ahead; otherwise, stick with Twitter, which offers similar benefits without requiring any extra work from anyone involved.
Craft a call to action and promote your giveaway
Now that you’ve created a compelling prize, it’s time to run the contest itself. You can promote your giveaway on social media by including a hashtag in any posts or tweets related to the contest. For example: “Enter our [giveaway name here] by posting photos of your favorite [product/service] using #[giveaway name].”
When choosing winners, consider whether you want to choose them randomly or via some other method (like having people vote for their favorite entry). If there are only two prizes available and five people enter the contest with four votes each, then all four winners will get one prize each–even though they didn’t actually win anything!
Follow up with the winners, and announce the winners
After you’ve chosen your winners and announced them, be sure to follow up with the winners. Thank them for participating in your contest or giveaway! You can also let them know how they can claim their prize–for example, by sending an email with instructions on how to download a gift card or redeeming points in an app. If you have multiple winners (or if there’s only one winner), it’s important that you announce all of the winners at once so that everyone feels like they were treated fairly.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the best way to run a social media contest and giveaway is by following the above steps. If you’re ready to give it a try, now is the time!
