How to Run A Giveaway via social Media (Including the FAQs)
Giveaways on social media are an excellent opportunity to gain new customers, and they're surprisingly easy to do following these five actions!
Marketing contests is an effective way to boost interest and sales to your business online.
Platforms like Instagram and TikTok provide us with unprecedented chances to connect with any audience. And, who wouldn't want a chance to win a freebie from one of their top brands?
With just a bit of preparation and having the proper tools, understanding how to run a contest through social media doesn't require rocket science. Here are the five steps to guide you through your social media contest like professional. Let's dive right in!
1. Create a Specific Goal
We all want to squeeze as much ROI from our marketing efforts. Therefore, it's easy to fall into the trap of trying to boost every measure possible in promotions on social media.
However, increasing a specific number of metrics (e.g. registrations) can be achieved. Therefore, you'll need to take a an extra step and establish the primary goal of your contest to give it an emphasis and be able to measure it.
Let's review three excellent concrete examples to get to the right place.
Grow Your Social Media Follower
You don't have to be an expert in order to build an engaged social media following, thanks to the social media competitions. If you plan your giveaway well, it will help speed the process along and give you a competitive advantage.
Here's how to set this objective:
- Choose the platform you want to expand on
- Be sure to have at minimum 20 posts on your account before conducting your giveaway
- Keep track of the number of followers you have at present.
- Set a goal for how many followers you'd like you to include
Enhance Engagement in Social Media Engagement
The algorithms of social media are tuned so that the posts that have higher participation are shown to many more users. This is a circular thing: More engagement equals more clicks. equals more clicks. Therefore, getting more engagement is a good target.
To set this goal it is necessary to...
- Take a look at the current engagement rates of your profile.
- Choose what you would like the engagement fee to be
Gather Social Proof
The sharing of happy customers' testimonials about your business via social media is one of the best ways to improve your conversions.
After collecting it, you'll be able to incorporate your UGC in your website pages and share it with social media, or share the UGC wherever it makes sense.
2. Pick the Social Media Platform
It's tempting to host your contest via the platform you're most familiar with. However, you should detach from your experience and use the site where your targeted viewers spend most times.
Take some time to analyze the audience and the context of each platform before you decide on one. If you're not sure then you may want to run a separate, smaller giveaway on each major platform to determine which resonates most with your ideal client.
Be sure to review the promotional guidelines for the social media platform you want to use. The rules can be pretty strict, and the last goal you'd like to achieve is to be able to have your content removed within the middle of the contest. Talk about bad PR!
3. Pick a Good Prize
This is the reality. The people you want to reach will not be a part of your social media contest If your prize isn't worth it.
For the best results Choose a prize that is appealing and pertinent to your company. The more appealing the worth of the prize the better.
In the case of, say, if you run a membership site and you want to give away an access free to your membership for one year. In this way, you're engaging the attention of potential customers through an appealing offer closely aligned to your primary service.
4. Make a Quick Plan
At this point, you've made the higher-level decisions regarding the social media contest you're planning to run. The next step is to flesh out the rest of your plan. Your plan for social media giveaways will include the following.
Timeline
You should set dates to begin and close the giveaway contest. Make sure you mention the dates for entry deadlines in the description of your posts, newsletters, videos, podcasts, blogs and wherever else you're advertising the contest. This will generate some excitement and a sense of urgency to your contest.
Guidelines
List the participants in your contest. Are you targeting people within a certain demographic, gender, geographical location and so on? Take note of the requirements you have and how you will effectively communicate it to your audience members.
Make sure that you're not in violation of any law or engaging in discriminatory behavior. Check out these guidelines to learn the laws for your state.
Method of entry
What are the steps that users must to complete in order to be able to participate in your contest? The answer to this problem is based on your goals. Additionally, you'll need to provide details, such as how a contestant can participate several times, and if you'll limit the number of entries.
For guidelines and mode of entry, there are tons of free contest terms and conditions templates on the internet. For a simple process you can cut and paste any of the templates, then customize to your particular contest. Below is a helpful template that comes from The Gin Guide (we are aware that it's a bit random, but they have a great template!)
Announcement of the winner
How do you choose a winner? When will you announce the winner? There could be more than one winner? If yes, what number? Incorporate these questions into your promotional materials in order to get people excited about the prize.
Touchpoints
In the course of your social media contest choose what time and number of times you plan on posting messages and updates to your audience.
We suggest you at least create all of your content and then schedule them in an agenda prior to launching your campaign. In writing your message ahead of time, you can reduce chances of missing out on postings during the giveaway. This also allows you to have more time to engage with your participants and manage your company.
Advertising
If you're not able to reach an audience that is already there, think about making targeted ads available on your chosen social media site to gain some initial momentum.
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5. Utilize the right tools
If you follow the right strategy, there's a high chance you'll be flooded with submissions and inquiries in the course of your campaign. Trying to keep track of all the requests will soon become overwhelming. It is essential to use the most efficient tools available to help you save time and get the best outcomes.
You can also use it to collect emails and grow your newsletter lists. Alongside a simple giveaway, you can run games on the leaderboard, instant rewards/coupons promotions, and giveaways that are viral/refer-as-a-friend.
When your giveaway is currently running, SweepWidget lets you view and manage all your contestant entries in a centralized hub. It lets you view user geographical information, email addresses, the social media accounts that they have followed your giveaway on, and other valuable user data points.
Once the contest is over, SweepWidget lets you randomize the winners manually, too.
How to Run a Giveaway via Social Media - FAQs
Q: How effective are giveaways on social media?
A: The marketing of contests generates excitement and a community of evangelists around your company. When it's done properly the social media promotions are viewed as acts of generosity. It's also an excellent way to get to know your audience.
Q: How do I run a social media contest?
A The optimal approach for running an online contest on social media is to provide a prize in the form of a free trial or discount for your primary product or service.
A: What is the best way to do I choose a winner of my giveaway on social media?
Q What is the length of time my contest on social media last?
A: It is not a good idea to keep your contest open to the point that it gets old news, and then people begin to lose interest. Studies show that the perfect spot for contest duration is between 2-4 weeks. But, it is possible to run your competition for a longer period. Make sure you've got an effective plan for your touchpoints to ensure your messages are fresh and exciting all the time.
Are You Prepared To Increase Your Sales With Social Media Promotion?
In short, the effectiveness of your competition on social media is contingent on the following five actions:
- Establish a clearly defined goal
- Choose a social media platform that your intended users hang out
- Choose a enticing, relevant and attractive prize
- Create a simple plan for a giveaway
- Utilize the correct tools to automate the process
Follow this framework, and you'll be well on the way towards growing your company through the marketing of contests. Take your time and have fun!
Have you got any queries on how to do an online giveaway? Let us know by leaving a comment.
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