How to Run a Winning Social Media Contest

Since our younger years, we’ve been exposed to different brand contests in TV, radio, newspapers and magazines. With the new era of the web, it’s undeniably a new way to introduce new brands and engage old customers to brands and businesses. With the popularity of social media, it’s one popular platform that fuels these contests. Keep in mind though that conducting a contest through social media is more than just posting and drawing a winner?
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Before launching a contest, you need to know why a social media expert is necessary to consult. They can discuss some things with you first before you take any step. After that, you will understand more the things that make a social media contest successful.

Goal is Gold

​Why are you going to conduct this contest?

Of course, you first have to determine your purpose of launching the contest or else you might just be giving away prizes with nothing to gain. You may come up with one or two goals for the contest and then pattern your contest around these goals.

Terms of Service of the Platform

Since you will be using social media to conduct your contest, you have to be amenable to follow their Terms of Service. Considering the different forms of social media, you have to know that there are certain terms of service for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others! Not knowing their rules might result to your contest being taking down even before it has done its purpose.

Contest Type

​After you have set your goal and studied the terms on the platform that you will use, it’s time to decide what kind of contest to run. Consider what type of contest will help you achieve the goal best and what will not go against the terms of the social media platform. Make sure that you research if the kind of contest you will run had been successful in the past in achieving the same purpose.

Contest Calendar

It is important to establish what to do on particular dates and schedule every step that will be taken in launching your contest. Mark deadlines! When will be the announcement of the contest? When will the contest start? When will be the announcement of winners? All these must be marked on the calendar.
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This will attract more participants as they would know what are the dates to look forward to. This will also give a sense of urgency to participate on your contest. Make sure to use scheduling tools to post your contests on ‘high time’.

Game Prizes

What it is that attracts participants on your contest? Definitely the PRIZES! Make sure that the prizes you will be giving are appealing to your target market. No matter how well you have thought of the mechanics of the contest, if the prizes are not worth it, who will take time to join?
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Give a little more than just the grand prize. Adding consolation prizes are also great way to attract more participants. Making them feel that there is a higher chance of getting something other than the grand prize is worth it.

Promotion

The most common way to promote your contest is to make social media posters and images. Make sure to have an excellent combination of pictures and content. Make it interesting and catchy. Do a good research on how to make this.

Using a Hashtag that relates to your contest and brand would also be useful to make it known on the chosen platform. Use the power of Hashtags! This is used to attract more attention and make your contest trending.
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Above all these promotions of the contest make sure that your BRAND is known. Include your logo on the images and your brand name on the Hashtags. This will ensure that your brand is getting the exposure while your contest gets famous.

Make it Easy to Join
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It should be easy to join your contest. Do not require too much fields to fill in or too many pages to complete. If possible, limit the steps of joining to 5 steps!
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A part of making it easy to join in is to make it visible to mobile users. That means getting the page mobile-friendly. We can’t deny that most people browse social media through mobile.

Customer Experience
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​This will likely determine if the contest participant will be continuing making business with you even after the contest. This is a great avenue for you to show how you treat customers and how quickly respond to queries.

Countdown
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This is one effective way to attract more participants to your contest. It makes them feel that the contest will soon end and if they don’t join now, they might miss the great prizes that you are offering. 

Measure!
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After the contest, make sure that you have the numbers. You should have the statistics of how many joined and if you really achieved the target goal. Were you able to gain the number of followers you want? Were you able to make the number of sales you targeted? This is the way to determine if your contest was actually a success. You have to find out what are the things that went well and what are the opportunities of the first one. 

Use these numbers are your basis for your next contests. After your first contest, you should earn more customers and you should be able to engage your existing customers. You surely would have discovered more about your market which is essential for your other marketing strategies. Loyal customers also mean that by the power of word of mouth, you will get free marketing from them.
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Keep in mind that a contest is a great social marketing strategy but you have to do it properly. You still need to apply the Golden Rules to Successful Social Media Marketing. If you need a hand in doing it make sure to keep in touch with a trained social media management guru.