One thing is for certain – people love getting free stuff. Tablets, site makeovers, eBook readers; you could be giving away free plastic food storage containers and would find a rabid audience. That is, you could find the right audience as long as you go about creating your contest the right way. A social media based contest has an excellent chance of succeeding when you take the time and effort to do it right.
So, exactly what is it you need to be doing to get your social media contest up and running?
Well, the very first thing you better do is check with your local laws and make sure that your contest doesn’t violate any of them! Staying on the right side of the law is a must. Many states have anti-lottery laws that could impact certain types of giveaways especially those that involve money.
The next thing you will have to do is to make sure that you stay compliant with the rules and regulations of whatever social platforms you decide to utilize. Facebook, Twitter, and the others most all have some sort of established guidelines that determine how you can go about holding contests and giveaways. You really don’t want to put in all the time and effort into creating a killer social media contest only to be stymied by the social networks, do you?
What do you do if you are running a promotion on Facebook? The first thing you do is to find an app. No matter what sort of promotion you are running as long as it is an enter-to-win sort must have an app in place to handle it. Facebook rules and regulations require it. Create your own or choose from a bevy of third party app creators. It doesn’t matter as long as you find one that can adequately handle the job.
One question you have to ask is whether you are properly promoting the social media contest. While you may not want to cram it down your fans collective throats you should make sure that they are kept in the loop on how the contest is going. Cross posting between platforms like Google+, Twitter, and Facebook should be considered a must rather than being looked at as a chore or as needless work. Even better, identify brand advocates who can help you get the word out through their outlets as well. This can really help a social media contest or giveaway gain steam.
On the same note, it might be beneficial to promote seeding by those brand advocates. Some individuals may resort to creating false entries that are ineligible to win, but some people can see right through that sort of tactic. It may also seem like cheating the system to some as well. Rather, why not open the contest up early to a chosen few so that you can get some initial responses that may help to encourage others to sign up as well?
By following these pointers you will certainly be heading down the right path toward creating a killer social media driven contest or giveaway. Simply make sure that you are following all pertinent rules and regulations, both of your locale and your chosen social media networks, and you will find out just how successful a well planned and executed contest can be.