Social media contests are not necessarily about winning huge prizes. They are also about engaging with as many people as possible from your target audience – and on as many platforms as possible.
It’s essential to tailor your campaigns to a specific strategy, with the goal being to engage with as many people as possible from your target audience.
Here we bring you 3 examples of extremely effective social media contests, campaigns and strategies that are guaranteed to cause a stir…
Keep it real
Your real customers are your greatest assets, particularly when it comes to word of mouth marketing as well as being brand ambassadors. Whether or not you are running a contest, it’s a brilliant idea to collect customer reviews and testimonials, and these can then be shared on your social media platforms and of course, your website. You might wish to consider asking your brand ambassadors to create video testimonials, as video has been proven to make a fantastic impact whilst being easy to share on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Nowadays, marketing is all about showing the human side to your brand. Hard selling just doesn’t cut it anymore –audiences want to see real people using your product or service, as this inspires a strong level of trust and connection in your audience. Take one look at Dove’s ‘Real Beauty Should be Shared’ contest, which challenged women to nominate a friend or loved one who they think is beautiful on the inside and out. Winners were chosen to become Dove representatives as well as models and advocates for the Dove Real Beauty Campaign.
Make it a game
If the popularity of Candy Crush Saga is anything to go by, gaming is extremely powerful. Turn your contest, content and even your advertisements into a game and you will definitely reap the benefits as engagement levels soar. When you entertain your audience and engage with them in a challenging, fun way, they are far more likely to participate and get other people involved.
Focus on what they love
As mentioned before, today’s marketing is no longer about persuasion or hard selling. What you need to focus on is what your customers love, and when you do this, you don’t need to bribe them or persuade them with free products or lavish prizes to remain in their memories.
TOMS Shoes is a brilliant example of a highly popular brand that generated a lot of buzz with its 2015, month-long Instagram campaign. The company, which helps a person in need every time a pair of shoes is purchased, released a campaign titled “One Day Without Shoes.” The campaign simply asked people to snap a photo of them without shoes and upload it to Instagram with the hashtag #withoutshoes. For every photo posted, TOMS gave a pair of new shoes to a child in need.
Although TOMS already had a massive fan base, the campaign skyrocketed the company even further into the limelight, which of course worked wonders for their sales.
As you can see there are plenty of easy ways to enhance brand awareness and get your audience engaged with social media contests.
Need our help?
Here at 8 Ways Media we are pioneers in effective digital marketing strategies designed to skyrocket your business and ensure it gets noticed by the right crowd! If your business is seeking a push in the right direction, drop us a line, give us a call or pay us a visit and we can show you how we can work together!
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