What is a social media engagement strategy? Here is what one would look like: run a Facebook contest, this has the potential to attract new leads and drive traffic to your social media channels and website.
The benefits of running a Facebook Contest:
• Boost engagement, traffic and Likes on your Facebook Page
• Ability to reach new prospective customers – there are tons of Facebook users who may be interested in your product or services, but are unaware of your brand
• Building your Database / email list
• New sales through lead nurturing
• Deeper understanding of your customers from data pulled from Facebook’s Open Graph
Depending on the size of you company, and the income goals, ideally a brand should have 1000 people engaging on a Facebook Page over the course of a week. The more engagement on a social channel, the more traffic to your website, the more points of conversions. To be clear, points of conversion is achieving the goals that your business has set up: Selling products or services, obtaining new members, receiving a donation.
If you are looking to raise your bar in social followers, contests will boost your engagement ten-fold! There are various approaches depending on your businesses status. If you have low engagement, it’s a good idea to run a starter contest such as a Sweepstakes or Vote contest.
These types of contests have a low barrier to entry and will encourage a higher percentage of people to enter as they only need to enter their contact information to enter. On the other hand, if you have a high amount of engagement (over 1000 people engaging with you) then you’re in a prime position to run an Intermediate or Advanced contest requiring users to create and share something or make a purchase to enter.
Here are examples of starter, intermediate and advance engagement contests:
STARTER
SWEEPSTAKES
A Sweepstakes is the simplest type of contest and requires users submit their email address, click ‘Enter Contest’ and they’re entered into a random drawing for a prize. This is the best type of contest to start with if you have low engagement on your Facebook Page.
VOTE CONTEST
A Vote Contest gets users to interact with your brand in a personal way. You can get them to vote for which products should appear in your next product line, go on sale or which products they like the best.
INTERMEDIATE
Intermediate Contests are asking for more than contact information, and require users to submit a piece of user-generated content to enter.
PHOTO CONTESTS
Photo Contests are an easy way to entice users to upload a photo and have the community vote on their favorite to win. Most people have a camera phones and taking a photo is super easy. To maximize entries, choose general theme that most users will be able to get a photo of. Ex.) Your favorite seasonal activity.
Photos are the best type of content to ask for as they are eye-catching and easy to digest. We highly recommend using this type of contest if you’re looking to get user-generated content.
PHOTO CAPTION CONTEST
Photo Caption Contests entice users to write a caption for a photo of your choosing to enter. The community then votes on their favorite caption. This is an easy way to take advantage of online memes.
ESSAY CONTEST
Essay Contests are a great way to hear the thoughts, feedback and stories of your customers. Have entrants write about an experience they had using one of your products or a time spent at one of your physical locations. The community can then vote on their favorite.
ADVANCED
Advanced Contests and promotions require a high level of engagement. These contests and promotions require entrants to submit a time-consuming piece or content or pay money to get a reward. It’s a good idea if you only run these contests when you have a large audience as only a very small percentage of users will take the time to enter:
VIDEO CONTESTS
A video contest requires entrants to submit a video under the guidelines you choose. This is harder than taking a photo but it has the potential to give you great user generated content for your business.
PINTEREST CONTEST
Pinterest Contests entice users to create a board on Pinterest and submit their link to enter. This contest gives your business reach beyond the Facebook platform.
GROUP DEAL
Get users excited about taking advantage of a limited- time offer. To be successful you’ll need to offer a minimum discount of 40% of the cost of your regularly-priced item, to be attractive enough for users to purchase right away.
It’s easy to incorporate elements of your brand into your contest. When you do this it will get people talking about your business and not just the contest prize.
HERE ARE SOME EASY WAYS TO INCORPORATE YOUR BUSINESS INTO YOUR CONTEST:
Let entrants decide on your next product line or marketing campaign using a Vote Contest.
Have entrants caption a photo of one of your products in a Photo Caption Contest.
Get people to create a board on Pinterest and include their favorite items that you sell. Encourage entrants to write an essay about how they use your products or why they like them so much.
Tell them to upload a photo of themselves using your products or at your business.
Make sure the Title of your Contest and the Contest Image incorporate your brand – as these are the things that will get shared and will be seen the most.
If you are feeing shorthanded or overwhelmed, let us know. We can discuss your goals and understand that there is no black and white solution, nor is it simple posting when it comes to building out social media channels and followers.
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