Competitions on Social

Whether a brand is established or small, running a social media competition is a fantastic way of rewarding current followers. However, competitions are also an easy and effective way to generate more followers, increase engagement and brand awareness.

A social media competition is generally set to draw customers to like the post, follow the account and tag a friend so they enter too. This acts as a chain reaction so more users are introduced to your brand.

Retaining Your Following

Competitions will grow engagement from your current following as well as growing your brand awareness. Whether you have 100 or 10,000 followers, it doesn’t mean all of your following are interacting with your brand or are actually interested in what your brand has to offer. To ensure that your existing followers continue to follow and connect with your page, competitions are a good strategy to utilise. Nothing makes people happier than getting something for free, and if they know your company is likely to host competitions every now and then, they’ll be on the lookout for chances to win!

Brand Identity

From looking at a brand’s Instagram feed, you get a vision for their brand values and personality. You want people to follow your accounts and get a sense of the character of your brand. It’s crucial to post fun and interesting content to keep your feed engaging, competitions are a great way of doing this. There are many mechanisms to this:

Facebook

  • Liking, commenting and sharing the posts are ways of entering.
  • Engaging is important as it makes it more likely to be favoured by the algorithm and also generates discussion.
  • Sharing is also great as more people will see it and are likely to enter.

Instagram

  • Sharing and engaging again is important.
  • Creating a competition in partnership with another brand to extend the reach.
  • A key part is asking entrants to follow both of your accounts. This is a great way to piggyback off of each others following.

Twitter

  • Asking users to tweet using a competition hashtag is a common mechanic on Twitter.
  • Retweeting is a fantastic tool to use as your tweet will then show up on multiple timelines.

It’s a good idea to keep things simple. Overcomplicated entry methods will put people off from entering and people will not enter properly. Make it as easy as possible to maximise entries.

We recommend asking your followers to comment naming a product or something that is to do with your brand. Doing this allows users to get creative with their entries and they will stand out more. It will also eliminate users who are not actually interested in your brand. 

Terms & Conditions

T&Cs can often be forgotten about but it is important to include them in competition posts.

Terms

  • Who is eligible 
  • What is the prize
  • Time frame
  • How winners will be chosen

It’s good to direct entrants straight to your T&Cs when they ask questions about your competition. T&Cs must be communicated whilst promoting your competition. 

Conditions

Facebook guidelines here

Instagram guidelines here 

Twitter guidelines here

Showcase the Winner

Winners must be chosen at random. Where possible you should share a story or post of the winner enjoying the prize and encourage them to post to show authenticity. 

If you would like to find out more about how your brand can utilise competitions on social, get in touch! We would love to hear from you.

Contact Niamh

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