If executed correctly, a social media contest can boost your brand’s popularity.
Social media contests come in many forms, but they all share a common purpose: getting more attention for your brand. You might ask your participants to submit a photo to be entered into a drawing for a hot tech product, or give away some of your best products to a randomly selected follower of your page.
But are these high-visibility campaigns worth the effort?
The Advantages
Social media contests have a lot of advantages:
- Appeal and motivation. People love contests because they have something valuable to gain. The more valuable that prize is, the more likely you’ll be to attract new followers, likes, and engagements.
- People also have a tendency to share contests with their friends and family members—you might even require your participants to share a post. High share levels mean your contest gets extra visibility.
- User-submitted content. If you play this right, you could get your participants to create content on behalf of your brand, adding value to your pages without requiring much extra effort.
- Low cost barrier. Though you’ll have to stake money for prizes, the cost for a social media contest is actually quite low.
- You can create contests whenever you’d like; in fact, seasonal contests, or contests at specific intervals can help you earn eve more loyal customers.
The Disadvantages
But they do have some disadvantages, especially compared to other strategies:
- Temporary interest. People may only be liking your page for a shot at winning the prize. Those aren’t going to be your most valuable followers.
- Visibility thresholds. Getting enough visibility can be challenging unless you already have a following in place (or are willing to drop money on social ads).
- Contests run their course, then are over. They don’t have the staying power that most content does.
Your success with social media contests will depend on your demographics, your timing, your plan of attack, and which other marketing strategies you’re using to support it. If you’re interested in getting started with a social media or content marketing campaign, contact Quez Media today!