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How to Run a Social Media Contest



Coming up with an idea for a fun contest to promote through social media is only a small percentage of the work that goes into its execution. Here are a few tips to ensure that your contest achieves your goals of participation and exposure.

What's Your Objective?
The very first thing you have to do is pinpoint the objective of your social media contest. Identify your goal and decide what you ultimately want to achieve. Are you looking to increase social media followers or engagement? Or are you introducing a new product or trying to building up brand awareness? Once your goals are in place, you will know which type of social media contest and platform fits your needs.

Keep it Creative and Easy.
Most social media users want to be able to enter a contest with as little effort as possible. Therefore, it's important to make your social media contest as fun, engaging and user-friendly as possible. Not only do you have to come up with a creative and compelling contest to capture the social media user's interest, but you must also make it simple for customers to enter. Preferably, your contest should include a maximum of three easy steps. These steps can involve, for example, uploading a photo, tagging your brand, sharing a post, writing a short motivation or answering a question.

It's All About The Platform.
Make sure that you choose a social media platform that suits your contest. If you are looking to increase your following or engagement on a certain platform, you should of course launch the contest on that specific platform and then cross-promote it on all of your other social media accounts to drive traffic in the right direction. For instance, launching a photo contest will work best on Instagram or Pinterest, while a contest based on writing a caption or answering a question will do better on Facebook or Twitter.

Knowing your audience is also very important, as it will play a role in which social media platform you pick. If your audience is very interactive, you can develop a contest with more steps, such as a photo contest where the follower has to take a photo, upload it to a social media platform and then tag your brand or contest. If your audience isn't very interactive, you might want to stick to a contest concept where the contestant simply has to "Like," "Follow" or "Re-tweet" something; a one-click contest.

Create a Custom Hashtag.
One easy way to gather submissions for your contest is to have your contestants use a specific hashtag when entering. To avoid confusion, create your own custom hashtag by making it specific to your brand, company, contest or area. You can search the social media platform for different hashtags, and the one that comes up with zero finds is the one you should use. Again, remember to keep it easy, meaning a hashtag that's not too hard to spell or get mixed up with another word or brand.

Know The Rules.
Each social media platform has its own specific rules when it comes to contests. Make sure that you know the rules of the platform you choose. If you don't follow the platform's rules and regulations you could ultimately end up being banned from the site.

Cross-Promote On Other Platforms.
As mentioned above, you can, and should cross-promote your contest on all of your other social media platforms. This will get the message out to a larger audience and you will be able to direct followers from one social media platform to another. If you are running an Instagram contest, you should definitely promote it on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ etc. and encourage your already existing followers to enter.