Eyes on the Prize: Tips for Your Next Social Media Giveaway
Eyes on the Prize: Tips for Your Next Social Media Giveaway
There is no denying that social media is a powerful marketing tool in today’s digital world. As with any other marketing strategy, though, the details of your campaigns can make or break you.
One way to get even more brand exposure from your social media is to host an online giveaway. Your customers will love it because it’s an opportunity for a discount or freebie, and it has the potential to tell a larger group of potential customers about your business. Use these tips to put together a great giveaway.
- Create a plan for every stage.
Every great marketing campaign starts with a strong plan, and a social media giveaway is no exception. From the beginning, have a clear vision for how your giveaway will run and the rules you will have in place. Consider how you will track all the entries, how you will determine a winner, and how you’ll contact the winner. Better yet, think about all the possible ways your giveaway could go wrong and think up a way to prevent those issues from happening. Be sure to make all the rules clear to the public from the start. To be on the safe side, add a disclaimer to your posts and materials about the contest and make sure it jives with your current guidelines.
- Build in mutual benefits.
You want your social media giveaway to appeal to your customers, but the entire purpose of doing it in the first place is to pull in attention for your brand. When you decide what customers need to do to enter your contest, make sure it’s something that benefits you. For example, require them to post about their favorite product or service you provide. Tell them to tag your page in their post as well. This gets your name in front of all those customers’ followers, giving you more publicity than if customers simply need to like one of your posts.
- Spread the word everywhere.
When you’re kicking off a social media contest, it’s natural to post about it on your social media pages. That should be the tip of the iceberg, though. Use internal marketing to tell all your current patients or customers about the giveaway. Post about it on your company website. Send e-blasts about the contest to your email lists. Market your contest as much as you would advertise any other special offer or event.
- Interact as much as possible
Every person who takes part in your giveaway has the potential to become a lifelong patient or customer. Even if they’re already an avid fan of your business, you never want to pass up an opportunity to foster your relationship with them. To take full advantage of these opportunities, interact with each giveaway entry as much as possible. Liking your customers’ posts lets them know you’ve seen and acknowledged their entry. If possible, comment on the posts instead, thanking each person for their support and wishing them luck in the giveaway. This may be too time-consuming if your contest gets a large response, but the more you can interact and engage, the better.
Social media is one of those marketing tools that so many businesses use but so few use to its full potential. A successful giveaway is one way to make the most of the social media following you’ve already built and to continue to grow your following for the future. Along with the tips above, our social media marketing team can help you carry out a great giveaway this fall.