How to conduct social contests that are most effective

Conducting social media contests is currently a growing trend on the internet. Businesses and organizations are running these contests in hope of acquiring new business opportunities from the contest itself. For those who want to conduct social contests on the internet in the hope of acquiring new business, I would advice that they should not waste their efforts in anticipation for results that are not likely to occur.

Followers and other participants who join you to take part in your contest are less likely to check back your page again. These social contests are most effective in boosting the social presence and statistics by increasing aspects such as followers, likes etc. However, you can still greatly benefit from these contests if the below mentioned tips are kept in mind.

Determine a proper goal: Each and every marketing effort must have a clearly defined goal in order to determine its effectiveness. For most of the people, their goal is to generate followers. However, this approach is fundamentally incorrect and most of the companies are unaware of this fact. It is always beneficial to have a large number of followers but this should never be your end goal. Contests and giveaways can be much more effective if marketers can just look a little harder and deeper.

The first thing that you need to understand is that the followers that you get from the social contests are usually interested in the prize rather than any other thing related to it. Contests should be conducted while keeping this very fact in mind. Try to determine what you actually want to gain from the contest. Some of the things you can expect from the contest could be revealing a new consumer base and or conducting research for generating new opportunities.

Read: About Pinterest Contest.

Determine a specific target: You need to evaluate the type of target audience that you want to market the contest to. Those who target a very large user base in hopes of getting as many people involved as possible usually end up losing most. This kind of strategy can do nothing good than just bring in participants who care just about the prize or don’t care at all. By targeting the most relevant users and approaching them with a well aimed goal you can actually get maximum benefits from it.

Read: Effective use of Social Media for your Brand promotion.

Choose the prize wisely: The most common choice for prize by marketers has been something shiny. Marketers offer prizes in the form of latest gadgets, trips or even hard cash. It is assumed that people will be attracted towards such things and it is absolutely correct. Most of the people who take part in the contest just do it as they want to win the shiny prize offered. Prizes can also be categorized into three categories, i.e. products or services of a third party, own products and intangibles.

Each of the prizes has its own benefits and should be used wisely. The third party prizes include products such as popular gadgets or other trendy items. You can also offer products and services that come from your business itself. Intangibles are gifts that require a little creativity and they can offer huge ROI if used effectively. For instance, if you have a restaurant or hotel then you can offer the winner to name a particular dish or service and could also include their name in the menu.

Social contests are very popular today and users can be easily attracted towards it. You can easily enhance the returns from your contest by setting up proper goals, targeting most effective user base and offering attractive prizes.

Written by:

Chris Miller is a blogger cum web developer @ Xicom, a leading Software development company, which provides software development outsourcing, web application development services, software development, outsourced IT services & BPO. Also custom mobile apps developments services from a leading mobile application development company.

By FlowingEvents