The Startacus Guide to social media competitions
by Startacus Admin
You cannot escape them…they are everywhere.
They began as something of a novelty - a happy quirk adding a bit of variety to your news feed, but now they have taken over! We are of course talking
about the overused and much lamented social media competition. Some of you will be wondering why our tone is so aggrieved, as you glide past such competitions with hardly a second thought, whilst others will be nodding their head in vigorous agreement, greatly incensed by an endless parade of ‘like this’ and ‘retweet that’ requests.
Don’t misunderstand us, we are not condemning the use of social media competitions, they can be a great way of promoting your business and offering your audience some really neat free stuff! But we take issue with the seemingly pointless ones - those that are headed with things like ‘share this picture and win a tablet’ or ‘like this elephant and win a tshirt’ . Why...just why?
So in response we think the time has come - we’ve compiled a little bit of guidance to help you run an interesting, relevant and successful social media competition.
Know why you are running the competition in the first place
OK, this seems like an obvious one, but the truth is that social media competitions are so convenient to set up and can take so little effort that the temptation can be to jump on in there with the first thing that pops into your head with no real idea of what you want to achieve. This will most likely result in a) very few responses or b) low quality responses which are likely to be of little use to you or your business. By taking the time to consider at length who you are targeting the competition at and what the ultimate goal in doing so is, you will have a much better chance of getting relevant and good quality responses. Some reasons that you may consider running a social media competition are; to increase sales, to increase traffic to your site, to boost brand awareness or to increase your level of email subscribers.
Feature prizes that your target audience will actually want
Again, this seems like an obvious one, but those of you familiar with such competitions will be aware of some of the incredibly obscure stuff being peddled all over the place. We once came across a marketing company that was offering rubber chickens in exchange for liking and sharing their post. Ironically the rubber chicken comp did exceptionally well, no doubt as a result of the public’s ever surprising love of the ridiculous...meerkats spring to mind!
Meerkats and rubber chickens aside, your best bet will be to ensure that the prizes available have real value and significance to your target audience. It might only take a click but these days whilst online, people are being more and more selective of what they put their digital seal of approval to. You may well be in a position to provide these prizes yourself, but if not see if there are any other businesses which could partner up with you.
Use the information you have gatheredIt can be all too easy for the valuable information you have gathered to get tossed by the wayside once the competition is over and the prizes have been dished out. Remember that your competition was never about giving out prizes, it was about achieving your original goal. Take the time now to follow up on the information that you have found and make sure that you put your hard won attention to good use. At one-day event Ideation NI Thon, students will get the chance to solve global and local sustainability, environmental, city and health problems. The lowdown on how an Australian startup generated global sales for their innovative product, "weighted blankets"... At 82% the UK takes 4th place in the list of countries being most ready for automation and robotics, whilst 30% of UK population’s jobs are at risk of automation. Recent research by Starling bank shows that in 2019, women earned up to £12,319 less per year than their male colleagues of the same age and within the same industry Brandtech group, You & Mr Jones, has invested in ethical video startup Good-Loop who have closed a US $1.6m seed funding round. 2019 saw celebrities contribute to start-up investments in record numbers, surpassing a previous spike in 2015. If you’re feeling under pressure from creditors, here is a brief breakdown of what, in the UK, is considered aggression and harassment from creditors. The Digital DNA Awards, held in partnership with MCS Group, celebrate the best tech talent, from companies of all sizes, excelling in the world of Digital and Tech and not just in NI... According to analysis by the Centre for Entrepreneurs, business formations reached new record in 2019 with more than five new tech startups launching every hour... InsurTech businesses take note! Lloyd’s Lab is back and they are seeking solutions that have the potential to create real commercial value for the Lloyd’s market.
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