You know that the reach of your social media presence can far surpass any other marketing channel you might be involved in. Why not take advantage of that fact and use a social giveaway to grab people’s attention? Whether you want to drive traffic back to your website or get more followers on Facebook, social media giveaways can be a smart way to increase brand awareness. But to reap the benefit, you have to do it right.
“Giveaways are a great way to build a buzz around your brand and your products, but some marketers still have no idea how to create them appropriately.” — Progressive Media Concepts
Planning your goals
Before you can start a social media giveaway, you need to determine your end goal. While brand awareness is a natural byproduct of a successful giveaway, you need to examine the purpose that awareness serves. Some objectives that a giveaway can help you achieve:
- Expanding your customer base: Choose a giveaway item that keeps on giving by creating additional brand awareness. Promotional items such as bags or coffee mugs will be used and seen by many. Also consider giving away a webinar that your customers will talk about.
- Driving more traffic to your website: You can use social tools to promote a giveaway, then require people to visit your site to enter. You could also ask them to post on your wall with, for instance, their favorite blog post.
- Retaining customers: To retain customers, you should give away something they can use only with your company, such as a gift card, a discounted item or credit to their account.
Deciding what to give away
The key to a successful social media giveaway is choosing the right promotional item. There are many factors to consider when making this decision. Be sure to think outside the box of stress balls and pens. Some better ideas:
- Seasonal items: Offer a towel for summertime or a hat for winter. The item needs to be valuable to customers to get them to enter.
- Local items: If you want to focus on local brand awareness, consider partnering with another local business to do a restaurant coupon or retailer discount.
- Brand-centric items: If you’re a merchandise business, give away a hot product that you sell.
- Nontangible items: Consider offering something more than a simple item. Give away a free membership to your site, promotion via your social media properties or discounted entry to a webinar.
Crafting your giveaway method
Finally, you need to decide how your giveaway will work. “A carefully planned promotional giveaway can end up being a major boon to your company,” according to Printwand. “Spend enough time preparing the right product and the right parameters, and you’ll discover how to do a giveaway that gives back in a big way.” Start by considering these factors.
- Easy entry: It should be simple to sign up for the giveaway. The second it becomes a hassle, you lose interested participants.
- Ask for engagement: Utilize comments or sharing features as a way to qualify for the giveaway, but don’t emphasize them in a way that seems burdensome.
- Determine giveaway parameters: How long will the giveaway run? Will you have one winner or many?
- Promotion plans: To make the most of your social media giveaway, use it as a promotional tool to the fullest. Don’t stop once the giveaway is over — continue engaging followers and giving them a reason to stick around for the next big giveaway.
Jessica Sanders is an avid small-business writer touching on topics including social media and business management. She is a professional blogger and Web content writer for Resource Nation.