Category: Facebook

Working with Third Party Brands for a Contest

You should approach working with third party brands in a contest or sweepstakes with caution. Giving away highly sought after prizes like trips, electronics or gift cards, or running promotions on social platforms, may seem like a great idea to garner interest and new followers for your brand. However, if you are naming a specific brand name other than your own as part of your contest, you may need

September 8, 2016

#Hashtag Contests 101

The buzzword in contests right now are hashtag contests (or hashtag sweepstakes). These types of promotions are easy to run, less expensive than setting up a contest web site, and don’t require a lot of lead time. The simplicity and low cost appeals to a lot of businesses anxious to expand their social channels, but you will still need to follow some best practices to ensure that you don’t run

May 17, 2016

Social Contest Platforms: Inexpensive, Easy…and Risky

Today I was sent a link to an article touting Platforms for Social Contests that will “launch and track your contest with ease.” The article then went on to list eleven platforms, all relatively cheap – well, really dirt cheap or even free – and all the wonderful features each one had. If I were looking for a way to run a contest and I didn’t know any better

April 19, 2016

How to Contact Winners in Social Media Contests

Running a promotion on Twitter or Instagram or other social platform is fairly easy. You basically follow the social platform guidelines, post rules, collect entries and select winners from valid posts or tweets or pins. The hard part can be contacting and clearing winners. In a traditional contest where a form is used to collect data you typically collect address and phone or email so contacting winners is easy.

February 23, 2016

50 Reasons to Run a Sweepstakes or Contest

Looking for a reason to run a sweepstakes, contest, instant win game, rewards program or loyalty campaign? Here are 50 of them! To create an email opt-in list. To create a mobile opt-in list. To give away your products. To build your brand. To encourage brand loyalty. To encourage product try-on. To encourage product usage. To encourage product trial. To reward your loyal customers. To introduce your customers to

November 4, 2015

Why a Facebook Ad Buy is a Must for Any Facebook Promotion

It’s happening again. Facebook is in the midst of changing their newsfeed algorithm. It’s another in a long list of unannounced Facebook changes that may result in even fewer of your followers actually viewing your posts. So what does this mean for a brand/marketer running a sweepstakes or contest on Facebook? Simply put, you must pay to play. Marketers can no longer rely on a “build it and they will come”

June 16, 2015

The Value of User Generated Content (UGC) in a Contest

User Generated Content (“UGC”) are digital assets (videos, photos, essays) created by an individual. When UGC is used in conjunction with a Skills Contest, entrants become really invested in their submissions, and in turn, the brand. Contests, compared to Sweepstakes, typically see a lower number of entries. However, the quality of the entry submissions and entrant engagement often outweighs the high entry count. A “standard” UGC Contest typically consists of

May 12, 2015

Why Do Facebook Users Like Your Brand Page?

A Facebook study done by Syncapse (a social performance service company) dove deeper into the reasons users like brands pages and some interesting results were found. Check out the original article on Mashable. Syncapse and research partner Hotspex surveyed 2,080 consumers and focused on big name brands like Disney, Coca-Cola, Victoria’s Secret, and XBOX. Consumers were asked which of the following predetermined reasons led them to become a fan or

May 5, 2015

Promotion 101 for Non-Profits

I cringe every time I get emails from some of my favorite charities that offer “raffles” and “incentives” in conjunction with their fundraising. Not that providing an incentive is a terrible thing; I love getting a freebie from a legal promotion every once in a while. But frequently the incentives and promotions are NOT run legally. I worry that my favorite charities will one day get their hands slapped by

March 3, 2015

Run a Sweepstakes to Make Small Business Saturday A Big Win

Five years ago American Express started promoting a new concept: Small Business Saturday. The idea is simple: consumers are asked to spend their holiday shopping dollars locally at small businesses, and American Express provides incentives to those shoppers. In just those five years, the concept of shopping locally the day after Black Friday has become a holiday tradition. So how can your small business make this the best Small

November 7, 2014