7 Amazing Contest Ideas to Boost Social Engagement
If you’re conversant with the workings of social media, then you’re well aware that the number of followers a brand has doesn’t always translate to social media impact.
In a bid to outdo the competition, many brands tend to try every trick up their sleeve.
Some resort to buying followers to create the image that they engage more with the masses.
While this may seem to hold as per the “fake it till you make it” musing, it’s all a façade. Such actions often tend to have no real impact.
For small businesses, mainly, every dollar spent needs to produce results.
Having dabbled in the industry for a while now, we’re all in favour of running contests to boost social media engagement.
Shake up your editorial calendar with a variety of posts that engage your audience without alienating them. One way to increase interaction across platforms is to use social media contests, which is why 96% of event creators and marketers consider social media contests an effective strategy Consumers engage more with brands who run contests resulting in higher post impressions. Including contests in your strategy can grow your following 70% faster on platforms like Instagram. – Woobox
Other than being inexpensive, such efforts usually captivate audiences and get leads interested in what you’re selling.
While what we suggest is no quick fix, it will certainly help your brand have better perception with your audience. Read on to discover just how.
The State of Social Engagement
To get the gist of the current state of social engagement, you need to train your vision in the early beginnings.
From the onset, social media platforms facilitated friends to connect online.
With time, there was an evolution, and most sites morphed into broadcasting channels.
Today, brands have entered into the fray.
What makes social media so alluring is that they offer the perfect conduit for businesses to provide personalised, human experiences to their clientele.
It is essential to have the right social media marketing strategy for business growth.
It would be remiss if we didn’t share that while the current climate welcomes businesses to thrive, you need not stray too far away from the original script.
At all times, the approach needs to be “social”.
Doing so will give your online campaigns the legs necessary to flourish.
The Numbers Game
While it can be argued that all social media platforms are created equally, some media tend to produce better results than others.
According to Statusbrew, engagement with brands on Instagram is ten times higher than on Facebook.
Their research also shows that about 130 million of this demographic regularly engage with shopping posts every month.
The fun doesn’t end there; if you want to stand out on Instagram, it’s best to go the contests route.
From projections, contests tend to get 3.5 times as many likes and about 64 more comments than regular posts.
That said, Facebook does quite an excellent job regarding engagements.
From a median of about 0.97 posts daily, brands tend to notch median engagement rates of about 0.09% on the platform, irrespective of industry.
This is a pretty impressive return by all standards.
Elsewhere, Twitter boasts a pretty healthy following.
Some 79% of users on the platform like to discover what is new by using the platform.
On the professional front, 95% of B2B content marketers use LinkedIn to market their content organically.
As you can already tell, contests tend to get the masses talking.
While industries like entertainment, music, and technology tend to prosper the most in this department, it’s not exclusive to them alone.
Generally, brands tend to attract an average of over 34% new customers through contests, a clear indicator of the signs of promise in the initiative.
As fantastic lead magnets, contests can make a difference in your social media game.
While the statistics we’ve shared here are sure to be insightful, that’s not all there is to it.
To boost your social engagement figures, be sure to review these fantastic contest ideas:
Surprise your followers
The element of surprise can be quite rewarding if you play your cards right.
While you may be tempted to think of some creative way of rewarding followers, it’s better to keep things simple.
The classic “eeny, meeny, miny, moe” strategy can inspire more engagement on your social pages than in most other ways.
The wording on such a contest should be precise and read quickly.
You could encourage your customers to hit the like button and automatically make themselves eligible for a prize.
Since many people are likely to opt-in, you can pick one lucky follower randomly.
To ensure that the contest continually draws the masses with each iteration, it’s wise to announce the winner publicly.
Not only will this give the contest some authenticity, but it will also encourage people to participate in droves.
Pin your location
In the modern age, most smartphones come with GPS support.
While most apps that support such functionality are driving and booking-based, you can still use them effectively.
Especially if you run a brick-and-mortar business.
To compete with e-commerce platforms, you can encourage people visiting your store to “check in” while on site.
You will likely need a contest app in order to run an instant-win contest, but the excitement and engagement you’ll generate from this type of a Facebook contest idea will definitely make it worthwhile! – Kim Garst
A simple snap while shopping can quickly make its rounds on social media pages and pique the interest of other interested customers.
With word of mouth being one of the most effective ways of business promotion, your chances of success become elevated in such a scenario.
Bet you can’t guess!
What better way to encourage the audience’s participation than to set them up with an irresistible challenge?
Using the guessing game as part of your contests is handy since you can develop challenges in a jiffy.
As alluded to earlier, simplicity works because it encourages mass participation.
Simple challenges can include having prospects guess how many fingers you’re holding behind your back to having your audience guess which number you’re thinking of between 1 and 250.
Picture this…
Today, selfies are all the rage.
In any case, knowing this and taking action is a whole different concept altogether.
Since people innately love sharing pictures of themselves, you can encourage the same behaviour by introducing a new angle.
You can request audience members to share their best photos of themselves experiencing your product and service.
As a further incentive, you can offer a reward for the best-captioned photo.
This is a great way to generate leads for your brand and since it’s easy for people to participate, it’s a must-have for your list of social media contest ideas. – Raffle Press
This kind of simple challenge will likely make your social media page flooded with comments from a diverse audience looking to join the fun.
The best thing about it is that they’ll be helping promote your brand by sharing rave reviews about their memorable moments.
Take it to the poll
While you may be the voice behind the brand, it pays occasionally to change things up.
Instead of always picking the winner, why not give your followers a leash to play in?
By embracing hashtags, you can effectively track the content that your audience shares.
Using the same technology, you can request your followers to “like” the most picturesque photo from the bunch.
Letting people take charge of such opportunities is relatively healthy and can benefit your sales efforts.
This is because there’s a good chance it will draw in a larger audience than the conventional one.
Video contests
There’s no denying it; videos are infectious.
Thanks to advancements in the tech scene, it’s now easier than ever to create, edit, and produce videos for consumption.
Importantly, you want the video span to be the perfect length to ensure people aren’t lulled into closing their browsers or switching to alternative forms of entertainment.
As research by Wistia shows, videos under two minutes long get the most engagement.
You can use a video contest to increase subscribers on your YouTube channel by creating videos announcing and promoting the giveaway. – Raffle Press
While developing your video contest concept, creating a challenge/competition for your followers to participate in is wise.
Since people tend to be naturally competitive, the odds are that a good portion of your audience members will be quick to share their video submissions for review by their peers.
Your business will reap the benefits of such positive correspondence.
Trivia contests
Trivia games are an excellent way for people to entertain themselves.
You can add fun to the conversation by rewarding the first responses to trivial questions you share on your page.
While knowing the important stuff can help people cope daily, there’s something magnetic about knowing the answers to useless things.
In a way, hosting trivia contests can serve as the perfect escape from the norms of everyday living and add a new layer of randomness to life.
This alone is grounds enough for people to partake in the contests you hold willingly.
While you’re at it, it helps to come up with trivia questions that can’t be easily searched on Google.
Still, it shouldn’t be too vague that no one can find the answer.
Just strike a balance and, if possible, have it relate somewhat to your niche.
Community participation
This contest idea is probably the most brilliant.
This is because it encourages engagement right from the word go.
You can let your followers know you’re looking for inspiration on your next project and have them chip in with ideas.
Encourage participants to be as creative as possible, and you can repurpose that user-generated content later to post on your social channels. – Ecwid
Whether it’s a product or service you’re looking to introduce to the market, there’s no harm in hearing what topics interest your audience the most.
From what they share, you can get ideas on your next product, the perfect venue for the launch, and understand which topics excite them the most.
Conclusion
Holding contests on your social media pages can help you attract targeted business leads.
Since you’ll likely experience short bursts of new leads during such moments, it’s best to keep onboarding them further along the sales pipeline.
As shared in the review, contests can also be a great way to collect user data and plan how best to better relate with your audience.
Regular customer interaction can augur your business well since it helps build trust.
A necessary ingredient for lifelong co-operation.
Do you think you’re ready to embrace contests?
Which of these contest ideas do you think would work best for your business?
Let us know in the comments below!
