If you want to create an instant buzz around your business, consider social media giveaways.
Sometimes, you need to give before you get. And social media contests and giveaways are a great way to do it.
This article will explain why social media giveaways and contests are so successful on almost every platform. We’ll also look at when you should consider trying them, and how to pull them off.
Contests and giveaways are a fun and interactive way to connect with your audience. They can be the quickest way to help you grow your following and engagement all while allowing you and your followers to have a little fun.
Why Use Contests or Giveaways?
With organic reach on the decline and paid social becoming more competitive, contests and giveaways are one of the few ways you can boost your brand organically without breaking the bank. On average, companies only spend $369 on their giveaways—while the outcome is tons of reach and engagement that could translate into real-world business.
Contests and giveaways can help a brand generate leads, increase visibility, engage the audience, and build its brand. They are a great way to generate word-of-mouth advertising because 62% of participants share contest details with friends and encourage others to participate. Most people who have contributed to giveaways and contests have said they are more likely to be OK with receiving promotional information from a brand after a campaign is over—even if they didn’t win.
Facts and Stats
We wouldn’t recommend contests on social media if they didn’t work. The thing is that they do—quite well, in fact. Consider:
- 34% of new customers are acquired through contests
- Facebook giveaways generate 10x more interactions than regular posts
- Instagram accounts that host contests grow 70% faster than those that don’t
- People are 90% more likely to buy from a brand that is recommended by a friend
- Instagram contests get 3.5x more likes and 64x more comments
- Contests have a 3.7% higher conversion rate compared to other CTA’s
Let’s See It In Action
Here are some real-life examples of successful giveaways and campaigns, both big and small: In 2012, Air Asia did a campaign in Australia that essentially “gave away” an entire plane. The winner could take over 300 of their Facebook friends on a round trip to Malaysia. The contest received over 12,000 entries, reached 2.2 million people on Facebook, and boosted Air Asia’s Facebook following by about 30%. It’s a good bet that the winner of this giveaway had a fantastic trip to Malaysia—but the real winner here is Air Asia.
Now, you may not have the means to give away an entire plane. But there are ways to generate similar engagement with a way smaller budget. You could give away your own products, or related products, collaborate with another similar brand (which is a great way to generate more followers who are already interested in your type of product or service), gift cards, trips, or just money. In 2017, the mobile game Homescapes did a Facebook giveaway for in-game money to 15 winners and all they asked was that participants share the post. The post received almost 10,000 shares whereas other non-giveaway-related posts have an average share amount of about 100. Earlier that year they did a similar giveaway that received over 140,000 shares. You can imagine this also boosts the number of likes and comments the post will get and the brand page gets a large boost of engagement and reach.
Running a social media contest on your brand’s socials can be a quick way to see major results on the engagement and reach of your page. Contests and giveaways make it easier to organically reach larger audiences while creating excitement around your brand. Not to mention, they can be very cost-effective. There are many ways to get creative with your contests and giveaways.
One of the best parts is that they generate multiple winners: Yes, of course, the participants win the giveaway. But most importantly, the brand that hosts them wins too, by gaining followers, reach, and engagement.
