Creativity is, simply put, the generation of new ideas or concepts – or of new associations between known ideas and concepts – that often produce original solutions.
We can apply these original solutions to our contests and sweepstakes in a variety of ways. Today we will look a little deeper into two specific ways of introducing creativity into your contests and sweepstakes on social media:
- In the campaign concept of your social media sweepstakes and contests.
- In the graphic design and copywriting of your social media contests and sweepstakes.
Creativity in the campaign concept of your social media sweepstakes and contests.
Let’s start at step one: you’re at the embryonic stage of a dynamization campaign on social media. At this stage, it’s essential that you don’t forget to be creative because with the rush to get things done, it can sometimes be tempting to use concepts for your promotions and sweepstakes that are simplistic or unoriginal.
So how to go about it? How to come up with a creative and innovative concept for your social media sweepstakes or promotion?
First, analyze the technology you have at your disposal, as well as your resources, very carefully. Here at Easypromos, we recommend that you browse through our web site to discover the many options that our technology has to offer. In addition, we’re always introducing new apps and improving existing ones… What can we say… We don’t stop!
Secondly, investigate the promotions that benchmark brands in your industry are already carrying out on their social networks. It never hurts to do a little Benchmarking! You can focus on your competition and on similar businesses. You can also research sectors which are completely different from your own adapt their ideas to your project. The idea is not to copy them directly. Quite the opposite in fact: the idea is to learn from the successes and failures of other brands and develop your own innovative concepts based on preexisting ideas.
What is benchmarking? “Benchmarking is comparing one’s business processes and performance metrics to industry bests and best practices from other companies. In the process of best practice benchmarking, management identifies the best firms in their industry, or in another industry where similar processes exist, and compares the results and processes of those studied (the “targets”) to one’s own results and processes. In this way, they learn how well the targets perform and, more importantly, the business processes that explain why these firms are successful”, from Wikipedia.
Thirdly, and probably most importantly, think about your community of users on the social networks. You probably already have plenty of information about them thanks to the sociodemographic statistics provided by social media. In addition, your community manager almost certainly already knows which contents interest your followers the most, which prizes motivate them and which dynamics are most likely to encourage them to participate.
Collect all this information together and transform it into a sweepstakes or contest format that does the following:
- Takes advantage of the potential of technology.
- Uses innovative elements or ideas.
- Fits the profile of your community.
Creativity in the graphic design and copyrighting of your social media contests and sweepstakes.
OK, now you already have your campaign concept. You’re very proud of your idea but now you need to communicate it to your community.
We all know that social networks are primarily visual places. The aesthetic and design of your contest or sweepstakes play a vital role in their success. For this reason, you should use a Look and Feel for your campaign that is appropriate to your brand and to the concept you’re proposing. And, since you’re working in a digital environment, your design should be developed with the social networks in mind, always using the appropriate sizes and formats. You should apply a Mobile First philosophy; in other words, first think about mobile users and how they are going to view the contest on their smartphones and tablets.
Once you’ve defined the Look and Feel of your sweepstakes or contest, it’s time to work on the texts you intend to publish on the social networks. You’ll need to be careful here! Use the right dimensions so that the texts don’t get cut on certain devices or platforms. You also need to make sure you use your own narrative style, which is unique to your brand, efficient and suitable for the digital environment. For example, if it’s appropriate to your brand, you could use emoji as a way of speaking the same language as your social media followers. You could also use hashtags in a timely and creative way.
What does ‘look and feel’ mean? “In software design, look and feel is a term used in respect of a graphical user interface and comprises aspects of its design, including elements such as colors, shapes, layout, and typefaces (the “look”), as well as the behavior of dynamic elements such as buttons, boxes, and menus (the “feel”). In documentation, for example, it refers to the graphical layout (document size, color, font, etc.) and the writing style. In the context of equipment, it refers to consistency in controls and displays across a product line. Look and feel in operating system user interfaces serves two general purposes: First, it provides branding, helping to identify a set of products from one company. Second, it increases ease of use, since users will become familiar with how one product functions (looks, reads, etc.) and can translate their experience to other products with the same look and feel”, from Wikiedia.
What did you think of this post? Would you like us to go deeper into any specific aspect of it? Leave your thoughts in the comments below and we will take note. Here is a series of related posts that you might find interesting:
- 7 resources for creating images in your online promotion
- 6 Ideas to How to Announce the Winners of an Instagram Sweepstakes
- Premium Design Template for Digital Promotions and Online Contests
- The New Challenge for Brands: Adapt Promotions to Smartphones
