The first and most important consideration regarding this issue is to clarify if you wish to run a social media contest directly on Instagram, Facebook, or X, or to launch a stand-alone contest and share it on social media to attract participants. This decision is fundamental, as each alternative will be the most appropriate depending on which marketing objectives you wish to achieve.
When to run a contest on social media
Because of their very nature, social media platforms provide the perfect platform for your brand if you are looking to:
- Enhance brand visibility and create a buzz around your brand.
- Expand your social media presence and grow your follower base organically.
- Increase engagement and create meaningful exchanges between your brand and your audience.
- Promote your products and turn followers into brand ambassadors.
Let’s take a look at the kind of social media contest that you can launch to achieve these objectives.
Social media contest: Giveaways
A giveaway is the most popular kind of social media contest, and if done correctly and with the right tools, one of the easiest to create and manage too. In case you were wondering, by “the right tools” we mean a platform that uses the official API of the social network where you’re running the giveaway.
Running a giveaway on social media is straightforward and effective. It is also a good first step to grow your brand’s social media presence and reach before moving into more complex contests. It should also go without saying that the prize you offer should be both attractive and relevant to your target audience. The most logical option is to give away one of your products as it would naturally appeal to your audience and is a great way to promote your brand.
The next step is to decide the participation dynamics and requirements. Asking participants to comment on the giveaway post is simple and engaging. You can also ask them to tag someone in their comment to help your giveaway go viral but don’t overdo it. A short answer and one tag is enough. Finally, you should choose the social network to run your giveaway on. With Easypromos, you can organize giveaways on Instagram, Facebook, and X.
All the Easypromos giveaway apps provide random winner selection, winners and alternate management, and a certificate of validity to ensure fairness and transparency.
Social media contest to gather UGC and generate leads
As much as a social media contest is great for brand awareness and exposure, you might be looking into taking your social media contest a step further to collect user data and user-generated content. If this is your case, you will need a more comprehensive solution. Enter the “Mention + Hashtag” and the “Hashtag + Entry form” contests by Easypromos, which allow you to collect UGC and contact details respectively.
Collect UGC with a Mention + Hashtag social media contest
The Mention + Hashtag contest offers the dual benefit of collecting high-quality UGC that can be imported to the contest gallery and the option of enabling public voting for the audience to vote for their favorite, giving your social media contest greater reach and higher levels of engagement. Participants upload their participating content to their Instagram profiles with your campaign hashtag, and photos and videos from the feed will be automatically imported to the contest app.
In the example above, the ABB professional basketball team Girona Basket launched a Mention + Hashtag photo contest among its followers. Participants had to upload a photo of themselves in the teams fan zone and mention the team’s sponsor for the chance to win a prize.
Gather Participants data and UGC with a Hashtag + Entry form social media contest
If your objective is to gather user data, use the Hashtag + Entry Form application to organize an exclusive Instagram photo contest to enhance brand visibility on social media. Invite users to publish a photo on their profile with your campaign hashtag. Users enter the competition by filling in a registration form with their contact details, choosing which of their Instagram photos to use, and accepting the terms and conditions and content permissions.
Participating images will be displayed in a public photo gallery with a unique URL. Share the contest microsite with your audience and personalize it with your branding colors and logo. As an organizer, you can Ppre-moderate competition entries to control which images appear in the gallery.
Stand-alone contest shared on social media
Another option is to organize a stand-alone contest and share the link to access it on your social media accounts. The advantage of this modality is that you will not be restricted to gathering only the data allowed by each social network, as the contest itself will not be held directly on the social network but on its own microsite.
Entry Form Giveaway
The Entry Form Giveaway application allows you to run a giveaway with a fully customizable registration form that you can set up to include the user information that you’re interested in. After setting up your giveaway, simply create a post for your social media profiles and include the access link.
In this example, the car restoration supplies company Eastwood organized a Black Friday Giveaway and shared it on its socials with a link that directed participants to the giveaway’s registration for the chance to win over $10,000 in prizes.
Voting Contest shared on social media
This is the ideal solution to gather UGC and collect user data. Invite your audience to participate by uploading their own photos, videos, or texts and set up a public online voting process. The Voting Contest application features an anti-fraud system to guarantee reliable and fair voting. It’s perfect for engaging your followers and collecting user-generated content. It also allows you to display several options for the audience to choose their favorite videos, stories, designs, or projects.
Diving Special is company specializing in scuba diving trips. The company organized a photo contest directed at their female members. Participants had to submit a photo and the winners were chosen by popular vote. Users who sent their picture could then share the link to the gallery to get more votes, which gave the contest greater reach.
We hope you find this article useful when deciding which is he best option to launch your social media contest. If you have any additional questions, don’t hesitate to contact us via live-chat or request a personalized demos from our sales team. We will. be happy to help!
