Social media contests are a great way to attract new fans and engage your current community. Watch today’s episode to learn how to make the most of these campaigns without losing your shirt.

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We all know that having a social media presence is important these days. But for a lot of small businesses, it can be difficult to add new followers and keep them interested in what you have to say.

One solution is to run a compelling social media contest that reinvigorates your social profile and makes your community pay attention to you again. And while these social contests are ripe with opportunity, they can be fairly time consuming and require lots of coordination.

Never fear – I’ve got some quick and easy tips to keep your social contests on track. Watch today’s episode to learn more about how to run a social media contest, and feel free to leave any questions or comments in the box below.

Happy selling!
-Matt Winn, Social Media Manager, Volusion

 

Here’s the transcript if you’d like to read along:

Hi everybody! My name is Matt and I’m the Social Media Manager here at Volusion. Welcome to Two Minute Tuesdays, where we give you two minutes of ecommerce advice to bolster your online success.

When talking about social media, a lot of attention has recently been focused on running a social media contest. Most of the time, these contests take place on Facebook, so that’s what we’ll focus on today. To help make the most of your efforts, here are five tips to help make sure that you run a social media contest that actually works.

First off, you need to set an objective. Are you looking to gain new followers and fans on social media, or are you looking to engage current customers? What are you trying to achieve? Knowing this will help you to frame everything you do for your social media contest.

Once you have your objective set, you need to pick the right technology platform to launch your social media contest. There are a lot of options out there, so do a quick Google search to find which are most appealing to you. Or, if you have the experience, you can create a custom app on your own or hire someone to do it for you.

Third, you’ll want to select your audience. While it’s tempting for you to try to appeal to everyone, this usually isn’t possible. Instead, determine a finite target market, that way you can really appeal to those customers who will best help achieve the objective you established in step one.

Fourthly, you need to pick the right prize for your contest. Depending on your objective (let’s say you’re trying to get more fans to your Facebook page), you might consider throwing out some cash or gift cards. However, if you’re looking to connect with a particular audience, then you’ll want to offer prizes that really hit home with the audience you’re catering to.

Lastly, you really need to promote your social media contests. Why? Because you’ve worked hard to get this contest off the ground, so you want to try and get the most bang for your buck. Utilize email, social media channels and post contest information on your website. Again, making sure that people know about the contest is the first step to getting them to enter.

Hopefully these tips will get you on the right track to social media success. If you have any questions, just leave me a comment in the box below and I’ll be happy to get back to you.

From me to you, happy selling!