All About Social Media Giveaways and Small Business
A key component in any small business success is growth. Social media, when used wisely, is a tool you can use to help solidify your small business growth plan. Maintaining a strong presence online requires engaging posts that keep your audience coming back for more. One way to achieve that is through a social media giveaway. When you learn more about social media giveaways, you’re better equipped to get started and reap the benefits.
What is a social media giveaway?
This is when businesses try to grow their following and drive engagement on social media by asking followers to tag friends in a post, follow sister accounts or share a post in their story, etc., to put them in the running for a free, randomly gifted item (often somewhat expensive or rare, but not necessarily). Businesses and social media influencers use social media giveaways to bring buzz to their feeds.
How can a social media giveaway benefit your business?
There are a number of ways social media giveaways can help your small business, including:
Increase engagement as a result of more content. Creating a successful giveaway requires a lot of posts to get the word out. That increase in activity can result in more followers engaging and becoming better acquainted with your brand.
Add to your follower count by making it an entrance method. Social media giveaways have several means of entry. Some brands will ask you to like a post or follow another account they’re associated with. But if you want to increase your followers, a great way is to ask for them. When followers tag friends to enter your contest, those friends are instantly made aware of your brand, and many of them may become followers as well.
Improve your sales by connecting followers to your brand. When you use a marketing strategy that makes you look fun, such as using a social media giveaway, it does more for your small business than you may realize. Consumers are looking to connect with brands, and a giveaway is a great way to bridge that connection.
Keep them coming back by standing out. Consumers may see your ads here and there. But that’s not always enough to motivate them to become a potential customer. A strong social media presence that includes contests, Q&A sessions and interesting conversations can build loyalty that leads to increased sales. Be the bright part of someone’s day, and see how they repay you.
Strengthen your community by collaborating with other local businesses to cross-promote both of your brands on social. This can be effective even on a small scale. Offer your followers a nominal value gift card for yours and/or a business you’re working in tandem with. Both businesses can benefit in growing your audiences and you can cast a wider net across two brands.
What goals do you have for your social media giveaway?
Because social media contests can be tailored in so many different ways, they are great for hitting specific goals for your brand.
Are you looking to earn more comments on your posts? Create a social media giveaway for the best/funniest comment. To get everyone in on the fun, you can even have your followers vote on who they think did the best. Contests like this can go on for several days, keeping fans engaged daily.
Maybe you want more likes or shares. As mentioned earlier, asking followers to tag their friends is a great way to share your posts and keep track of new customers in the making. Or you can just ask for a retweet as part of the giveaway rules.
There are so many ways to run a social media giveaway, and each of them has strategic benefits that can help your small business. When you’re having fun, your customers are having fun. Start up a contest on social media, and let the good times roll.