Looking for a relatively non-laborious and inexpensive tactic to grow your brand and your sales online? Consider the phenomenon of social media contests. They can be an effective strategy for increasing followers on social media sites. However, if not done correctly and under the right circumstances, these new followers are less likely to engage with the page again.

Here are 4 tips to help ensure that doesn’t happen:

1. Set a clearly defined goal that doesn’t involve simply increasing the number of your followers. A more efficient approach is to take your actual ROI into account in terms of new leads or conversions resulting from the contest. Contests can also be useful to conduct research or uncover a new consumer base. By offering a specific product as a prize, you can discern what target market draws the most interest.
   

   Before running a social media contest, it's a good idea to organize your thoughts and develop a plan. These tips can help you get started.

2. Choose the right prize that correlates with your end goal. If the goal of your contest is to increase your customer base, offering a shiny new iPad is probably not the best idea. However, if the goal is to boost user’s pictures on your page, then a new iPad could be an effective prize to attract contestants by choosing a winner based on the best submit.

3. Consider different strategies based on the level of consumer engagement. The amount of work required by entrants varies by the type of contest you’re running. Filling out a form has low involvement from the consumer and can generate more participants, but at a lower quality. However, a video contest has a high level of consumer engagement that draws more substantial contestants as well as sharing potential.

4. Make use of the results that you acquire during the contest. Often times when a contest is over, the marketer fails to take advantage of the great photos, videos, essays, comments and relationships gained. Create a photo or video gallery of the entries on your websites or other social pages. This can strengthen the relationship you’ve built with your customers and make your marketing more authentic.

The benefits of running social contests are clear:  They creative a positive consumer association with your brand by offering tangible rewards for participation. Contests also have the potential to encourage brand advocacy by informing consumers of new products and services. They can certainly be an effective tool if carefully planned and handled appropriately. So be sure to use these 4 tips and check out some additional information on Mashable.

Brittney Leigh Smith is a marketing analyst for the 60 Second Marketer.

Thursday, May 3rd, 2012, 2:40 am   |   General Marketing  |  RSS feed |  Respond  |  Trackback