Giving people an incentive to join your social media fam through competitions is the way to go. There are tons of different ways to effectively use competitions for your business and target your key demographic. Whether your a hair dresser, real estate agent, builder, photographer or baker - basically anyone who's interested in gaining more exposure for their business on social media. Before you establish a competition you NEED to know who your key demographic is - going in blind might get you brand exposure but if they're not the kind of people that are going to convert to sales then it's ultimately a waste of time.
Before we jump into the how, let's establish the 6 different options of prizes that your business can provide which is also going to be relevant to your demographic:
1. Gift Vouchers
This is probably the easiest way to target your people. If you're a make-up artist then beauty products would be a perfect way to attract people who enjoy a bit of glam. If you just want general brand awareness then generic vouchers like Amazon, Harvey Norman, JB Hi Fi etc. are perfect for everyone!
2. Concerts and Sporting Event Tickets
This really works for local events if you're in a service based industry and want to draw in local clientele. You can also get super specific to a demographic that matches your brand, so for a young women clothing brand something like a music festival is great. For families a family pass to a theme park would be more appropriate.
3. Electronics
If your marketing budget can allow for shiny things then by all means go for it! Electronics are good all round prize and can appeal to a variety of different people. If you're a tech business this is a great incentive to attract attention.
4. Partnerships
Teaming up with other brands to combine forces not only takes some of the pressure off but makes for great collaborations and networking! If you're a wedding photographer you could gather a team of vendors in the industry ie. florists, venue, celebrant etc to join forces and giveaway a mini elopement. Not only do you get to go crazy creative, for all unsuccessful submissions you could give a 10% voucher on future services to entice them to book.
5. Seasonal
Think of all the festive times and find things that are relevant, for example Mother's Day you could giveaway a hamper. Valentine's Day you could giveaway chocolates and a bottle of champagne etc.
6. Your Services/Products if applicable
Okay so if you're a Real Estate agent you can't exactly giveaway a house - but if you are able to give your services away it's a perfect way to get a following that are genuinely interested in what you do or provide. If you're a baker giving away a dozen cupcakes, a hairdresser a free cut and blow-dry etc. Get creative with it!
Now in the wise words of Mulan, let's get down to business - here's 20 different yet versatile competitions you can run that are proven to work! Keeping in mind to adhere to the rules and regulations of conducting a competition make sure your terms and conditions cover all bases. Make it crystal clear - How to enter, when entries close, when the winner is announced are the main things.
1. Tag 3 Friends
Pretty simple - Create a post outlining the T+C's and get applicants to tag 3 friends. This gives you chance to appeal to people that may or may not know you exist.
2. Caption This
Post a photo and get your audience to caption the photo.
3. Like & Comment
One of the easiest ones - to enter all they have to do is like and comment.
4. Testimonial
This is great way to not only get feedback on your business but also reward your loyal customers with an incentive.
5. 24 Hour Competition
A competition that works really well on Instagram stories. Have the multiple choice question on your IG story and get entrants to answer - people who guess correctly go to the next round to win. Really easy one for engagement.
6. Trivia
Very similar to the above but instead of capping it at 24 hours have a really hard trivia question that is relevant to your business and the first one to correctly guess wins.
7. How many (x) is in (x)
Take a picture of a jar filled with a content of something that only you know how much, people take guesses of how many there is. For example a good one to do around Easter time is to guess how many Easter eggs are in the jar. You can run this until someone guesses correctly or run it for a certain amount of time and whoever is the closest wins.
8. Videos
Getting people to enter by taking a video with your product or if you do have something physical get people to create a video entry of why they want to win - you can get super creative with this and makes it extra fun to watch.
9. Customer Suggestions
Put it out to the public of what your company should offer next or if there's any room for improvement, this is perfect if you want to get valuable feedback.
10. Pick our slogan
If you're thinking of a re-brand of just starting out this is a fun competition to get people involved in your company.
11. Spot the Difference
This is pretty straight forward. We all remember these as a kid and had a great time figuring them out. Have 2 images slightly different - get people to guess what the difference is.
12. Photo Challenge
I love this - get people to do a crazy pose or get them to display your logo in the crazy place they can. Get them to post the photo with a personalized hashtag so you can track all the entries.
13. Vote
Put it to a vote, if you're racking your brain over 2 different things then entice people with a competition to pick for you.
14. Subscription
Building an email database is so important, and let's face it people are in auto pilot 80% of the time, unless you give them a reason to make it worthwhile.
15. Brand Ambassador
Kind of like a model search - this is only relevant really for businesses with products. Get people to submit their photo and why they want to be the face of your product.
16. Share
Getting people to repost or share and tag you on their stories the favourite photo on your feed.
17. Fill in the blank
Similar to getting people to caption but have a sentence ready to go with one phrase missing. Such as "Monday's at Miss Mandy's Coffee Shop makes me feel _______"
18. National (x) Day
Get people to google what falls on their birthday of the 'National Day Calendar' and type it in the comments.
19. Design Competitions
This is great for creatives to get their juices flowing. Put it to the public to design you a logo.
20. Community over Competition - Competition
Sounds more confusing than it is - basically just get your following to tag their business in the comments and why they love what they do. Not only do you get to see what your following does for work which is great to for stats but they can get some shameless exposure - win/win!