Contests In Social Networks And Blogs: Strategic Planning

Contests In Social Networks And Blogs: Strategic Planning

Contests in social networks and the blogosphere - is not only the fun and interesting pastime for your customers, but also for you - to get information about potential customers and to provide feedback to them. Competitions - a great way to increase sales and improve brand awareness.

If you have never tried to organize a competition in the social network, we recommend that you start with Twitter or Facebook, the social network with the largest audience: Facebook each month visited by about 845 million users, Twitter - more than 100 million. According to research company Alexa.com, Facebook covers about 44% of Internet users, Twitter - about 8.6%.
To contest gave good results in the form of new customers, sales growth, and well-established feedback, we have developed a common strategy for you to the competition.

Decide on goals

Identify the most important task for you, and based on her Develop conditions of competition. For example:

• Advertise a new product or sales
• Create an online image of your brand
• Getting feedback from customers
• Gathering feedback on the company or product
• Targeting will also help to determine the scope of the contest and the prize.
• Come up with a theme

This is certainly the most interesting stage in the organization of the competition. But during its passage, you will need to follow the previously chosen strategy. Think about what your audience that she was interested. In order to attract the attention of potential customers, ask them to use their imagination:

• when shooting photos or movies that have demonstrated the most innovative use of your product
• the development of the idea of ??advertising the story for your company
• when writing the story, which will go on the personal use of your product or service
• to develop ideas for a new product or service your company

Offer a prize

You can offer as a prize to any product or service that provides your or another company, for example, an e-book, multiple coupons with discounts, a day at the spa or a weekend in a holiday home.
You can also invite any of your partners or subcontractors to perform as a sponsor in exchange for free advertising on your site.
The prize does not have to act as a TV or a week holiday in Bali: any interesting and necessary thing in life can bring to your competition necessary attention and motivate potential customers to take part in it.

Decide on rules

If the contest you are using social networks, for example, Facebook or Twitter, do not forget that they are working on their own rules, the violation of which can lead to blocking of your account. Briefly, we mention the main ones.

The provisions of the social network Facebook:

• Facebook is not responsible for the actions of users who participate in your contest
• Entrants should be aware that personal data provided by them when completing the registration form, only the company-organizer of the competition, but not Facebook network can be used
• The use of Facebook tools for the competition is prohibited. You should not encourage participants to the number of "likes", to oblige them to comply with the framework conditions of the competition, upload photos to albums Facebook, publish posts in your account, etc. 

You also can not use "like" as a tool in order to vote

• The competition should have its own registration form
• You can not notify winners via their accounts on Facebook
• The provisions of the social network Twitter:
• Competition conditions should not violate Russian laws
• Caution users from creating multiple accounts to participate in the competition. Otherwise, Twitter can block your account.

Do not ask to do retweets information about your competition. It is considered a violation of Twitter rules and can lead to the exclusion of all such posts from Twitter search
Use appropriate, thematic hashtags. Using tags such as # or # title contest is prohibited.
Important: Collect e-mail addresses. If you want to communicate with the contestants during the meeting and post included in the registration form field e-mail. The goal of the competition is not only to entertain the users, but also to collect mailing list.

Do not forget to warn users that by providing your e-mail, they give permission to the organizer of the competition to send a letter with information about new products, promotions, and discounts.

Advertise! Advertise!

The base subscription - an important tool in your work. Send out newsletters to your subscribers with news about the competition that opens and complete the letter so that customers can easily "share" this information in social networks. For example, place the end of the letter icon "Share" of various social networking or include the text of the letter links that would take users directly to the social network. For this purpose, you can also use a special service Get Response.
Do not think that the information about the contest will be enough to publish once - make a schedule and publish news about your competition periodically, as do the media covering any events.

And finally - the ending!

Contests - a pleasant expectation. But do not let this expectation last very long. The optimum duration of the contest - 4 weeks, but if the competition and commercial concerns a new product, it is possible to extend up to 5-7 weeks.

The culmination of the competition - the announcement of the winner. By this stage, too, should be taken very seriously. Use Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, to increase the intensity of emotions. All participants must know not only when and where the winners will receive prizes, but also to make sure that the awarding of the prize really happened. Post your video or photo, in which the lucky winner holds the promised prize or certificate for a service.

Reap

At first glance, the contest - it's just a fun game. But in fact, it is of great importance for the development of your store. According to research by marketing agencies, those companies that regularly hold contests, twice as many fans on social networks than those who ignore them.
Because of competently carrying out of competition:

• Increased brand awareness / brand
• There is a growing number of subscribers
• Successfully promote new products
• Increasing traffic to your site / shop
• Seeking feedback from clients

After a good competition your customers satisfied and happy, which means - more confidence in your company!