We’re going to let you in on a little secret! Well, it’s actually kind of a big secret because it will totally revolutionize your social media game! Ok here it goes – one of the biggest ways you can grow your social channels is with…..drum roll please…..GIVEAWAYS! I bet you couldn’t have guessed that. 😉
Giveaways are one of the easiest ways to organically increase your followers, reach, brand awareness AND engagement! Grab a glass of Pinot (it’s National Wine Day! We won’t tell anyone that you’re drinking at 7 in the morning.) and learn our 5 tips on how to get the most out of your giveaways.
1. Figure Out Your Goal
First things first, before you begin planning your giveaway, ask yourself why you want to run it! Do you want to increase your followers, brand awareness, engagement or promote new products? Depending on what your objective is, you’ll want to tailor the rules for entry to fit what your goal is (just make sure your rules align with platform policies). If you’d like to up your followers, the rules to enter could be to have each person follow the accounts that are part of the giveaway. If you want to boost your brand awareness, the rule can be to tag 3 people to spread the word. To increase engagement, have everyone tag 3 people in a separate comment for each tag. Easy peasy!
2. Find Giveaway Partners + Choose a Prize
It’s best to run a giveaway with one to a few other partners / accounts because you’ll reach a larger audience if they each cross promote it on their channels! Now for the fun part – PRIZES! One partner can give away some of their products or the giveaway prize could be a bundle of both of your products. If you don’t sell products, no worries! You can give away a gift card with a sizable amount to Amazon or Target, etc. There aren’t any rules for what the prize should be – it just has to be really enticing for people to want to enter the giveaway!
4. Choose Social Channels + Create a Plan
You’ve got your goal, your partners, prizes – now what?! You need to decide which social networks you’ll use to accept contest entries! It does NOT have to be just one! Promote the contest where your audience is most likely to engage, but make it clear how you’ll be randomly drawing the winner. Next, decide how long you’ll be running the giveaway for – we recommend a shorter window of time since the reach of your post will fizzle out after a few days. If you’d like to run it longer, you can always put money towards creating an ad or boosting it to reach more people.
5. Energize People + Make Your Post Obvious
Choosing the right copy for your giveaway post is so so important!! Channel your best Oprah energy in your caption. Get your followers EXCITED! Use all upper-case letters in the beginning to alert people that this is a GIVEAWAY and not a normal post. Be slightly obnoxious about it. 😉 Emojis are encouraged! Lastly, make it super easy for people to understand what they’ll be winning by using the right photo that prominently features the prizes. List everything clearly – the rules, end date and how you’ll announce the winner.
And BOOM! There you have it. You’re now on your way to being a giveaway guru!
