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10 Tips for Successful Social Media Contests, Promotions

Contests and promotions through social media outposts like Twitter and Facebook are a great way to generate excitement and engage and involve your fans, friends and followers. It’s a key way to get people interacting with your brand, product, event or organization in a meaningful way while helping you to identify your most enthusiastic advocates.

Through our work with a variety of clients at Tuvel Communications, we’ve created and executed several successful social media contests & promotions. You can see some examples of our work, here, here and here.

Along the way, we’ve been able to refine our efforts to maximize results while creating excitement and having fun! By sharing some of our tips, we hope that we can save you time while driving the results that you want. With this in mind, we’ve created our Top 10 list of ways to ensure that your social media contests & promotions are successful:

Get peeps engaged! Don’t just broadcast promotions through social networking outlets. Rather, get folks involved with your brand or organization. We recently ran a Twitter promotion that asked folks to tell us, in 140 characters or less, why they should get a free conference pass. We also ran a promotion that required those interested to provide the contest answer as a comment on the client blog. Create something that allows people to interact directly with your brand – it’s key to getting traction and conversation going in your social media communities.

Have a there-there. Don’t just do a contest for the sake of doing a contest! All of our promotions have a specific purpose. While you want to create buzz and excitement, you also also want to think about the other goals you want to accomplish. Do you want to increase attendance, fund-raise, generate discussion, build an email list or deliver another metric?

Make it simple to participate. Complex games are fun (anyone remember the early days of scavenger hunts that included several websites?) but may attract less participants. It’s great to utilize the “flavor of the month” technologies out there, but keep your audience in mind and don’t make them do anything that will generate more perplexed questions than actual participation.

Create fun and excitement! People love contests and the chance to win prizes. Make ‘em interesting and people will play. Convey excitement through messaging. Make your promotion different and, of course, inject personality into it.

Follow best practices. We are careful not to get our clients or bloggers and others into trouble by promoting or creating a contest. Know the rules beforehand. In this game, you can’t beg forgiveness! You can find out more about the rules and regulations here and here.

Offer value and relevance. Find out what turns people on. We have executed many government related promotions. We’ve been told that government types aren’t interested in promotions. Not true! Most people are interested in a contest or giveaway, it’s just a matter of finding out what they like.

Leverage marketing partners. We typically approach client partners that have large followings (fans, friends, followers, subscribers). We then approach these folks so that they might create a special (client) promotion for their readers. Everyone wins in this scenario with partners being able to offer value and our client reaping the rewards!

It’s the total campaign that matters. Promotions are most successful when they are part of a larger, integrated campaign. Involve creative and promote on the website and through email. Our most successful campaigns are seamless and can be played through several social networking platforms.

Make it easy to pick a winner and fulfill. We typically create giveaways so that our clients can randomly choose winners. We also find prizes that can be fulfilled through an email address – gift cards are a good example – make awarding easy. Have you ever had to hunt down snail mail addresses for fulfillment? Logistically, it can be a painful process!

Don’t stop! Promotions help to create traction and momentum. Continue the conversation, get others involved and grow your supporters. In other words: be a smart marketer!

Posted with the permission of Mitch Arnowitz | Originally posted @ http://www.tuvel.com/blog/2011/04/20/10-tips-for-successful-social-media-cont...

About Mitch Arnowitz

As managing director for Tuvel Communications, Mitch Arnowitz brings experience, creativity and proven results to harnessing alternative media. A 20-year veteran of traditional and interactive marketing, Arnowitz is an expert in creating and leveraging relationships to drive loyalty and effectively market a person, business or brand.

(Photo by emilydickensonridesabmx)

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2012: The Year of Living Dangerously with Social Media

by Kari Rippetoe

Why are companies and organizations still so afraid of social media?

They seem to understand why they should be using social media – they’ve been presented with all the business cases, case studies and marketing plans to prove its worth. Now there seems to be a major aversion to actually diving in and utilizing social media in the best possible way for the brand – not as a broadcast channel, but as an engagement channel. Now that they’re on social media, they really have no idea what to do with it.

Here are my responses to the two biggest fears I’ve heard:

What if it doesn’t work?

You could say that about any marketing your company does. Has that stopped you from launching that email campaign? How about print campaigns? While the cost of social media isn’t free, it can certainly cost you a heckuva lot less than some of the other marketing you do – so if fear of a direct mail campaign not working didn’t stop you from spending bucketloads of precious marketing budget on it, then why is this same fear stopping you from launching your social media effort?

Perhaps it’s more of a fear of the unknown – something that’s experimental and new versus tried and true. I read a really interesting article in The Conversation on CIPR about PR’s schizophrenic attitude to creativity. Andrew Smith cited recent research from Cornell University that points up key reasons why there’s a general bias against creativity:

  • Creative ideas are by definition novel, and novelty can trigger feelings of uncertainty that make most people uncomfortable.
  • People dismiss creative ideas in favor of ideas that are purely practical — tried and true.
  • Objective evidence shoring up the validity of a creative proposal does not motivate people to accept it.

So the business case for social media may have been made, but actually implementing new and creative ideas for using it presents a roadblock for many people. It’s understandably difficult for us as humans to do things outside of our comfort zone; but if we were always afraid of something not working, nothing would ever get done. For companies to succeed in social media, they have to step outside of what is safe. Don’t be afraid to try something new – if it doesn’t work, learn from it and try something different.

What if someone says something bad?

Leslie White wrote a great post over at the SocialFishing Blog that addressed this very fear. A lack of control is what drives it – many companies and organizations feel that they have to steer the message in a very calculated way, all the time. They feel like social media will give people a platform to say anything they want about the brand, and they can’t control that. NEWSFLASH: those conversations are already happening, but you’ve been too wrapped up in your “message” to see it. Sure, there are negative things being said; but guess what – there are positive things being said too. By your customers and members.

So, no, you can’t control the conversation on social media; but, as Leslie White puts it, “social media gives us many ways to try to influence it.” Instead of ignoring negativity or avoiding social media completely, there are steps you can take to influence the conversation:

  1. Religiously monitor mentions of your company, brand and products on social media.
  2. Create a plan of action for dealing with negative comments, based on what you’ve monitored (and for funneling those comments to appropriate channels). Here’s an oldie (but still goodie) blog post I wrote a few years ago on dealing with negative feedback in a positive way.
  3. Create a plan for engaging and empowering the people who are making positive comments – they are your customer brand evangelists.
  4. Use everything you’ve found to make improvements  – negative feedback is still good feedback.

Let’s make 2012 the year of living “dangerously” – stop being afraid of social media and start thinking of how it can work for you, not against you.

from → Marketing, PR, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Tips & Best Practices

Why It’s NOT Unwise to Outsource Social Media

2011 August 31

by Kari Rippetoe

There, I said it. And not just because I work for an agency. I believe that it can be done in a managed, streamlined and authentic way – a way that works well and is successful for the brands that choose to outsource social media.

The latest opinion trend I’ve been seeing with regards to social media marketing is whether or not it should be outsourced. Particularly, the aspect of social media community building and management – i.e. an agency tweeting on behalf of its brand client. I’ve read posts from those who are for it (such as this one from Jeremiah Owyang) and against it (such as this one from Ken Mueller).

Outsourcing, in general, is a topic of controversy. When corporations talk about outsourcing, it many times results in jobs being lost to a third-party company (especially companies in emerging markets) in order to save on labor costs. But that’s not what I’m here to defend.

Outsourcing Social MediaWe at Tuvel have worked with clients who, under a variety of circumstances, require help with their social media marketing and community-building efforts. Some don’t have internal resources to handle it on their own, others don’t have adequate knowledge on where to begin. In either case, they either want to handle it internally and need consultation, or want us to handle it for them – and we’ll help them in either case. However, in neither case are they looking to replace their own employees with us.

The general consensus against outsourcing social media is that it’s unauthentic, is more prone to mistakes and opens the brand up to backlash. I’m of the opinion that there is nothing wrong with outsourcing social media marketing and community building/management to an agency, if it’s managed properly. Yes, there’s always that caveat. After reading this SocialFish guest post from Maggie McGary, online community & social media manager for the American Speech-Language Hearing Association, I explained this caveat in my comment:

If an association for whatever reason decides to outsource community management, then they still need to be prepared to manage the high-level strategy and the agency that implements it. Just because you’re outsourcing doesn’t mean you don’t have to deal with it anymore. This is the only way to ensure the success of the agency’s efforts (and your own success).

This is why we work closely with each and every one of our clients to establish clear communication plans and strategic processes, whether editorial, customer service, reporting or brand representation. Everything we do is in line with our clients’ goals and strategies, and we have regular meetings and status calls to discuss plans of action. We, in essence, become a part of their team. We also maintain transparency throughout the process and let people know who they’re talking to without sacrificing voice and authenticity.

This is how snafus are avoided. Mistakes happen, but don’t be fooled into believing that they only happen with a third-party at the helm – they can happen internally too.

I’ve made my position clear – what’s yours?

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How Engaged is Your Community? The 5 Levels of Social Media Engagement

2011 August 17
by Kari Rippetoe

If you manage social media outposts for your business or organization, then no doubt you’ve heard the word “engagement” numerous times. It isn’t enough for people to simply follow or like you, the goal is for them to interact and participate in a way that keeps them engaged with your brand. But because we’re talking about “social” media, we have to consider and accept that different people are social in different ways. Not everyone will engage in the same way, but you can help them to increase their levels of participation so they are more engaged with your brand in a meaningful way.

How engaged is your social media community? There are 5 levels of increasing engagement we’ve identified through our social media research and campaign work, which will help you to segment your community members:

 

  • Level 1: Observing – watching the conversation from a far & simply “lurking” to decide if it’s interesting/valuable enough to join.

  • Level 2: Following – following the brand in some way, i.e. following on Twitter or Liking on Facebook.

  • Level 3: Engaging – interacting in a limited fashion, such as clicking through to read your content, viewing a video, or Liking a wall post.

  • Level 4: Endorsing – actively sharing your content with others, i.e. retweeting, sharing via Facebook, etc.

  • Level 5: Contributing – actively participating in the conversation and interacting with your brand, i.e. tweeting to your brand, posting on your Facebook wall, or commenting on a blog post.

Notice that the circles in the graphic get smaller as the level increases. This means that the number of people decreases as they become more and more engaged with your brand through social media. This is to be expected, and those Level 4 and 5 folks are the ones you should ultimately focus on building relationships with – they are your brand advocates. This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t pay attention to the people in Levels 1-3, because there are steps you can take to move them up the ladder and convert them to Endorsers and Contributors.

What are those steps? Stay tuned…that’s another blog post!

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What We’re Reading, August 12th

Before I continue with this week’s reading list, I want to ask you to post your thoughts in the comments below on social media’s role in the London riots – do you think blocking Twitter and Facebook is the answer?

Now, back to our regularly-scheduled reading list:

  • Klout Shares 6 Secrets Of Twitter Hashtag Chats from AllTwitter: Thinking of hosting your own Twitter chat? Klout offers some useful tips to help you get started.
  • 64% of Small Businesses Think Social Media is Unnecessary [STUDY] from Mashable: This is an interesting report, but I’m baffled how it distinguishes word of mouth marketing (which 50% say they can’t do without) from social media (which apparently small businesses don’t have so much of a need for). Things that make you go…”Really?”
  • StumbleUpon Launches Program to Help Nonprofits from AdAge: Is it me, or have we not heard much about StumbleUpon lately? They seem to have gotten lost in the social networking jungle. But having used their Paid Discovery platform in the past, I definitely like what they’re doing for nonprofits with a new Stumbling for Good program.

We’ve also been reading about privacy issues in social networks (when aren’t there privacy issues?) – here are a couple of articles to help you:

Have a great weekend!

Thinking About Social Media? 10 Things to Keep Top of Mind

by Mitch Arnowitz

As the US summer sets in, we thought it high time to take a time out and do a social media reality check. We execute social media campaigns for a variety of organizations, from events to government and nonprofits to associations. With every campaign, there’s always a mental checklist we keep as we create and implement strategies to ensure our efforts are goal-focused, measurable and successful.

If you’re thinking about implementing social media into your organization’s marketing plan, here are 10 things to keep in mind as you’re developing your strategy.

  1. Social is not just another piece of the marketing pie- Well-intentioned broadcast marketers will have you believe that social networking platforms simply offer an additional channel to distribute your message. Not true! Companies and organizations that use networks to broadcast press releases and (only) talk about themselves will continue to be roadkill.
  2. Everyone’s an expert, no one’s an expert- Social media experts, of the just add water and stir variety, continue to come out of the woodwork. Many can talk the talk but not walk the walk! Knowing how to tweet doesn’t make you an authority. Years of productivity, a solid reputation and quantifiable results does. Peter Shankman summed it up well in a recent post: I Will Never Hire a “Social Media Expert,” and Neither Should You.
  3. Some things never change- Yes, there’s been a paradigm shift away from broadcast communications and towards engagement but the basic rules of communication, PR and marketing practice still apply. Good old fashioned business ethics continue to rule the day! Knowing who you want to impact, the value your organization brings and understanding the other person’s needs before you get in touch continues to be mission critical in all marketing efforts.
  4. Social media is more than Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter- While uber-important, social networks make up only part of the social media ecosystem. Email lists, web forums, user groups, photo and video sharing services, podcasts, social bookmarking sites and niche online communities are all part of the social media mix. It’s important to seek out where your customers are socializing and get involved in conversations on their turf. Here’s a more complete definition.
  5. It’s all about building relationships- All marketing is about building relationships. Social offers tools and platforms to get the job done, but they don’t replace the one-on-one interaction necessary for being successful. And, relationships take time. We live by the adage that it’s never about the technology, but always about the people.
  6. Don’t drink the social media Kool-Aid- There are many things that social media can do, but it will not cure cancer, right the economy or solve the Middle East crisis. We tell clients that there is rarely a silver bullet. However, with hard work and marketing smarts, social media can certainly help you reach your campaign goals.
  7. It’s not one thing you do, it’s everything you do- Our most successful campaigns are those where all program elements work together. Social media, search, email and traditional should all work in tandem. Social should not be standalone, rather it should be baked into all campaign elements.
  8. Build it and they may not come- Some organizations are moving away from a destination website mentality and more towards an outpost-focused, community building strategy. While it’s great to set up your brand’s social media outposts on Facebook or LinkedIn, it’s also important to remember that customers and supporters might be involved in other social media and affinity groups as well.
  9. Social is not only about return on relationship- At Tuvel, we gauge our success by qualitative and quantitative metrics. While awareness, brand recognition and reputation are important, so are metrics that include money raised, increase in attendees or subscribers and widgets sold. Plan to measure your social media efforts in such a way that you can easily track results.
  10. At the end of the day, social media is all about being social!- If you’re a practitioner, it’s also a good thing to be sociable – sharing, listening, learning and laughing! No one wants to socialize with someone who is either a) broadcasting, or b) not socializing at all. Find your social media voice and make it a part of your brand.

    from → Community Building & Management, Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Strategy, Tips & Best Practices

What We’re Reading: July 7th – Social Media Campaign Do’s and Don’ts Edition

by Kari Rippetoe

This week’s edition of “What We’re Reading” focuses on some shining examples of what to do (and not do) when it comes to your social media campaigning – whether it’s on Facebook, Twitter, or even blogging.

What To Do

 

What Not To Do

Have a great weekend!


Related Posts:



from → How-Tos, Marketing, Tips & Best Practices, Uncategorized, What We're Reading

Social Media Mythbusters: 5 Myths About Social Media ROI

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by Kari Rippetoe

I’ve been reading a higher-than-usual number of blog posts and articles about social media ROI – how to measure it, what to measure, what not to measure. I’m not sure if there was some sort of collective epiphany that led to this all of a sudden (or I just have ROI on the brain), but many of these posts have given me some food for thought about the topic – so I decided to write my own post.

As you read through the many articles floating around out there, here are some of the myths I’ve discovered about social media ROI to help give you a little bit of perspective:

  1. ROI can’t be measured for social media marketing. Sorry, but marketers can no longer fall back on this excuse. When social media first started gaining momentum as a potentially viable marketing channel, no one was quite sure yet about how to measure efforts. Because it was a very young medium, there was a gap in terms of knowledge and tools to help us do this. Now that social media has really come into its own as a marketing channel, our collective  knowledge about it has grown and more tools have become available to track a variety of metrics, including ROI.
  2. The only return that matters in social media is Return on Engagement (ROE). I remember a couple of years ago when “Return on Engagement” was being touted as the “new ROI” for social media. I like to say that social media is all about being social, and “engagement” is one of those buzz words we as marketers throw around to describe how social our organization, brand, etc. is.  While engagement in social media is important, it simply cannot be substituted for ROI. It doesn’t matter how many friends, fans or followers you’ve accumulated, or even how many retweets or wall posts you get. If you can’t track all your hard work back to some sort of conversion – whether that’s a purchase, a sign-up, a donation, or whatever conversion goal you’ve determined – then all of that won’t amount to squat.
  3. Social media ROI is calculated the same way as for any other marketing campaign. I recently read a post on Mashable about how to calculate the ROI of social media, and while it provided a good foundation, it took a basic ROI formula used for more traditional marketing channels and applied it to social media. Using direct mail as an example for comparison, the post would have you believe that you would need to acquire X amount of customers in X amount of time via social media to demonstrate ROI. What it didn’t take into consideration was the time social media actually takes compared to other channels, and that social media is not direct response. What you have to do is take what you know about calculating ROI for your other marketing efforts and apply that in a way that works for your specific social marketing initiatives, knowing that social media is not a quick hit. It requires more direct customer engagement (there’s that buzzword again) and less direct response marketing. Here’s a post that provides an interesting social media take on the traditional ROI formula.
  4. Social media isn’t worth getting into if direct ROI can’t be measured. ROI can be determined in a variety of ways – it just depends on, as I mentioned in #2, what your conversion goals are. You might not be able to track monetary ROI, but you can track other conversions that are just as valuable. Plus, social media can help you uncover a wealth of insights about your customers, your product, your brand, and your organization that can be just as valuable. If you’re able to identify a potential flaw with your product or negative customer service issues through chatter on Twitter, then you can use that information to improve the product or your customer service processes – potentially saving your company grief and/or money in the long run. Don’t you think social media is worth it for that reason, at the very least?
  5. Social media is cheap, so ROI should be high. It may be free to start accounts on any number of social media sites, but the cost in terms of time and resources to manage those outposts the right way is not. Like it or not, social media will take some budget. It may not be as much as a PPC campaign or a print ad, but don’t fall into the trap of thinking that it’s so inexpensive as to automatically yield a high ROI. In fact, according to a recent infographic compiled by Focus.com, the average cost of social media is $210,600 in one year:

Social Media Cost Infographic

from → Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Tips & Best Practices

What We’re Reading, June 24th

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by Kari Rippetoe

Happy Friday! As you’re gearing up for your weekend, we’ve compiled a few stand-out blog posts we found interesting this week for your reading pleasure. Social media marketing ROI has been a hot topic for a while, but you can never diminish its importance. In a world where more and more businesses want to jump on the ol’ social media bandwagon, goals, measurement and ROI should be the driving forces behind any social media marketing campaign or program.

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from → Articles, Links, Resources, Social Media Marketing, Tips & Best Practices, What We're Reading

And the Winner of the “Name Our Blog” Contest Is…

Congratulations to Don Schaaf of ds+f / Don Schaaf & Friends! His suggestion of Unconventional Wisdom has been chosen as the new name for Tuvel's new blog!

Thanks to everyone who entered - your suggestions rocked! We loved all the ideas, but alas, we could only choose one. Don has won a $50 Amazon gift card and the satisfaction of seeing his suggested name in the masthead of our blog (which we're working on and you'll see very soon...stay tuned).

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from → Shameless self promotion, Tuvel Communications