Social Media Contest Ideas to Grow Your Brand
Looking for some social media contest ideas? You’ve come to the right place!
In general, social media is a trend that has become a prominent cultural norm and is here to stay. Whether you’re a budding start-up, an established small business, or a thriving corporation, there are undeniable benefits of social media marketing. If you’re a business owner, the marketing advantages of social media presence can no longer be overlooked. But if you’re new to the game, it’s not always easy to come up with new social media posts and ways to engage followers and drive traffic.
And that’s where social media contests come in.
Social media contests are a great way to engage with existing and potential customers, increase brand awareness, and grow your brand. So if you’re needing to give your online presence a boost, try out some of these social media contest ideas!
1. Photo/video contest
2. Caption contest
3. Follow/ share/ like/ re-post/ comment/ tag-a-friend contest
4. Sweepstakes
5. Follower milestone contest
6. Trivia contest
1. Photo/video contest
One of the best social media contest ideas to grow awareness for your brand is a photo or video contest. Some other social media contests are simply interactive. However, a photo contest is extra advantageous because it encourages customers themselves to create and post content related to your product or service.
To create a photo contest, hashtags can make it simple to track contestant entries. Come up with a catchy, unique, relevant, and simple hashtag for your contest, and instruct contestants to use this contest hashtag when posting entries to their pages. This creates an easy-to-browse gallery of all contest entries. You can then have a panel of judges or yourself choose the winner. Alternatively, you can make it even more interactive for your followers by letting them vote for the winner with likes.
The prompt for the photo contest is entirely up to you, but make sure it features your product, service, or brand in a fun and positive way. Some ideas could include:
- A simple photo of the contestant with the product or using the service
- A photo that shows just how much they love your product or brand
- Have contestants get creative with your product by decorating it or using it in a unique way
- Ask them to customize your product in some way
- Ask your followers to submit a picture of their favorite DIY ideas with your product
2. Caption contest
One of the social media contest ideas that can be especially fun for both you and the contestants is a photo caption contest. For this one, you simply post a silly, unique, or somehow relevant photo and ask your followers to come up with a clever caption. An action photo or photo showing interaction of some kind typically works best for a caption contest. Make sure to explain the contest rules when posting the photo. Then just sit back and enjoy what everyone comes up with! As with the photo contest, you can either choose the winner yourself or have your followers choose the winner with likes.
3. Follow/ share/ like/ re-post/ comment/ tag-a-friend contest
This one is several social media contest ideas in one, all involving engagement with your followers by having them perform an action of some kind. Looking to boost your number of followers? Have contestants enter the contest simply by following you and choosing the winner from your followers list at random. Use this same concept by having your followers share or re-post one of your posts, tag a friend in the comment section of a post, or simply comment on a post as a contest entry. Or you can have them enter by completing a combination of those tasks to get the most algorithm boost for your page out of the contest.
4. Sweepstakes
Next on our list of social media contest ideas is a sweepstakes or lottery-style contest. For this contest, you can have users enter their contact details to win a prize. And, as with any sweepstakes, raffle, or lottery, the winner is chosen at random. The added advantage of this contest is that typically users will enter using their email address. This is a sneaky way to not only engage your social media followers but expand your email list as well!
5. Follower milestone contest
Did you just reach a follower milestone on your page? This is an excellent time to come up with a social media contest idea to thank your audience and give something back. Simply create a post that highlights how thankful you are for all those who follow your page and content. Then explain the details of the contest so they can start entering to win the prize. Giving something back to your followers out of gratitude for simply following your brand and interacting with you is an excellent way to breed loyalty with your customers.
6. Trivia contest
Lastly, another one of the most simple and fun social media contest ideas for your followers is to create a trivia contest. Simply come up with some kind of trivia question that involves your brand, product, or service (or even just something random and fun!), and the first person to comment with the correct answer wins. However, make sure to choose a question that’s a challenge so lots of people have a chance to enter!
Need help?
If you’re a business owner and thinking this all sounds great, but you just don’t have the time to run your business and your social media, consider hiring a social media manager! It truly can be a full-time job these days. A social media manager can post for you every day. They can create all the content for your social media pages, run social media contests, and manage all the communication from your posts and messages. It’s a great investment to make for the future of your business.
At Dock Line, we have an entire team of social media managers that help businesses grow online. If you’re interested to learn more about Dock Line’s Social Media Services for small businesses, contact us today to see how we can help grow your business! We’d love to hear from you. Like this content and want more? Read more tips for local businesses on our blog! And don’t forget to subscribe to Dock Line Magazine to get more content like this sent straight to your inbox and mailbox!