10 Social Media Contests you Can Run on your Page

One fun way to generate excitement around your business and brand is to run a social media contest! Here is a list of 10 Social media Contests you can run on your page today.

Social media contests can be as simple – or as complicated – as you choose to make them. We are going to dig into several options that are on the “more simple” side of the equation, (and we’ll save the complicated ones for another day.)

Before you choose a contest to run on your page, you should think through your goals as a company.

What are your big goals, and what RESULT on social media would benefit those goals the most?

Would you find the most benefit by generating…

More engagement on your social media page?
More followers on your social media?
More buzz about a certain product or promotion coming up?

Thinking through this FIRST can help to determine what type of contest you run.

After you have selected your contest and are formulating the rules, keep these things in mind:

Make it UNCOMPLICATED to enter.

Think about the rules you are coming up with. If YOU saw this contest on social media, would you enter? Or is the entry process too much of a hassle?

Now, that being said – for bigger prizes, there will be more required of people to win.

BUT – you want to make the rules easy to understand, and simple to execute.

Make the PRIZE match the EFFORT to win.

If you have a minimal budget, and are giving away a small prize – make the amount of effort to win reflect that.

On the other hand, if you are giving away a large prize, feel free to make it more effort to enter.

Put a TIME LIMIT on entering.

People are much more likely to enter when there’s a time limit involved. Let them know when you will be selecting a winner.

Now that you know what your goal is as a business, it’s time to select a contest to run!

Here are 5 Social Media Contests that will Increase Followers

1. Follow to Win

Depending on which social media platform, you make call this “Like to Win.”

This is an extremely simple type of contest. Your audience is encouraged to follow your page, or like your social media post for an entry into the contest.

An alternate way to run this type of contest is to set a “Like Goal.” You could post something like, “We will pick a winner once this post gets 500 Likes!”

This type of contest is perfect for small things you may give away, since the amount of effort required is extremely small.

2. Follow and Share (or Tag a Friend)

In this type of social media contest, you would require people to Like and then Share the post as well. Or, you could have them Like the post, and then tag a friend in the comments.

The benefit of this type of contest is that is really widens the net you are casting with your social media post. Every time people share the post, you are now potentially reaching THEIR social media followers, as well as your own.

The same is true for tagging a friend. More social reach, for no extra cost is always a good thing!

ALSO – the power of “social proof” is huge. People will see that their friend shared this contest on social media, and that their friend hopes to win your product. Now, the friend realizes that this must be the cool thing to do – and comes and checks out the contest (and your page) as well.

3. Have set, regular giveaways on your page.

It’s very simple to follow a social media page, and then simply unfollow later. This contest encourages people to hang around and continue following your page.

The way it works is that you have a set time, or criteria you use for a giveaway. For example, you could say that you give away a gift card to one follower every Sunday. Or, you could say – you will give away a gift card each week to someone who used your hashtag in a post that week.

This encourages people to continue following your brand, and also encourages them to be checking back and see who won!

4. Reaching Follower Milestones

You could announce that whenever you reach “x number of followers” you will giveaway a prize. This can be a large or small prize, depending on your business and budget.

You could either select a winner randomly from your followers, or you could say that your 500th follower will win. (Obviously, you choose the number that applies to your page!)

5. Team up With Another Business, Blogger, or Influencer

This is likely an example of – more effort = bigger prize.

You’ve likely seen giveaways like these online before. You are usually required to do several steps for entry. For example, follow each business on Instagram, Follow the influencer on Instagram, share the post, and tag 2 friends.

Then the prize is something big. But, usually all parties involved are chipping in for the prize budget – so it’s not all on you!

You all get to benefit along the way. AND you get the added benefit of using each other’s REACH. These contest posts will start by reaching everyone in each of your audience, and then spread from there as people share and tag friends.

This option can be an exciting way to reach a TON of people.

Here are 5 Social Media Contests that will Increase Engagement

1. Like or Comment to Win

This is a tried and true contest that can apply to just about any social media platform.

People simply have to like the post, or comment on the post in order to be entered to win the prize.

You could have them answer a question in the comments, or give their opinion. Then you select a winner from the people who commented.

2. Share the post to Win

In this contest, people are required to share the contest post in order to gain an entry.

The way that most social media platform’s algorithms work, is that posts that have lots of Likes, Comments, and Shares get the most REACH. Shares have the most “pull” on the algorithm. They are the most powerful way to get more reach on your post.

Requiring people to share the post really ups the engagement and allows more people to see your post.

3. Tag a Friend to Win

When people tag a friend in the comments of your contest post, a few things happen.

People who are friends with the one who COMMENTED now may see that post in their newsfeed. Also, friends of the person who was TAGGED may now see that post as well! This way you have dramatically increased the reach of your post, just by having people tagged.

Also, this just ramps up the social proof of your contest and brand. When people see that their friends enjoy your brand enough to interact with you online, they become curious about your brand as well. People’s friends being interested in your products is more powerful than a whole lot of advertising you could do!

Bonus tip: You would wrap #1, #2, #3 together into steps for entry. Remember, this is MORE things are required in that example, so this effort would be to win a larger prize.

4. Comment with Input/ Answer a Poll to Win

This is a great way to not only generate buzz and engagement on your page, but also to gain some valuable insight into your audience.

You could ask a question – preferably one that would benefit you to know – and then their answer in the comments is their entry into the contest.

Alternately. you could create a poll and then have people vote for their opinion. Their vote is their contest entry.

People love to have their opinions about your products heard, so this is a fun way to hear what your people think, and to reward them for their time and effort spent telling you.

5. Caption this Photo to Win

This contest is a tried and true one that is just plain fun!

You could post a funny photo of your team, or something related to your business and encourage people to caption the photo. Pick the best one and reward them!

One final note…

Make sure that you are CLEAR about how you will select a winner.

Often, if you know there will be lots of entries, you can say that the winner will be randomly selected.

If you are asking for the “funniest caption” or “your favorite answer,” be clear that you say that too, and then put in the time to read them all and pick the winner accordingly.

Choose one of these social media contest ideas and see what boosts in followers and engagements you get to see on your page!

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