Using Influencers to Run a Successful Giveaway Campaign on Social Media

Running a giveaway campaign on social media is a popular way for advertisers to quickly boost numbers on social media accounts. Influencers are key to social media marketing and can be a great tool to use to ensure a successful giveaway campaign.

Social media contests typically require “follows,” “likes,” and “shares” for successful entries, which leads to instant growth and engagement for the advertiser. But, such campaigns can be equally beneficial for the influencer as well.

Influencer Marketing Contests Benefits.

The influencer will most likely see higher number of followers and engagement during the giveaway campaign, but that will unlikely be the reason they will want to take part in your giveaway. An even a better carrot dangle in front of the influencer is the ability to reward followers through a prize giveaway. Successful influencers often run giveaway campaigns on their own, out of their own pockets, and may jump at the chance to tap into resources that don’t affect their bottom line.

Once you are ready to run your own giveaway campaign on social media, remember active engagement is the key to success. You could easily conduct a giveaway just by asking contestants to enter an email address, and then use a random name generator to pick a winner. But that won’t grow your following. And in the end, you have given away prizes without the desired result of building your brand or increasing sales.

These simple campaign strategies will ensure both you and your influencer will benefit from your giveaway through happy fans and followers.

Start with Sharing the Link.

Getting started is as easy as sharing a link. Ask the influencer to include a link to the social giveaway on their various social media platforms. If the influencer is excited about the giveaway, fans will be too. For example, “I love my new kicks, click here for a chance to win your own pair.” If your giveaway has a theme, ask the influencer to incorporate the theme in their post.

Don’t Forget the Hashtags.

Hashtags are a great way to keep engagement high. The influencer can ask fans to follow you on social media. Once on your site, the fans can leave comments that include a branded hashtag. The number of hashtags used during the campaign can easily be calculated for giveaway purposes by clicking on the hashtag, and viewing the stream. When choosing a hashtag, make sure it clearly incorporates your brand and giveaway campaign theme. Also, make sure it will be fun for fans to incorporate in their comments and posts.

Grow the Audience through Tags.

Most social media giveaways require contestants to like, follow and comment to win. By adding one more prerequisite, you and your influencer can grow your audience base. Requiring the influencers’ fans to tag friends on social media to enter the contest will quickly grow your number of followers on Instagram, and your contestant pool. Those friends will then have to tag their friends to enter, and so on, and so on. You can require a certain number of tags to be entered in the contest. Such as “tag three friends for your chance to win.” A bonus to this method will be added followers for your Instagram influencer. Happy influencers are more likely to continue helping you build your brand.

Let Instagram Contestants Upload their Own Content.

Straight up soliciting likes and comments may seem a bit passé to some. Instead, consider having influencers ask their followers to post their own photos and content. The content should include a branded hashtag to distinguish the content as a contest entry. This method is popular in the fashion industry. Most followers of fashion influencers will jump at the chance to show off their own trendy style. Asking for photos of followers wearing your brand is a great way to increase engagement. Restaurants can also use this method by asking followers to post photos of their favorite menu items.

Try a Snapchat Question and Answer Campaign.

Social media market campaigns are beginning to incorporate Snapchat. Snapchat may be one of the newest to the social media game, but it is also one of the most influential. A Q&A can easily be done on Snapchat, but could be harder to track on other social media platforms. Try having your influencer use a question and answer approach, such as “Where am I? Take a guess, and you could win.” They will prompt their fans to follow your brand, and snap you the answers. This will boost your followers, and keep contestants actively engaged in your giveaway campaign.

Snapchat is Not a One Hit Wonder.

Another great use for snapchat is to slowly leak details of your campaign to followers. Fans must be actively engaged to get the details. The influencer will start with a snap letting followers know that details are coming. The follower must actively check snaps for the details if they want to win. Tweets and Facebook posts remain intact for followers to check on if they miss the original unveil. However, snaps will quickly disappear, giving followers a sense of urgency and suspense, which may be appealing to many Snapchat users.

Conclusion.

You can incorporate one or more of these suggestions in your social media giveaway campaign. Having an influencer use a few different methods on various social media accounts will increase engagement. Some fans may strictly follow the influencer on Twitter, while others may prefer Snapchat or Facebook.