Tips For Hosting A Successful Social Media Giveaway

One of the best ways to increase your social media following and attract new customers to your online store is to host a social media giveaway!

In this article, we’ll explain how to host a social media giveaway, share ideas for your next giveaway, and offer advice for staying in touch with those who entered your giveaway after it’s over.

5 Benefits of Hosting a Social Media Giveaway

Why should you host a social media giveaway? Here are just some of the benefits:

1. Increase your engagement — Engagement on social media means that followers are leaving comments, reacting to your posts, and clicking on your posts’ links. You can instantly boost your engagement by giving people a reason to engage with a giveaway!
2. Increase your visibility — The more people engage with your posts, the more your posts will be favored by social media algorithms. By incentivising engagement, you’ll continue to grow your visibility and following on social media.
3. Increase your following — A common rule for entering a social media giveaway is to tag a friend in the comments section of your giveaway post, and this is a great way for new people to find your profile and start following your account.
4. Increase your email subscribers — If you have an email list, you may want to direct social media followers to subscribe to receive your email newsletters as their form of entry into your giveaway.
5. Increase your sales — Many people will try to enter your giveaway because they’re excited about your products. Those who don’t win may visit your website or store to purchase the products you were giving away because they don’t want to miss out on the fun.

How to Host a Social Media Giveaway

First, decide what you want to give away. The best giveaways contain products that are universally loved by all your customers, regardless of their interests and demographic information. For example, you may want to give away a painter’s “starter kit” containing everything beginner DIYers need to paint their first project, because the items in this giveaway would be useful to all types of customers. On the other hand, a giveaway that only includes one specific, niche item like a specialty paintbrush may not be appealing to your entire audience.

Once you’ve decided what to give away, there are three primary methods of hosting your social media giveaway. Each method can help you reach different goals for engaging your audience.

Method #1: Host a giveaway through your social media post.

Most social media giveaways use this method, in which a winner is selected through the social media post you publish to announce the giveaway. Using this method, you may ask followers to enter to win the giveaway by completing actions such as:

• Like this post
• Comment on this post
• Follow our social media account
• Tag a friend in the comments of this post

Then you would select a winner from the pool of people who complete the tasks you ask them to complete.

This method is best for: 

• Increasing your social media visibility and engagement
• Helping new people find your social media pages for the first time
• Raising awareness about the types of products your store has to offer

Method #2: Host a giveaway through a form.

This giveaway method is a little more complicated, because you have to direct social media followers to an external link with a form they must fill out. The benefit of this method is that you can collect information about your followers so you can get to know your audience and contact them later after the giveaway has ended. You may include questions in the form such as:

• What is your name?
• What is your birth month and year?
• What is your email address?
• What phone number can we use to text you?

You can also add in any questions you want to ask to get feedback about your store or products.

This method is best for: 

• Keeping in touch with followers through more direct channels (like email or text messages) in the future
• Asking for feedback to improve your store, customer service, and marketing efforts
• Getting to know your audience’s demographics

Method #3: Host a giveaway through a platform like Woobox, Wishpond, or Rafflecopter.

This giveaway method is the most complex, because you can use a giveaway platform to ask your audience to complete any number of actions in order to gain multiple entries to win prizes.  For example, you could ask entrants to subscribe to your email list, follow you on all social media platforms, provide their phone number, and more.

This method is best for: 

• Encouraging followers to engage with your store in new ways through new media
• Driving traffic to specific pages and marketing channels
• Keeping in touch with followers through more direct channels (like email or text messages) in the future

Once you’ve selected the method that’s right for your giveaway goals, create a special post on your social media channel of choice to provide specific instructions for how people can enter your giveaway. Try to make your instructions sound as simple as possible to avoid intimidating your audience.

What to Do After Your Giveaway

The ultimate goal of most giveaways is to create more awareness about your store’s products and eventually drive more customer sales. After your giveaway is over, make the most of the attention you’ve gained from your audience. Here are some tips for taking advantage of the engagement on your giveaway post:

• Announce your winner and ask them to spread the word about what they’ve won through their own social media channels.
• Offer a special discount code on the products you’ve given away to entrants who did not win the prize.
• Tease future giveaways you plan to host to encourage followers to keep checking your social media profiles in the future.
• If you’ve asked entrants to provide their email address or phone number, email and/or text them to let them know that while they haven’t won the prize, you’d like to offer a special discount code on the products that were included in the giveaway.
• If you’ve asked entrants to provide their email address or phone number, keep in touch with them regularly (at least once per month, but preferably weekly or biweekly) to invite them to special workshops, store events, and other promotional happenings.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that you want to continue giving your audience valuable content that meets their needs!

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