The Secret to Hosting a Successful Giveaway on Social Media

Hosting a giveaway on social media can be a great way to increase your brand presence and grow your online following.  

But you can’t just flippantly give something away and expect it to translate into more business. Successful giveaways require a better, more thoughtful approach if you want them to get results.  

So, what is the secret sauce? 

a perfect giveaway starts with a clear objective

What would motivate your company to give something away for free?  

It’s a similar motivation to sports teams who shoot T-shirts out of canons during a game or why a conference hands out swag bags to its attendees—people love free things and companies love opportunities to get their name out in front of more people.  

Hosting a giveaway on social media offers you the same opportunity.  

Like any marketing initiative, your chance of success is limited when you don’t know what you’re trying to accomplish.  

When it comes to hosting giveaways on social media your objectives can be to: 

  • Increase your reach (or the number of users who see your content) 

  • Increase your follower count 

  • Increase your engagement 

  • Increase your brand awareness 

  • Grow your relationship with those new followers and convert them into new customers 

Giveaways are not instant gratification. While they will gain you more followers, they won’t instantly gain you more customers. However, that doesn’t mean they aren’t insanely valuable!   Remember that social media is the long game. Intentionally growing your relationship with those new followers is the best way to convert them to new customers later on.  

Successful giveaways offer something that people actually want.  

One of the biggest mistakes your brand can make is not giving away the right thing.  

Your giveaway needs to excite your followers, and it also needs to be relevant to your brand. Otherwise, what motivation do your existing or potential customers have to participate? 

If you want to plan a high-value giveaway start by asking yourself these questions: 

  • Who is my target market for this giveaway?  

  • You need to know exactly who you want to participate in this giveaway and let their wants/needs/interests motivate what item you choose to give away.  

  • How much value will this item (or items) offer that demographic? 

  • You want your item to be desirable! Offering a high-value item will motivate more people to enter the giveaway.  

  • Does this item align with my brand? 

  • One of the goals of your giveaway is to increase your brand presence (i.e. get your name out in front of more people) Offering a random item that has little to do with your product or service hinders your ability to do just that.  

  • It’s the difference between a photographer giving away a 30-minute mini session and a 3-piece patio set. One helps them show off their work to a new audience who could potentially book a session with them while the other doesn’t do any of those things. 

You have to give away something that people want. If your offer is selected with these questions in mind, it’s more likely to be something your followers will be excited to win.  

Successful giveaways are easy to enter and offer clear expectations

When you post your giveaway, you’ll include a set of instructions that tells users how they can enter and when they will find out whether or not they’ve won.  

We can’t stress enough how important it is to keep these SIMPLE!  

A golden rule in marketing is “when you confuse you lose.” When brands include too many steps or the steps themselves are complicated or time-consuming, your followers are much less likely to participate. 

Instead, limit your entering process to 2-3 easy steps that offer high-impact. High-impact in this case are actions that help your giveaway get seen by MORE people. This comes in the forms of likes, shares, tags, and follows.  

In practice, these instructions could look like: 

  1. “Follow our page” 

  2. “Tag 3 friends in the comments” 

  3. “Share this post” 

Likewise, make sure it’s crystal clear WHEN a winner will be selected and how that person may be notified. You need a clear deadline for when users can no longer enter to win and simple steps for how you’ll reach out to your winner.  

Bonus Tip: Did you know certain giveaway practices are illegal? For example, your giveaway cannot function like a lottery (meaning, people have to purchase something in order to enter). While laws vary by state, it’s important to be aware of the legal restrictions surrounding giveaways.  

5-minutes of research or a quick phone call to a legal advisor is well worth saving yourself from a costly lawsuit.  

Let’s compare a giveaway that struggled versus one that did very well: 

So, what does all of this look like in practice? A great way to further understand why these principals are so important is to see side-by-side comparison between a giveaway that had little success versus one that had great success.  

Scenario #1: “The pickle chip disaster.”  

A large Midwest grocery chain is launching its new line of pickle chips and hosts a giveaway for 500 packs of pickle chips, which must be picked up at the winner’s local store.  

To enter the giveaway users had the follow these steps: 

  • Follow the grocery chain on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. 

  • Tag 10 friends in the comments. 

  • Fill out a 5-question survey and provide all of their contact information.  

  • Screenshot the post and share it on their respective platforms.  

Here’s where they went wrong: 

  1. Their giveaway is far too complicated to enter.  

    • Asking users to perform multiple steps across many platforms is incredibly time-consuming and most won’t be motivated enough to do it.   

  2. Their giveaway is far too specific. 

    • The pool of people who a) like pickle chips enough to want 500 packs and b) have all four social media platforms is limited, which significantly narrows the demographic eligible for this giveaway.  

So, let’s revise! 

Scenario #1: “Calling all pickle chip lovers.” 

The same Midwest grocery chain is launching its new line of pickle chips and hosts a giveaway for 10 packs of pickle chips and a custom chip bowl from a locally owned pottery shop. The winner will be mailed their prize  

To enter the giveaway users had the follow these steps: 

  • Follow the company’s page. 

  • Tag their favorite pickle-loving friend in the comments. 

 The winner and the friend they tagged will both receive prizes!  

Here’s what they did right: 

  1. The offer was more desirable. 

    • 10 packs of chips are a much more reasonable number than 500. In addition, adding a high-value item like a handmade chip bowl is a great way to elevate the customer experience and support a small business within your community (which people love).  

  2. The steps to enter were incredibly easy.  

    • The steps to enter never forced them to leave the platform they were currently on nor were they time-consuming, making it more likely for users to enter. Instead of filling out a survey or thinking of 10 friends to tag, all they had to do was think of 1. Easy peasy!   

  3. We sweetened the pot with a bonus winner.  

    • Rewarding the winner AND the friend they tagged is an awesome way to add more excitement to the giveaway. People who are excited about something tell others about it. If your winner (or their friend) tells another pickle-loving person about their prize, your reach spreads even further!  

  4. Claiming the prize is much more convenient.  

    • People are less likely to do something when it requires too much of their time. Rather than requesting the individual drive to their local store to claim their prize, the grocery train offered to bring it to their doorstep.   

Successful giveaways continue to engage followers after the giveaway ends. 

Engaging with your new followers after your giveaway is just as important as the giveaway itself. After all, why go to the effort to gain new followers if you just lose them post-giveaway? 

Give your followers a reason to stick around by posting consistently to your fed and intentionally engaging with others. Perhaps even offer a discount code to those who didn’t win!  

Giveaways offer momentum, but it’s your job to keep that ball rolling!  

 

Have more questions about giveaways or need help planning and hosting one? Give us a call so we can help!