How To Run a Successful Social Media Contest in Singapore

Looking for ways to increase your brand’s social media engagement and brand awareness? Want to promote exciting new products or services? Looking to expand your current audience reach? Well, look no further than creating a social media contest!

Social media contests are one of the best ways to encourage higher overall engagement and following. When your audience participates, they are promised something tangible like prizes and offers as a return for investing in your brand.

It’s also a great way of spreading brand awareness through word of mouth, considering that 62% of social media users tend to share giveaway contest details with their friends, and around 34% of contestants eventually become customers.

Without further ado, here is a step-by-step guide to running a successful social media contest:

Clarify Your Expectations

If your brand is completely new to social media marketing or has just started, make sure your target audience – the people that you want to sell to – has been identified. If not, you can start by creating a buyer persona for your brand.

A buyer persona is a rough representation of what a person from your target audience looks like. This can be created through research, such as surveys, interviews, or even asking an AI program to help you create one by analysing customer data after you’ve described the demographic you’re targeting (age, gender, occupation, etc.).

Once you’ve got that down, set your end goal for the contest. Do you want to increase your following? More footfall in your physical store? More people visiting your website? Having a specific goal instead of multiple vague ones ultimately makes deciding the specifics of the contest much easier.

Set Contest Specifics

What’s the prize? Where will it be run? How do people enter? How long do you want to run the contest for? After deciding who you’re targeting as well as what your end goal is going to be at the end of the campaign, you can then proceed to decide on the logistics behind the contest.

• What’s the prize? This depends on what you think is suitable for your brand and what is within your company’s budget. The prize should be worth enough for your target audience to want to participate, but also stay relevant to what your company does. It wouldn’t really make sense if an electronics company were to give away a massage package, would it?

Taking a skincare company like ASTALIFT as an example, they can give away free samples of best-selling products or even full bottles, thereby enticing existing customers to spread the news within their social circles, as well as sway potential new customers.

• Where will the contest be run? Each social media platform has a different set of rules that marketers must follow to ensure their posts and campaigns perform well. Start by targeting which platforms your target audience is most active on. For example, 18 to 29-year-old social media users are typically more active on Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok nowadays, while 40 to 49-year-olds are more active on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter (now called X).

Say your brand is looking to target the 40-49 year old age bracket. If the contest had been run on Instagram, for example, the results might not have been ideal because Instagram is not as popular among that particular age group.

Furthermore, choosing which platforms to use also helps decide the format of the contest post. For example, Reels tend to work better on Facebook and Instagram, while static carousels can also appeal to some audiences because they can convey more information at a glance. Additionally, make the visuals eye-catching. Whether it is a static post or a Reel, it helps to have the word “Giveaway” written in the copy of the post to immediately capture the attention of your audience. If space or time permits, consider including the submission requirements in the post itself to reiterate the instructions written in the caption.

It is important not to limit yourself to just one platform. Since several apps are popular for each age group, consider running the contest across several social media platforms to encourage sign-ups. However, one possible pitfall is the problem of multiple sign-ups from the same person across platforms, which is something that agencies will have to look out for.

• How do people participate? Simplicity is key. Although it may be tempting to ask participants to like and comment on the post, follow the account, and even post about the giveaway on their own personal feeds, a high barrier to entry may deter potential participants.

Keep it simple and aligned with your final goal. Say your final goal is to gain more followers, then get participants to follow the page, and maybe even like the post. If your final goal is to just get more overall engagement, perhaps ask participants to like the contest post and tag one of their friends in the comment section.

1. How long should the contest run? This depends on your target audience, your goal, and how long you’re willing to wait to achieve it.

For a younger audience like Gen Z, they might not be willing to wait long given their shorter attention spans, so perhaps running a week-long contest will be more beneficial as the results will be announced sooner.

If you’re looking for an instant spike in leads and engagements, one to two weeks should suffice. However, if you’re looking for more long-term goals such as sustained brand awareness, then either a recurring contest or a contest with a longer duration would be better.

Promoting the Contest

After the logistics of the contest have been settled, it’s time to promote it. If you feel that just posting the contest on your brand’s social media accounts is not enough, there are a few other ways to let more people know about your contest.

• One way is through boosting the post, provided the budget allows for it. Not only can you be assured that your post’s reach will increase, but paid social media also allows you to target specific audiences, further increasing your chances of having your post seen by your desired audience.
  
• Another way is through user-generated content. People are more likely to trust and buy from brands recommended by their friends or family. Plus, who doesn’t love a good deal? If the prize is attractive enough, perhaps a condition can be included in the caption, where participants have a higher chance of being selected if they share the post on their own social media sites and tag your brand. This way, not only does your brand’s reach increase, but brand awareness also improves.

Conclusion

Hopefully, the guide above has provided a little more clarity into the inner workings of a social media contest. Creating a successful one requires a blend of understanding your audience and their motivations, choosing which platform best suits your brand, and strategically promoting the contest, whether through the brand’s own social media page or through posts by participants.

A well-executed social media contest not only increases overall engagement but can also help retain customers with the promise of good deals, making it a formidable tool for a social media marketer.