By Eva Creerson
To promote your business you will probably be using social media. In order to reach your goals, you need engagement: retweets, likes, shares, pins, comments, and users joining in on the conversation. Use this advice for increased user participation on Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest, and in-turn gain new followers, leads, subscribers, traffic, and conversions.
5 Tips for Creating Popular Contests on Twitter
One of the best ways to entice users to engage on Twitter is to run a contest. Here are some tips to create a popular contest that generates a lot of hype for your brand:
- Make sure you’re using the right type of contest for your needs. Creative answers, sweepstakes, photo contests, and Q&A are amongst the most popular, and have high success rates depending on your goals. Determine what the goals are before choosing what type of contest to run.
- Market to your current followers as well as those who have never heard of you. If you limit your contest to current followers, chances are you’re missing out on an entire demographic of users who could potentially be interested in your brand.
- Plan your contests in advance. The secret to all successful social media campaigns, including Twitter contests, is great planning. Do thorough research and enlist the help of experts to the extent that your resources will allow. If you need to hire a strategist, do so. You can still implement the tactics on your own, and the results will likely be worth the investment.
- Offer an enticing prize. People are going to enter based on what they have to gain. For some, acknowledgement is enough. For others, the possibility of a new car or renovating a room in their house may be needed to entice. Ask yourself what your market might be interested, and offer it as a prize for the winner.
In order to get others to use your hashtags on Instagram, you need to ask them to use it or put the effort in to get it “trending.” The first is accomplished through content creation and outreach. Ask your blog readers, facebook followers, and other fans to share it. One of the most popular hashtags we saw last year was from REI, #optoutside.
The company asked fans to use their hashtag and post photos of what they were doing outdoors on Black Friday, rather than partaking in the consumerist shopping traditions on the most popular sales day of the year. They shared the call to action on their website, Facebook, Twitter, and across all social media platforms.
Now, they’re still sharing posts from fans that contain the hashtag. It’s carried over into a movement for REI fans and those that love the outdoors. Forbes tells us that most attempts for a trending hashtag fail miserably. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. The benefits far outweigh the risks.
What are the Secrets to Popular Pinterest Boards?
Understanding what traits popular Pinterest boards have in common can help you by letting you know what you should do with yours. First of all, you’ll want a professional, completed profile. Upload a profile picture and complete the bio. Then, create a board with a description, category, and keywords. What are the chances users are going to be searching for one or more of the words you use to title your board? Take this into consideration.
Also, notice that some boards have more than one pinner. This is just as acceptable for businesses and organizations as it is personal profiles. So, inquire to interesting users and authorities about pinning valuable information to their pins as well as invite them to pin to yours. The more the merrier, just monitor to ensure that the posts are in alignment with your brand image.
Also, hashtags can be used on Pinterest as well, just think of them as a way to attract interest to like pins. Encourage those who share your boards to use the hashtags you’re creating and to create their own, pending they understand how to use them.
In Conclusion
There are so many ways to encourage your fans and new leads to participate in your social media campaigns. This guide is a drop in the bucket of social media advice, but it will give you a great start to generating more engagement on some of the most popular social media platforms of 2016. After you implement some of the tips, share how it worked for you in the comments below.
