But instead of your social media team or marketing department choosing the winner, let your followers or fans decide. Set criteria for how to submit and how to vote so that the audience understands both processes.

Collect submissions through social media or email and display all entries on your website or in a form for voting. Sourcing submissions way, rather than just letting people submit and vote right on your feed, helps you monitor the entries and make sure they fit the theme and are appropriate for the audience.

This contest idea gives people the chance to come up with a tagline that they may associate with your brand in the future. This is another case where the contest may be the prize. The winner gets to see their tagline appear on your website, in a commercial, or on product packaging.

Reviewing the submissions also helps you with market research to learn about what people are looking for or how they view your products and services. If you want more information about how you can distinguish yourself from the competition, use the CopyPress free content analysis tool.

It helps you discover gaps in your content marketing and that of your competitors to provide customers with more of the targeted content they crave. We are able to provide unique and fresh content for an ever growing customer base. We know that when we need an influx of content to keep our clients ahead of the game in the automotive landscape, CopyPress can handle these requests with ease.

Have you ever played those find-the-changes games online or in a magazine? This type of contest works just like that. There are two ways to create a spot-the-difference game. First, ask one of your graphic designers to create an edited version of a logo or photo relative to your brand.

Award a prize to the person who finds all the changes first, or the first person to find each change if you want multiple winners. You may also choose to pick a winner at random from everyone who finds all the changes.

Tell people how many differences exist to help their searches. Thanks to the rise of social platforms like TikTok, short videos make up much of the popular content online. Capitalize on this trend for a contest by encouraging people to develop a short, funny video to fit a theme. Similar to photo contest ideas, this option is more appropriate for social platforms like YouTube, TikTok, or Snapchat.

Related: How You Can Add Short-Form Video to Your Content Strategy. Not all promotional contests have to take place only online. Especially if your business works in-person and on the internet, consider these hybrid contest ideas to use both digitally and in the real world:.

Bingo games are fun contests because, thanks to online bingo card generators , you can include almost anything within the game spaces. Personalization makes the game feel more like a scavenger hunt the audience can do at their own pace.

Host bingo in person at an event and give prizes to the first person who wins, or to a few people who win each round. Increase the stakes by offering additional prizes for special bingos , like four corners or full cards.

Coloring contests are popular for brands that cater to families or children. Traditionally, these contests take place in the real world.

A panel of judges chooses its favorite. You can also run coloring contests digitally, either by providing a download of the physical coloring sheet or a way to design it online.

A DIY contest is an exciting choice for companies in artistic, construction, or STEM science, technology, engineering, and math fields. Give people a creative prompt and see what they come up with.

Then invite your audience to share photos or videos of their creations for judging. Consider providing kits with the only materials people can use and see how they rearrange those items to fit the concept topic.

You could even ask participants to film a tutorial for their DIY project and use that to showcase the winning entry on your website and social feeds. Escape rooms are a popular team-building activity for companies.

But they also work well for brand contests. Hold escape rooms in person or virtually, depending on what resources you have. Craft the story, premise, and clues for the escape room to teach people more about your company or products. Then, give a prize to the person or group that breaks out first, with the fastest time, or by choosing a random winner out of everyone who breaks out.

How many gumballs are in the jar? A guessing contest is easy and fun because the guessing items can be the prize. This contest idea is an ideal promotion for a company that sells food, candy, or any other small products you could stuff in a jar.

Run this contest online by sharing a photo of the filled jar and asking people to guess the number of items inside. You can also run the contest in person, such as at a conference event, and have people write their answers on a sheet.

When choosing the winner, consider the person with the closest guess. Think about how you may handle a tie if a few people get the answer exactly right. Give them the elements you want to be included in the logo, such as certain colors or symbols. Then, let the public submit the designs any way they choose.

Some options include a digital design program or drawing by hand. Contestants can then submit images or files with the logo designs for judging. If your company has a mascot or plans to get one, have your followers choose what mascot to pick or what to name it.

There are other mascot contest ideas, too, such as redesigning their outfit. Putting your mascot contest in the physical world by holding a selfie search or scavenger hunt where people find your mascot around town or at an event and take a picture with it to win.

If you intend to redesign your product packaging or develop a new design, open that process up to the public. Hold a product customization contest. Provide tangible or digital design sheets for people to draw and draft their own creations from scratch.

If there are certain elements, like colors, or expectations for customization, make them clear in the contest directions. Scavenger hunts are fun contests that help you increase conversions and build brand awareness. Send people around town or the web to find items related to your company.

You could also include clues for people to crack, which can lead them to specific areas of your website, blog, or even retail stores to find the right information.

Guide your audience to things you want them to see, do, or learn. Then, award the prize to the person or team with the highest score or by picking a winner at random from those who finish. The holidays are prime time to hold contests and increase engagement.

There are a variety of both digital and in-person holiday contest idea options to choose from, such as:. You can set up the win structure in a variety of ways. The goal of every trivia contest is to know the right answer.

But you might choose the winner from the first person to answer correctly. Or you could choose a winner at random from every person who gets the answer right.

You can also run trivia contests online, using different questions each time. Their post had over comments which means almost 1, potential new followers!

A post shared by GoMacro gomacro. Skip the chit-chat and go right to the point— ask users to follow your social media page for a chance to win. Not feeling lucky? This means you need to offer them value beyond the contest itself.

A great way to do this is to host reoccurring social media contests. This could be a weekly or monthly draw where you give away a prize at consistent intervals. To sweeten the deal, you can offer different prizes each time or even bump up the value of the prize as time goes on.

The tourism sector of Newfoundland and Labrador made good use of this tactic in its PlayItByEar campaign, in partnership with Air Canada. The campaign included weekly prize draws for contestants who created songs using local sound bytes.

They also included a grand prize giveaway at the end of the campaign to keep followers engaged throughout. This is the final week of the Play It By Ear Contest.

Play for your chance to WIN a great weekly prize, and qualify for our GRAND PRIZE draw of a Day trip for two to Newfoundland and Labrador. maxximvacations AirCanada pic. Social media contests can help you find more qualified leads and speak to a wider audience.

Here are three social media lead contest ideas to get you started. You can use sign-up contests to gather lead info on your customers.

To do this, simply ask contest entrants to sign up in exchange for a deal or offer. This was the strategy the Columbus Blue Jackets hockey team used to boost ticket sales for their Stanley Cup playoff games.

Facebook ads were pushed out to fans, asking them to sign up to win free playoff game tickets. Source: Facebook. If you want your audience to pay attention to your messaging, try reaching out directly to their inbox.

Nail polish brand Sally Hansen used this tactic in its recent Facebook Messenger contest. Users were sent direct messages asking them four questions about their skin tone, undertone, and personal style. Based on the answers provided, Sally Hansen then recommended a personalized set of color recommendations that contest participants could interact with and explore further.

Those who shared their email addresses with Messenger were entered into a contest to win a set of limited-edition festive red nail polishes. Another way to get contest entries is to direct people from your social media channels to a contest landing page.

This can be done through organic or boosted posts , Or, or even just a regular social media post. Travel brand Expedia used this tactic in its ThrowMeBack Twitter contest which let entrants revisit a vacation from the past after signing up through the landing page.

We threw this family back to their tbt. Social media contests are an excellent way to let your customers or target audience know about your brand , product , or service.

Not only that, they can also be used to increase brand awareness and reach new potential customers. Here are three fun social media contest ideas that you can use to increase brand awareness for your business. Collaborating with another brand or influencer in your industry is a great way to reach a new audience and get people talking about your brand.

For example, you could team up with an influencer to give away one of your products to their followers. Or, you could partner with a relevant brand to double the prize offers of your contest. Local Vancouver restaurant chain Nuba took advantage of this technique when they partnered with yoga studio Jaybird.

Both brands focus on nourishing the body and the mind, so the contest was a perfect fit. A post shared by Nuba Feel Good Lebanese nubatown. Hashtag challenges are a great way to get people involved and engaged with your brand.

All you need is a catchy hashtag and some prize incentives! The contest called on users to share a video of themselves making their mom smile. In just two weeks, the hashtag received over 5.

Platforms like Snapchat now offer branded lenses and AR filters that users can play around with. This provides a great opportunity for brands to get in on the fun and host a contest using these features. Users could use these features in their daily snaps, or unlock a mountain zorbing game where they dodged obstacles while flying down a slippery slope.

Players won free packs of cookies as prizes. This campaign helped Oreo connect with a younger audience and get their attention with something new and exciting. Ready to run your next social media contest?

Use this template to launch your next social media contest and drive more engagement , leads , and sales for your business. Click below to download the free social media contest template.

Are you looking to increase engagement? Drive traffic to your website? Boost brand awareness? Pro tip: Make sure you set S. goals for yourself: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timebound. For example, We hope to gain 1, new followers within 1 week of running this Instagram contest.

Your prize should be relevant to your contest goals and audience. Make sure you give people enough time to enter the contest. Pro tip: Use Hootsuite to schedule your social media posts in advance.

Check out these social media giveaway ideas and contest examples to improve your engagement and supercharge the buzz around your company Looking for some simple contest ideas to promote your business? We've put together some of the best giveaway ideas to drive engagement for your brand Save time by using one or more of the seven examples found below. You'll find social media instructions, goals, and prizes for each contest, giveaway, or quiz

Contest samples online - Best Social Media Contest Ideas · 1. Share a Photo Contest · 2. Submit a Video Social Media Contest · 3. Sweepstakes Social Media Giveaway Ideas · 4. Refer a Friend Check out these social media giveaway ideas and contest examples to improve your engagement and supercharge the buzz around your company Looking for some simple contest ideas to promote your business? We've put together some of the best giveaway ideas to drive engagement for your brand Save time by using one or more of the seven examples found below. You'll find social media instructions, goals, and prizes for each contest, giveaway, or quiz

Then, go through the entries and give a prize to the person who submitted the best photo. A Funniest Home Video Contest Lots of people have funny home videos.

Ask your followers to submit a brief video from their family history that they think will make others laugh. GIve a prize to the person who submits the funniest video. A Name-Our-Mascot Contest Is your company getting a mascot? If so, let your followers pick the name. In fact, turn the name-picking process into a contest.

Post a photo of the mascot and ask people to pick a name. Give a prize to the person whose name you choose. Then, give a prize to the person whose idea you use as your new logo. Of course, not everybody is an artist. Contest Ideas: A Selfie Contest Ask people to post a selfie.

You can kick this contest up a notch by asking people to post a selfie with your product. Run a sports-themed contest. Ask people to predict the winner for the event. After the event, give a prize to one of the people who accurately called the winner. You can go in all kinds of directions with this one.

For example, ask people to predict which team will score first but necessarily win during the Super Bowl. Ask them to predict who will win the coin toss. Ask them to predict the final spread. A Spot-the-Difference Contest Find a photo that has a lot going on. In other words, look for a picture with plenty of detail in it.

Then, make a copy of the photo. Use Adobe Photoshop or some other software to edit the copy. Change some minor detail within the picture.

Merge the two photos together into one photo. Make both photos either side-by-side or put one on top of the other. Post the merged photo on social media and run a contest asking people to spot the difference. Give a prize to the first person to identify the difference. Contest Ideas: An Essay Writing Contest This one will take a little more time to judge, but you could get some great ideas for future marketing ventures.

Ask people to submit an essay related to your brand. Read all the entries and give a prize to the author of the best essay. Just ask people to submit their contest concepts and give a prize to the person whose idea you use. In fact, you might get multiple ideas for great contests.

If that happens, give out multiple prizes. Wrapping It Up Now that you have several ideas for contests, pick a few of the best options and run with them. Be sure to track which kinds of contests give you the best engagement.

Then, use those contests most often in the future. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Welcome To John Lincoln Marketing.

About the Author. Get Social. Recent Tweets. Tweets by johnelincoln. Contact John Lincoln. Looking for inspiration for your next social media contest? Check out these 11 creative ideas to engage participants and increase shares. Are you looking for inspiration for your next social media contest?

The problem with most social media contests is they are too similar. The contest marketing space has reached a mature stage of development and people have been exposed to just about every contest trick in the book.

Contestants are becoming immune to the promotion of this style of contest in their social media feed, they subconsciously filter it out. There is so much scope to get innovative with your social media contests, but sometimes you just need some inspiration.

Check out these 11 examples of creative social media contests to get the ideas flowing. Elements of gaming, strategically mixed into a marketing campaign, create heightened levels of user engagement.

Naturally, contests have a certain aspect of gamification built into them. But you can take this to a new level. One creative way of embedding gamification in your next contest is to make the experience a discovery game.

The basic concept of a discovery game is that, during the contest, you provide participants with clues which they need to use to navigate their way towards a prize.

A common example of this is the website Easter egg hunt. A win-win! By producing a product from your contest, you can then sell that product back to participants as well as other target customers. Radio station WCVE has used this tactic in their design contest below to create a coffee mug:.

The genius of UGC is that it turns your contest entrants from passive participants into active advocates for your brand. By arming people with the collateral, guidance, and incentive to share your contest, it initiates an organic and potentially viral distribution channel.

Lots of people could be exposed to your contest without you needing to do anything or pay anyone. Creating a unique contest hashtag is the most common way of encouraging UGC with participants.

But you can take your efforts to a new level by incentivizing people with extra contest entries or other rewards. The goal of the campaign is to increase the use of their product and gain customer opinions under the hashtag HotMessSquad. People like to connect with like-minded individuals who they can share experiences and interests with.

This desire manifests itself on social media when the opportunity for someone to identify a characteristic of themselves, and then share it with others who also identify with that characteristic, creates a viral loop of shareability.

And you can use an identity quiz like this as a way for people to enter a contest. Having contest entrants make a choice between a set of options can help you gather valuable data about their preferences.

Sometimes we get so caught up in the design, copy, and delivery of a contest campaign that we forget to make it human! No coding required. Grow your email list with an easy and customizable email newsletter signup popup you can get running in minutes. Incentivize email signups or purchases with unique digital codes a visitor gets after completing your form.

Engage your users on your website with beautiful embedded hashtag galleries, polls, and custom forms. Collect, curate, and display a gallery of photos and videos from hashtags posted on social platforms. Create a Free account and find out why so many companies of every size run effective marketing campaigns using Woobox.

Experiences That Boost Engagement Easily create and run successful contests, giveaways, polls, coupons, forms, and more. Try Woobox For Free. Experiences Social Media Campaigns Increase engagement directly on your social posts. Instagram Giveaway Easily pick Instagram contest and giveaway winners from comments on your Instagram posts.

Create a Campaign Learn More. Facebook Giveaway Easily pick Facebook contest and giveaway winners from reactions and comments on your Facebook posts. Hashtag Contest Collect, manage, and display user generated photos and videos from Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter users who post content with your hashtag.

Experiences Landing Pages Collect leads, insights, and reward your audience with landing pages for forms, contests, quizzes, polls, giveaways, coupons, digital codes, tournament brackets, and more. Giveaway Gather entries, motivate participants to share, and easily select random or specific winners.

Poll Solicit feedback and gain insights from your audience with an easy to create poll.

Contest samples online - Best Social Media Contest Ideas · 1. Share a Photo Contest · 2. Submit a Video Social Media Contest · 3. Sweepstakes Social Media Giveaway Ideas · 4. Refer a Friend Check out these social media giveaway ideas and contest examples to improve your engagement and supercharge the buzz around your company Looking for some simple contest ideas to promote your business? We've put together some of the best giveaway ideas to drive engagement for your brand Save time by using one or more of the seven examples found below. You'll find social media instructions, goals, and prizes for each contest, giveaway, or quiz

Why are you running a Facebook contest in the first place? Ensure you know what your goal is. Building brand awareness, boosting engagement, getting likes, marketing a new product, gaining followers and learning more about your followers are all common goals.

When planning your contest, make sure to keep those goals in mind. You are responsible for running the contest legally. Hint: a lottery includes any contest where participants are required to spend money to play, i.

One tried-and-true place to house all these regulations, notifications, and consents is a giveaway landing page. Requiring people to use their personal timelines or friend connections to participate is not allowed.

Asking people to tag a friend or share a Facebook post on their timeline used to be a standard contest requirement. No more! Those practices were actually pretty annoying to most people.

Decreasing the overall pollution on Facebook means a better experience for users, which means people will continue to use the platform and enter your contests. One grey area is asking people to like your Facebook Business Page.

That said, you can encourage people to like your Page and enter for a chance to win via a less suspect method.

Pick a prize that aligns with your brand, and is something your followers are going to get excited about. For example, giving away a product from a new launch is a great way to promote the launch and the non-winners might just buy the product anyway.

All the details of your contest can be communicated via plain text, sure. You can create hype by sharing info about your prize or, if you have multiple prizes, you can share one per day leading up to your contest launch.

Use Hootsuite for free for 30 days. And, liftoff! Publish your contest on Facebook and watch those entries flood in. Make sure to moderate the contest post and address any questions or confusion that might crop up.

As you approach the contest deadline, make sure you communicate to your followers that time is running out. Are there any rules for picking winners of Facebook contests?

Technically, no. Picking a winner totally randomly is the best way to go. In other words, edit all of your contest posts and add a line stating that the contest is closed. This is a bonus step. Or even their photo, with permission.

Make sure you get the consent of the winner before doing this. Working with influencers, KOLs or other influential people like celebrities, if you have that kind of access and budget is an awesome way to promote your contest. Instead of simply asking followers to like or comment on a post to enter your contest, consider making the entry process a little more challenging and, as a result, more fun.

Fashion e-commerce company Myntra used a simple video graphic for their giveaway—participants had to guess how many wireless headphones appeared in a video in order to enter. You might not think of a Facebook contest as a good source of brand feedback or inspiration, but it absolutely can be.

Take this post from a San Francisco pizzeria:. The company is seeking out a new name for a product and taking to Facebook to ask for suggestions. This is a great way to get your community involved in your business and to create a meaningful connection with your followers.

Note: many, many businesses ignore these rules. Now, that is viral! Entries: , Idea: Spice up your contest with a bit of humor.

See it here. Chubbies Man Model Contest View and Create Your Own The premise around this contest was that men would submit photos of themselves in Chubbies shorts to become a Chubbies model. People of all shapes and sizes could submit photos along with a little blurb about themselves in order to sway votes.

Other people would vote to choose the best model based on these entries. In the end, some of the top entries were comical, some were everyday people you might see on the street - in other words, most of them were not your typical male models!

How can you spice up your contest with a little bit of humor? Entries: , Idea: Get laser-targeted with your contest participants.

Target's College Room Makeover Contest View and Create Your Own For this contest, the idea was simple: Enter to win a college dorm room makeover.

The contest was mainly focused on college students, but extended to parents of college students and other family and friends too. They both already have an audience, and this reach no doubt played into the success of the campaign from a participation perspective.

What you can take from this example is the way it targeted a niche group of people, college students, and structured the contest promotion strategy so it talked specifically to that audience.

By targeting college students the contest tapped into our human desire to be recognized in a group we associate with. Coventry Log Home Giveaway View and Create Your Own With this giveaway, Coventry Log gave away a log home… Seriously, a whole home!!

This is a huge prize for a giveaway and has the potential to create a lot of media buzz because of the significant contribution this could have for someone and their family. The sheer size of this prize is likely why this contest gained so much traction.

People are simply more enthusiastic about the prospect of winning a HOUSE than they might be about winning a gift card. Obviously this fact helped with word-of-mouth. While both are great giveaway prizes for different purposes, the home is much bigger and makes more of an impact.

Entries: , Idea: Connect contest participation with ongoing brand interaction. iFly KLM Mauritius Luxury Trip Contest View and Create Your Own Luxury trips are always a great option if it fits your market because of the instant interest in a potentially free vacation. As you can imagine a trip to Mauritius appeals to a lot of different people.

One thing that was interesting about the marketing for this contest was that entrants had to stay up to date with the iFly KLM Facebook page in order to see who the winner was. At the bottom of the entry page, it directed everyone to like their Facebook page where they eventually made the winner announcement.

This was a smart way to encourage people to follow their page and provide ongoing brand interaction in the future. Entries: , Idea: Create contest virality by giving away entries with referral links.

Serve the Stars of Summer Sweepstakes This contest is sponsored by several different brands, which gives it a bigger audience reach, to begin with.

Contestants are also encouraged to invite their friends and family through their referral link to get an additional entry to the contest.

This last component is what helped the sponsors gain traction because participants are incentivized to share the contest with friends and family and are reminded of that every day. Entries: 85, Idea: Piggyback on popular events to get attention for your contest. IcelandAir's FIFA World Cup Contest Here is another trip-based contest that was focused on the FIFA World Cup.

The World Cup is a massive worldwide event that millions of people are invested in. In the most recent installment, Iceland became the smallest ever country to qualify.

To mark this historic moment, IcelandAir wanted to maximize the tourist-power of this worldwide event to attract people to their country and get the name of their airline out there. The winner of their contest would get a trip for two to Iceland to see the country as well as some friendly football matches featuring the Iceland team prior to the World Cup.

For extra entries, participants could share the contest with their followers on social media. By connecting their contest with the World Cup and encouraging entrants to follow their social media page, they were able to get fantastic participation and ongoing brand recognition.

The takeaway? See if you can link your brand with popular events to get attention for your contest. Entries: 72, Idea: Tie your contest to a lifestyle choice and offer prize tiers to generate more winners. They offered six prize packs including an Apple Watch, snacks from SunRype, and gift cards.

Each week they would draw a new winner as well as offer instant prizes to a percentage of entrants. The big prize packs would draw people in but the smaller rewards would keep them interested week after week.

The real kicker? These smaller prizes were discount vouchers for their other products! The key takeaway is to link your contest to a lifestyle choice and offer prize tiers to generate more winners.

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