Running a Successful Giveaway
Showing your followers some love with a social media giveaway? This is a great way to give back while also getting some great social media boosts!
Here is your social media giveaway to-do list:
Have a specific item or service to giveaway: If it is something that is usually out of stock, or is very popular, it will entice people, even more, to enter the giveaway. Or you can pick a bunch of your customer's favorite products and bundle a gift.
Set a goal: Is the goal to increase your followers, and engagement, or to get people to subscribe to your newsletter? This is an important step to establish before setting up any giveaway. It will help guide the next decisions in your giveaway.
Determine the length of time. How long will your giveaway run? The ideal timeframe is between 2-6 days. A shorter timeframe can result in not enough exposure while a longer timeframe can cause people to forget or get bored.
Choose the criteria for entry. This is where #2 comes into play. If you are looking to increase your followers, an entry rule would be “ you must follow this account and tag someone to follow. If engagement is your main goal, ask participants to enter by “commenting below.” Increasing subscribers, ask your followers to subscribe to your newsletter and “comment below” so you know they entered. *comment below on the social media post*
Choose a platform to promote. If you are going to do an in-store, Instagram, and/or Facebook giveaway. You can do this where each platform counts as one entry for one prize, or each platform has its giveaway.
Include any exclusions such as age or locations so you don’t get people entering that don’t have a chance to win. If you are giving something away that has an age restriction or can only be shipped to certain locations, be sure to include that.
Find a software that can help choose a winner. In the past, we have used Comment Picker but there are others out. Just be sure that before you go live with your giveaway that the software you choose can handle the criteria you set in #4.
Contact the winner. You can reach out by private message on Facebook, direct message on Instagram, or by email. Have a message created on how they can collect their prize, ask if you can announce them as a winner on social media, and thank them for participating.
Be sure to have all of these steps organized in a document before you go live. You don’t want to go live on your social media feed only to find out that you can’t pick a winner or are having issues collecting entries. We hope this helps with your next giveaway!
Download the FREE fillable giveaway guide to help you with your next giveaway! If you have any questions feel free to reach out in the comments, DM us, or email socialmm.kailey@gmail.com!