Social Media Marketing for Business

So, you’ve created a Facebook contest and published it to your fan page. Now what? A contest that’s left to sit on its own will see little engagement. That’s where promoting your campaign comes in.

Promotion is unarguably one of the most important steps in running a successful Facebook campaign. But where should you promote your campaign? Just posting willy-nilly on other social media sites is probably not going to yield steady results, so what should you do? Well, let’s take a look at what you should do on Facebook and via email before moving on to other social media sites.

Promoting Your Campaign: First Steps

The first audience you should think about pulling into your contest is the one you already have – promote to your Facebook fan base, visitors to your blog or website, and your email lists. Get the word out to those who know you and are already enthusiastic about your brand. This will encourage sharing and ensure that your fans are the first to know about new contests.

To start out, consider:

1. Promoting on Facebook:
   Okay, so this one is a gimme. To start, you should promote your contest on your Facebook timeline. Create a custom cover image promoting your campaign and feature the new  contest on your timeline. Post about it in your news feed, like the post below. Doing these things will make sure fans, new and old alike, will know that you are running a contest, and check out your contest tab.
   
2. Running Facebook Ads:
   Promoting your campaign with Facebook Ads is also a good avenue to investigate. Using the advertising page on Facebook, you can market your contest directly to your target demographic, based on age, gender, location, and much more. Facebook also allows you to buy ads based on your budget, so that you can promote your contest no matter the size.
3. Promoting to Your Email List:
   Already have an email list? Send out a communication to your newsletter subscribers. These fans are probably already leads, but getting the word out to them first gives them a chance to check out your campaign and share it with their friends.
4. Promoting on Your Blog/Website:
   This one might also seem like a no brainer, but it’s important to include in a promotional plan. Similar to your Facebook fan page, you will be targeting people that already visit your site. Make a blog post promoting your campaign, add a custom header promoting your contest; whatever you do, make sure you prominently feature your campaign to your audience. This is an excellent way to ensure that people who regularly visit your site and/or follow your RSS feed get the news.

Promoting Your Campaign: Next Steps

Now that we’ve got the initial promotion ideas down, let’s take a look at the other sites you should promote your contest on.

1. LinkedIn
   Many people don’t think of LinkedIn as a promotional site, but if you are a B2B brand, LinkedIn is invaluable. You can promote contests and campaigns on both your personal page and your company page, as well as promoting directly to groups and interests. Promoting your campaign directly to groups ensures that your contest finds a relevant audience with an interest in brands like yours.
2. Twitter
   Have a Twitter following? Send out a couple of tweets promoting your contest! Make sure to use appropriate hashtags and space out your contest tweets in order to reach the largest audience. Because Twitter is a noisy place, make sure you’re promoting your campaign in a few, well spaced out tweets, like the ones below. This way, you won’t be cluttering your followers Twitter feeds, and you will be able to reach more fans who might not leave Twitter open all day. To find out how other businesses are using Twitter, check out their case studies page. Tweets like the ones below are especially effective.
   
3. Pinterest
   One of the best places for product discovery, Pinterest is a great option for promoting new campaigns. Success on Pinterest centers around strong visual content, so make sure that you’re using strong graphics to advertise your contest and/or feature your products. It is also very important to keep the Pinterest audience in mind when posting – retailers, home decor and improvement, cooking and baking, and other, highly visual business fields do well on Pinterest. For more information on how other businesses are using Pinterest, check out Pinterest’s case studies page.
4. Google+
   Is your business or contest prize tech related? Consider promoting your campaign on Google+. Google+ does have a very specific user base (skewed in the male direction with a heavy emphasis on the tech industry), so you will need to consider this before promoting. A major benefit to promoting with Google+ is that Google will index your posts, meaning that potential fans (and leads) may find your campaign when running a Google search.

Once you’ve promoted your campaign using the avenues above, you might also consider a couple more options. You can contact bloggers in your field and ask them to promote your contest (try to provide the blogger with as much content as possible) or you can list your contest on an aggregator like ContestListing.com.

Your Turn

Now that you have an idea of where you should promote your contest, go out there and get the marketing ball rolling! Got any ideas of your own? Share them in the comments below!

Update for 2016

Running a campaign to capture new leads continues to be a popular strategy in 2016. And good promotion is even more critical. Here are three tips for new places to go in order to generate more leads via a giveaway or other social contest.

1. Contest Listing Sites and Groups: Believe it or not there are whole communities of consumers out there that are interested in learning about your contest. These come in various shapes and sizes, but our personal favorite is Giveaway Frenzy, which not only allows you to list your campaign for free, but will provide additional promotion via email and social media groups for a small fee.
2. LinkedIn Groups: If you work with a B2B or services company, then LinkedIn could be a goldmine for new leads. Join a few industry groups on LinkedIn to rub shoulders with others in your space. Then, when you run your next campaign you can let your fellow group members know about the opportunity.
3. Targeting Unsubscribes via Facebook Ads: Everyone who owns an email list has a group of list-members who has unsubscribed from email. But have you ever considered uploading that list of unsubscribes as a custom Facebook audience and targeting them with a promoted post about your campaign? If they choose to enter your campaign via this channel, then you can legally and ethically add them back to your mailing list. You can read this Facebook help doc to get started.

Meet Emily Goodrich

Emily Goodrich is a Technical Writer at Heyo. She is a Senior studying Creative and Professional Writing at Virginia Tech.