MARKETING SOCIAL MEDIA PROMOTIONS

Best Practices G

uide

Pla

nning Tips and

PART ONE

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MARKETING SOCIAL MEDIA PROMOTIONS Part Onefor

This Marketing for Social Media Promotions

Guide is broken out into three sections to cater to

the various stages of a promotional campaign.

If you’re in the planning stages of your promotion,

PART ONE is for you. If your promotion is already

underway or starting soon, check out PART TWO

for tips on how to promote and manage your

campaign. If your promotion is ending soon or has

recently ended, see PART THREE where we go over

steps for an effective follow-up.

1. Your Brand & Social Media Community

2. Setting Goals

3. Choosing Your Promotion Type

4. Online Promotion Planning Checklist

5. Defining Metrics and Your ROI

6. Best Practices

a. Promotion Length

b. Contest Type

c. Choosing Your Channel

d. Voting, Judging and Other Considerations  

e. Communication and Timing

f. Benchmarks

MARKETING SOCIAL MEDIA PROMOTIONS Part Onefor

Best Practices G

uide

Pla

nning Tips and

PART ONE

What you’ll learn in Part One

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Plan, Prepare and Prepare for the Unplanned

With social media contests you can reap the benefits of viral or word-of-mouth marketing, but it’s still essential to have a well-thought-out marketing plan to support your campaign. It may sound obvious but you must drive traffic to your destination. We often remind our clients not to fall victim to the “Field of Dreams Fallacy”—the idea that “if I build it, they will come.”

Utilize the channels available to you, be that social media, paid media or promotional partners. Don’t overlook any opportunities to get the word out. Do you have a regular email newsletter or a point of sale display?

Participation at the outset will generate the ROI that comes from social sharing activity. And remember that your existing customers are most likely to engage. By targeting them first, you can build momentum that will spread through their social networks.

MARKETING SOCIAL MEDIA PROMOTIONS Part One

Excerpted from “How to Run a Successful Social Media Contest” by Ben Pickering, Strutta CEO, in Social Media Examiner:

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1. Your Brand & Social Media Community

You know your brand and audience best. We’re here to help power up your creative campaigns and connect you with your community through engaging content, ideas and conversations. Our aim is to provide you with the absolute best platform for your social promotions.

If you are relatively new to the space or are looking for fresh ideas, check out some of our favorite resources.

Common Craft has a full library of fantastic videos that help make complex ideas easy to understand. These three will help get you acquainted with social media:

http://www.commoncraft.com/video/social-media

http://www.commoncraft.com/video/social-media-and-workplace

http://www.commoncraft.com/video/social-networking

Top sites for social media marketing tips & news:• http://mashable.com

• http://readwriteweb.com

• http://womma.org

• http://socialmediaexaminer.com

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Leading personalities in the space:• http://jeffbullas.com

• http://rohitbhargava.com

• http://www.briansolis.com

• http://www.marismith.com

2. Setting Goals

Some Things to Consider:    There are many ways to operate an online promotion. You want to encourage the best kind of participation possible, and offer a great experience for all involved while achieving your goals. To that end, there are a number of items to be aware of when preparing a promotional campaign.

Campaign GoalsWhat are you hoping to achieve with your contest? Are you looking to crowd source excellent content that relates to your brand? Do you hope to expose your campaign and brand message to as many people as possible? Are you hoping to attract new website traffic and convert them into subscribers and customers?

Thinking about these goals will help your decision making when you are planning your campaign. This infographic gives you a glimpse into what we have learned about online promotions:                                     

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BARRIE

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NTRY

CO

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NGAGEM

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HIGH

LOW

BASIC FORM “SWEEPSTAKES”

TEXT SUBMISSION(RECIPE, ESSAY, ETC)

PHOTO CONTEST

VIDEOCONTEST

2. Setting Goals

Goal 1: Generate leads and dataGenerating qualified leads is often seen as the most important goal for any marketing campaign. Attracting new customers is essential, so grab your target audience’s attention with a great promotion and use the opportunity to collect information from entrants and voters. Expanding newsletter subscriptions or contact lists with people who care about your brand can drive new business. However, gaining an email address or Twitter handle may be irrelevant without supporting information so be sure to ask the questions to learn more about your (potential) customers.

Goal 2: Engage sociallyMore brands are looking to tap into social media’s power to build lasting relationships with their customers. Conducting engaging campaigns with thoughtful planning, execution and follow-up is a proven way to reach customers and keep them loyal. Make brand ambassadors out of your customers by encouraging them to share your message through their social networks. Leveraging multiple channels (e.g., brand site, Facebook, Twitter) is a great way to amplify the effect of your campaign.

Goal 3: Gain content or consumer insightDigital technologies make it easy for anyone to become a content producer, and user generated content (UGC) defines the web as we know it today. A promotion that invites users to contribute their content not only creates a deeper investment in your brand, but also serves as a means to crowd source content that can be leveraged across multiple channels and in future marketing campaigns. A contest with public voting can also be utilized to solicit feedback from customers and gain insights on their preferences.

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3. Choosing Your Promotion Type

Whether you agree with these three goals or have different ones, consider how your chosen campaign type can deliver on your objectives.

First, note the difference between a contest and a sweepstakes. A contest rewards skill; winners are determined based on skill, popularity or judging. A sweepstakes awards winners at random; winners are determined based purely on chance.

A promotion that invites users to contribute their content not only creates a deeper investment in your brand, but also serves as a means to crowd source content that can be leveraged across multiple channels and in future marketing campaigns. A contest with public voting can also be utilized to solicit feedback from customers and gain insights on their preferences.

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4. Online Promotion Planning Checklist

Although interactive contests require a good deal of planning and effort, the potential ROI and ability to reach multiple goals is tremendous. Using Strutta’s platform and packages, you can capitalize on social media activity, gain new leads, and access valuable data and content.

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4. Online Promotion Planning Checklist continued...

MARKETING SOCIAL MEDIA PROMOTIONS Part Onefor

4. Online Promotion Planning Checklist continued...

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5. Defining Metrics and Your ROI

Return on investment doesn’t have to mean solely financial return. Bottom-line results clearly matter, but they can’t be the sole objective for any social media campaign. Dag Holmboe, for Social Media Examiner, provides a good perspective on social media ROI.

Depending on how you set up your promotion, these are someof the key metrics to consider:

MORE RESOURCES:In Marketing Profs, Veronica Maria Jarski highlights the importance of measuring attention, attitudes and action. In a guest post on Danny Brown’s blog, Eugene Farber offers solid tips and insight on social media ROI.

‣ How many people visited your promotion? How much time did they spend engaging?

‣ Of those who visited, how many actively participated? How many entered? How many voted (if applicable)?

‣ How much sharing took place?

‣ What type of content generated the most interaction (i.e., comments, Likes, retweets)?

‣ How many new Likes on Facebook or followers on Twitter?

‣ What was the level of Twitter activity (especially if you have a contest-specific hashtag)?

‣ What was the redemption rate of any coupons or offers?

‣ How many users opted in to your email list?

‣ If you included any outbound links to drive traffic, what was the click-through rate?

‣ And ultimately what new business (revenue/profit) can be attributed to the promotion?

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Objectives drive outcomes. By setting

your objectives clearly up front you can

establish what goals matter to you and

track against them.

a) Promotion Length

Promotion lengths may vary. We’ve seen incredibly successful 24-hour flash sweepstakes giveaway. Creating a sense of urgency can really catapult your campaign’s viral success. On the other hand, we’ve also powered impressive year-long contest campaigns that reset the buzz regularly with monthly prizing. Establishing consistency and setting expectations on your social channels for promotions are a great way to ensure your fans check in regularly.

A typical contest promotion will usually last 4-8 weeks as follows:

‣ Submission Round: 2-4 weeks

‣ Voting Round: 2-4 weeks (may overlap with Submission Round)

‣ Judging Round: 1-2 weeks

If you have overlapping submission and voting rounds, we recommend letting the voting round go for at least one extra week. As there’s usually a good push of submissions at the deadline, this gives your last-minute entrants some time to rally up support!

A typical sweepstakes giveaway will run up to one month.

It’s generally a good idea to tie your promotion to a product launch, a company milestone, or other seasonal event where you’ll already amass a good amount of attention.

6. Best Practices

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Refresh excitement and engagement around your brand

with each incentive and promotional campaign!

6. Best Practicesb) Contest Promotions: Media Type

No matter the type of content collected in your contest, the task at hand should resonate individually but appeal globally. In other words, there should be a natural sense of resonation and inclination to share the content submitted to your contest.

Note: Your contest participants will retain ownership over their content and work. You, as the Contest Organizer, gain rights to use the submitted work in your marketing materials or projects. We are firm believers in giving due credit for all creative works!

Media types Strutta’s platform supports: photo, video, text and audio

‣ Photo contests will generally yield more entries and participation than any other medium.Common use cases: travel shots, family & pet moments, memorable experiences

‣ Video contests have a higher barrier entry but they tend to make for more engaging contests. Common use cases: live action shots, short film competitions, product demos

‣ Text based contests can spark innovative ideas and build a great database of content. Common use cases: best recipe contests, caption contests, and essay competitions.

‣ Audio contests are great if you’re looking to find a hot band or catchy anthem.

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Strutta’s platform is unique in offering mixed media contests.

Choose to accept all media types in your contest.

Let your participants decide how to best convey their message!

6. Best Practices

c)Choosing Your Channel

Social marketing by nature requires touch points across channels and platforms. With Strutta, you’ll extend the reach of your promotional campaign as you can choose to launch on the channel(s) that will best fit your needs. Plus, spread your message further with our integrated Facebook, Twitter and email share tools.

Below are key differentiators between the channel options.

Standalone MicrositeIf brand integrity and design is a high priority on your list, you’ll appreciate the ability to build a site that is ad-free and you’ll love the freedom to customize a site that may extend beyond Facebook’s layout limitations.

IFrameIf increasing traffic to your site is your main goal, choose to embed your promotion directly into an existing page within your web site. This option is particularly popular with our clients in media and broadcasting as ad placements and general site navigation remain in place as users interact with the promotion.

FacebookIf you want to strengthen your community on Facebook, run your promotion directly on your Facebook Page!

MobileIf you’re looking to boost your presence among your customers on-the-go, supplement your full site with a mobile-friendly version! This advanced option is included in our DIY PRO packages and is unique to Strutta’s platform.

Standalone microsite, iframe, Facebook or mobile?

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6. Best Practices

d) Voting, Judging and Other Considerations  

We always recommend using a combination of voting and judging in order to determine winners.

Content ModerationStrutta’s system offers 3 moderation options:

• No moderation• Users can flag inappropriate content• Full moderation

A voting round adds exciting elements of competition and urgency. It also encourages sharing among participants and their social networks which is the biggest contributor to a “viral” contest campaign.

• On average, each entrant will bring in at least 10 voters to the contest site via social sharing

• The number of visits to your site will jump exponentially when you allow multiple submissions per entrant and enable hourly or daily voting

Including a judging round can boost your contest’s clout (especially if you bring in influential personalities as judges), and introducing a judging criteria helps to ensure the quality of your contest winner vs. a popularity contest alone.

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We recommend at least allowing your community to flag

inappropriate content on the site.

In order to ensure brand integrity, choose full moderation to collect

and hold all content and comments.

Only publish content that meets your brand’s standards.

6. Best Practices

d) Voting, Judging and Other Considerations  

SponsorsAdding sponsors to your promotion may add excitement, increase reach and even help with your campaign's prizing and costs. A coveted sponsor spot is a great value-add especially for those in events, publications and promotions.

Random Draws and Extra IncentivesIn addition to awarding prizes to top entrants, you may want to reward other social behavior and incentivize other participants!

For example:• Integrate a coupon code into the entry flow & surprise

those who take the time to enter your promotion!

• Through our Stats Dashboard see who brings in the most click-throughs to the contest site and give reward them for their active participation!

• Send a follow-up message to all entrants and voters with a special deal. Surprise and delight everyone who contributed to your promotion’s success!

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6. Best Practices

e) Communication and Timing We recommend that you schedule ahead of time where, when and what you’ll communicate about your promotion.

For contests that will require a greater investment in effort or time (e.g. community involvement, video production or event registration), you’ll likely want to start promoting the campaign before the submission round opens. This will help give your community time to really consider and plan out their submissions.

The timing and frequency of communication varies per channel.

Reserve any press releases, media pitches and e-blasts for your promotion’s milestones. For example: the promotion’s launch, opening of the voting phase, results.

MORE RESOURCES:For tips on when send updates, see these informative posts from The Social Media Guide (Twitter) and Social Times (Twitter and Facebook), PR Daily (Blog)See extensive marketing and communications tips in PART TWO of this guide.

Work promotional posts into your regular schedule on Twitter, Facebook and on your other active networks. Mix up the content of your posts to highlight the many aspects of the contest including the premise, prize, and any note-worthy submissions or activity. Don’t forget to post follow-up messages as well.

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6. Best Practicesf) Benchmarks

We refrain from giving out general benchmarks as each campaign that is launched is so very unique.

Because there are so many variables in each campaign, we don’t want to mislead you or give you false expectations.

Consider all of the variables in a contest promotion: timing, prizes, promotion, sponsors, ads, campaign objectives, industry, community, budget, etc.

If you would like a customized benchmark report for your particular campaign, please contact us at info@strutta.com.

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BAM!NEXT UP

MARKETING for SOCIAL MEDIA PROMOTIONS Part Two Promoting and Managing Your Campaign Guide (Coming Soon)

MARKETING for SOCIAL MEDIA PROMOTIONS

Part Three Life After Your Campaign Guide (Coming Soon)

Promotion examples and case studies: http://strutta.com/spotlight

Thank you for choosing Strutta!

Tina Hoang | Communications Manager | tina@strutta.com | @t1nah on Twitter

Start your promotion by visiting strutta.com or Call us toll-free at 1-877-477-5717

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