Social Contests are a great way to increase engagement, reach, followers and leads. You can run social contests on a variety of platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, your website – all while being mobile compatible.
There are a variety of different types of social contests you can combine with your contest ideas – Wishpond offers sweepstakes, photo contests, vote contests, pinterest contests, essay contests, photo caption contests, video contests, and group deals all available to you in our Social Marketing Suite.
In this article, you’ll discover some contest ideas and have a better understanding of how you could run a contest for your business.These are just a few examples, There are endless possibilities for contest ideas.
1. Vote Contest
With a Vote Contest, you can gain interaction with your supporters by asking them their views, and your supporters get to take action by voting. Putting on a Vote Contest is a great way to listen to your fans, and respond to your donor stakeholders.
This contest idea is extremely simple to set up on your Facebook page, or blog. Vote Contests have a low barrier to entry – all voters need to do is click “Vote”, and enter their email. Then they get to share their views by clicking on their vote option preference.
You get to collect entrants’ emails, and you can track results in real-time to monitor campaign performance in our Social Marketing Suite.
You can even set up team voting, community voting and/or get people to like your Page to enter.
Once a fan votes, a post is automatically shared on their Facebook profile, inviting their friends to vote their view too. This generates buzz for your campaign and creates a potential viral campaign for your business.
Example:
Brentwood Town Centre’s Vote Contest, is supporting Earth Day and wants to know what actions you will be celebrating the day. In turn, voters can win a $50 gift card to the mall, and all they have to do is enter their email and click a button.
A smart move on Brentwood’s part is that they offer a prize to voters who don’t win as well – a voucher from their sponsor Marlin Travel.
6 Social Contest Ideas and Examples
2. Photo Contest
Photo Contests are another great way to increase engagement. Whether you take photos on a camera or a phone, we are all passionate about photography these days. And everyone likes to shares their pics!
The Photo Contests through Wishpond are again very simple to set up. For your customer, too, they have a relative low barrier to entry, with fans simply submitting their email and uploading a photo.
Photos are some of the most viral content on social platforms these days. For creating buzz with family and friends online, voting on photos can create an exponential amount of photo sharing, and sharing your cause and brand.
Example:
Spartan Electrical had the contest idea set up a Photo Contest to get participants to enter their favorite photo of a summer moment. The winner of the contest will receive a new barbeque.
This Photo Contest is like-gated in order to gain more likes on their Facebook Page. Like-gating ensures that you like their Facebook Page before entering the photo contest.
6 Social Contest Ideas and Examples
3. Photo Caption Contest
Photo Caption Contests are a great contest idea to engage fans. They often stimulate competition when entrants get passionate. Photo Captions can be a lot of fun for both the entrants and the business running it.
There is generally a little creativity involved in a Photo Caption Contest, but they have a low barrier to entry. Users submit and vote on captions (titles) for photos.
Once submitted, entrants automatically share a post on their Facebook profile, inviting their friends to join too. This generates buzz for your campaign and creates a potential viral campaign for your business.
6 Social Contest Ideas and Examples
4. Sweepstakes
Sweepstakes are another simple type of contest. They can be set up in minutes and, like all of our apps, are automatically optimized for mobile.
With a low barrier to entry, they are easy for users, which maximizes engagement. Users simply click ‘Enter Sweepstakes’, submit their email, and they’re in.
Once signed up, entrants automatically share a post on their Facebook profile, inviting their friends to join too. This generates buzz for your campaign and creates a potential viral campaign for your business.
Like all of our contests, you get to collect entrants’ emails, and you can track results in real-time to monitor campaign performance in our All-in-One marketing suite.
Example:
In the contest idea below, SunScape Tanning Studios has set up a Sweepstakes to give away a $150 gift card to their tanning studios. To enter, contestants easily enter their email, first name and last name.
They prove their name as a business to new leads by mentioning their award by the Georgia Straight’s Annual Reader’s Choice Awards for ‘Best Place for a Beach Ready Tan.’
6 Social Contest Ideas and Examples
5. Essay Contest
Essay contests ask more of your supporters, as you are asking them to express their views in words. Setting them up, however, is as simple for you as all our other apps.
With an essay contest, you can ask your supporters what makes them passionate about your cause. You can ask you fans if there a story they would like to share, and to give them a chance to make their voices heard.
This not only gets your fans and followers more involved by knowing you want to hear from them, and to share their stories, you also are able to showcase this written passion, which may ignite a flame in others.
You can create prizes for the best essay, using those with the most votes (by getting the most votes, entrants are more motivated to share their essay through all of their social platforms, and their friends). Prizes don’t have to cost much if you are a smaller business, they could be as simple as spending a day with those who you help, recognition by posting it on your website, and/ or a gift certificate related to your cause or target market.
Example:
Facial Aesthetic Concepts engages their fans through an essay contest. In the contest idea example below, they are offering a grand prize of $500 to spend in a local kitchenware store.
To enter, fans must write a maximum 500 word essay expressing why they think their Moms deserve a free makeover for Mother’s Day.
In order to vote, people must “like” the Facial Aesthetic Concepts Facebook Page. Entrants will be very engaged and motivated to share the contest to get the most likes with their online social connections.
6 Social Contest Ideas and Examples
6. Video Contest
Video contests are another easy to set up app. They can be used on your Facebook page and/ or embedded on your website. They are mobile compatible, and have auto-sharing by entrants.
Video contests, like essay contests require more effort from your entrants. They can be very motivating, too, for those who are passionate about your cause. And, like the essay contest, they can provide a spark in others, which may ignite a passion for your cause.
Again, like all of our apps in Wishpond’s All-in-One Marketing suite, you are able to easily collect participants emails in a exportable database.
Example:
In the Video Contest idea below, FilmScreenr has set up a video contest for filmmakers to enter to win a “Project Spotlight” where the winner gets $300 and a year of free film-hosting on their site as well as being promoted on their social networks.
Like photos, videos are some of the most viral content on the net. By encouraging the videos to be shared and voted on, FilmScreenr is getting user-generated content to promote their cause.
FilmScreenr explains exactly why they are running this contest, which builds trust with their fans. They explain that this contest is both beneficial for the promotion of their brand and also for the filmmakers to get some cash and exposure.
6 Social Contest Ideas and Examples
If you’re looking for further ways to promote your contest, check out our article “Top 19 Contesting Websites to Post Your Contest.”
At Wishpond, we want you to be the best marketer you can be. That’s why we’ve created a whole range of social promotion apps – making your marketing initiatives a little easier.
6 Social Contest Ideas and Examples
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