World Writers Hub
Social Media Contests

5 Ways Social Media Contests Increase Brand Awareness

There are several ways to increase your brand awareness using Social Media contests. 

And it’s no big deal because…

Nowadays, there’s probably not a single business in the online world that doesn’t use social media platforms to their advantage.

If there is, they’re missing out on a lot of opportunities. Needless to say, social media has become an integral aspect of every marketing effort today.

The main reason is that businesses can directly reach out to their target audience on social networks and communicate their messages to potential customers.

However, the world of social media is quite a dynamic environment. That means that you cannot use the same tactics over and over again nor can you copy others and expect viable results.

As a matter of fact, you have to be constantly creative and devise new ways to engage your audience, as well as to promote your brand.

One of the best ways to achieve that is through social media contests. Contests, although a common occurrence on social networks, can always mean something new.

That being said, here are a few ways social media contests can increase brand awareness.

1. Attracting interest

Social media contests can quickly attract the interest of both your target audience and broader audience as well. Many people like to participate in contests just for the fun of it.

The side benefit can easily mean more attention for your brand in general. In other words, recognition gained through exposure.

If you create a compelling event on various social networks, you can capture the attention of numerous consumers. This can further be exploited to generate qualified leads and improve both the visibility and the awareness for your brand.

Promoting a contest is almost the same as promoting a product or a service. The only difference is that you’re trying to encourage people to participate instead of buy from you.

2. Brand recognition

Brand recognition is an important factor in brand awareness. It means that people can easily recognize your logo or your message as soon as they come across any of your brand elements on the market.

Social media contests can be a great way to boost brand recognition. This is especially true if you make an effort to ensure the event itself is memorable.

As an example, aside from the prizes, you can handout branded merchandise to every participant.  

Branded items, such as promotional notepads, flash drives, coffee mugs, and any other meaningful item can boost both brand awareness and brand recognition.

The fact of the matter is that 84% of consumers state that promo materials help improve their brand awareness. In addition, 94% of consumers will remember the brand whose gift they received.

3. Increased exposure

Social media contest can easily go viral over the networks. This can mean a lot of attention and exposure for your brand.

People who are generally satisfied with your contests, aside from your loyal brand advocates, will promote your brand, as well as your contests further to their friends and family.

Word-of-mouth recommendations and referrals can be a huge asset in building brand awareness. You can even encourage referrals by rewarding contest participants who invite a friend.

This can create a lot of buzz surrounding your contests and your brand in general, which will serve the purpose of helping your brand become well-known across social media platforms and beyond.

4. Audience engagement

Ensuring good audience engagement is not an easy task to achieve these days. However, if you are indeed successful in engaging your audience with your contests, you can enjoy quite a number of benefits because of it.

One of those benefits is brand awareness. Engaged consumers who participate in your contests are more likely to stick around to see what else you’ll be able to conjure up for them.

In addition, they are more likely to share, like, comment and react to your future posts. This can even lead to the creation of an engaged community surrounding your brand on social media.

You can leverage that to continue nurturing that community through relevant content and additional contests.

In other words, contest engagement can be a good start for establishing a meaningful relationship with your target audience.

5. Increase your following and collect data

Social media contests can encourage a lot of people to not just participate in your events but also to join your social following.

The social following may be a vanity metric, to begin with, but the more followers you have, the more chances of generating qualified leads you’ll have.

In addition, contest participants can also be a great source of data and information related to consumer preferences.

You can leverage that information to improve your future efforts and thus vastly boost your brand awareness, among other things.

The key, however, is to create and design contests in a way that will encourage consumers to provide you with such information aside from encouraging them to participate, in the first place.

Wrapping It Up

Social media is essential for businesses today and any activity on social media networks can be a great advantage for businesses.

Well-designed and compelling contests can not only boost your brand awareness but also ensure that your brand has an engaged and loyal consumer base that will support it in the future.

WE ALSO RECOMMEND

Elaine Bennett

Elaine Bennett

Digital marketing specialist and a regular contributor for Bizzmark Blog.

1 comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • Very informative post! As you discussed in your first point the content is the key to market business online. Thank you for sharing.

BOOK REVIEWS

Content Marketing Made Easy
We respect your privacy.
  • Johannes ad