To Free Or Not To Free? The Usefulness Of Social Media Giveaways
Statistics from January 2022 indicate that there are 3.96 billion users of social media across all platforms. With the world population sitting at 7.9 billion people, that means 50% of the globe is active on at least one social media platform. As the functionality and consumer pool of social media continue to increase, it’s vital that brands across all industries leverage their platforms for maximum results.
One form of marketing unique to social media is the giveaway post. While currently underutilized – only 2% of accounts ever create giveaway posts – when created purposefully, they can be used to boost engagement, generate leads and promote your brand to both new and existing audiences. In fact, studies show that Instagram giveaways lead to 64 times the comments, 3.5 times the likes, and grow accounts 70% faster than a typical post.
So, how do giveaways work? Put simply, you provide an incentive in exchange for an action. Highly customizable and relatively inexpensive, giveaway posts are effective in building brand awareness in an nonintrusive way. Whether you ask the end user to follow your page, like and share a post, or tag their friends in the comment section, you’re employing indirect marketing via word of mouth. This is valuable because studies show that social media users are 30% more likely to trust each other in comparison to companies themselves, celebrities or influencers.
The 4C key to running a successful social media giveaway is twofold: define your goals and stick to your strategy.
While giveaways are fun to create and share, its important to know what you’re hoping to gain from the investment of time and resources. Utilize your current social media metrics to determine what you’d like to see change when the giveaway is complete. Helpful questions to ask yourself when setting your goals are:
- Who are we looking to attract to this post and in turn, our profile?
- How many followers do we want to gain?
- What type of interaction (like, comment, follow, share) do we want to see more of?
Once those questions are answered and goals are set, you’re ready to strategize. Start by thinking through what you’re going to give away, based on whose attention you’d most like to gain. From there, you can determine what action you’re asking the end user to take to enter the giveaway. Remember, the first group of people to engage with this post will be your current followers, so its important that they’re interested in what you’re offering and thus, willing to invite others in. Get creative with your post to generate buzz, and let the algorithm do the rest. You’ll soon see a spike in engagement that, ideally, turns into an increase in followers and brand loyalty. 
With the use of social media trending upwards, remaining active and engaged with your followers is imperative. If you’ve incentivized them to come, you must now incentivize them to stay. Need help figuring out where to start? We’re here to help – Reach out to our team today!
