Contests or sweepstakes are not simply for fun. Rather they are the most entertaining way to promote yourself. Running a winning contest through social media gains you a wider acceptability, but only when you do it right. Explore the best of the tips here.

2. A Winning Contest Means a
Lot! Let's Create it Through
Social Media
Let's face it! People love to "win" prizes and
when this word is paired with an objective,
the outcome becomes extraordinarily good.
That's why online contests or sweepstakes
often generate more sales, gains you more
leads or whatever you are trying to get more of it.
Contests have become a chief promotional strategy for decades, but the
success of the online contests depends a lot on the volume of
participation, a right promotional strategy is the key
Why Social media and Not any Other Platform?
Because social media reaches you to the larger audience at simply a
nominal cost! No wonder it's a superb outlet for the giveaways and
contests. Moreover, it's easier to spread the word through social
channels and it's quite obvious that if done right, contests can go viral in
no time. People have always a nose for "contests to win". No wonder, if
you run it through social media, you can expect a good volume of
participation. Isn't it what you also expect?
Let's share some great examples here! We will be basically talking about
the format, so that it becomes easier to understand how should you
promote as winning contest

3. Example-1 – Contest giving away gift hampers and
Amazon cards
Looking for some extra cash? Reach
immediately at HubSpot. Currently it's
giving away a $500 Amazon gift card to
a lucky winner every day.
For the Why's and How's click here…
And that's not all. There's a grand prize
of too. Those who will be posting the
best photo and also blog about it will stand a chance to grab an iPad.
So it's a Double Bonanza! Participate now to win.
Example-2 – Contest giving away cash prize
Are you the one with a skin for adventure? Would you love to explore the
unknown? Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago is looking for web-savvy
individuals to stay in the museum for a month and report his observations to
the visitors. Get to win cash prize
of $10,000, tech gadgets, and
what not? The winner can also be
an honorary member to MSI.
So what are you waiting for?
Participate now to win loads!

4. The Promotional Campaigns
To create a buzz, you can create teaser campaigns. Post banners or run
conversations in Facebook or Twitter to spread the word. The point is to interact with
people and get them engaged. It will not only spur interest, but also help you get
more participation, which in the long run helps boosting up the success rate.
Let's talk with an example here.
Suppose, you are soon to launch an online
photo contest, where a lucky winner will get a
DSLR camera. Such kind of contest makes a
superb crowd-puller, but only when people get to
know about it and feel interested. So, here's how
we should go with the teaser campaign.
Day- 1
Let Your Love for Photography Be Prized! Stay Tuned to
Know How! (Must be supported with a creative banner)
Day- 3
The wait is over! Online registration for the Photography
Contest is open. Click here to register now!
*********** The grand prize is a few click away! ***********
These kinds of tips offs trigger a good deal of interest because , people get to know that something
exciting is coming up, but at the same time do not know what exactly it is. Being instinctive, most of
the people will revisit the space just to explore what it is. Some of them will also show an intent for
joining, the others will probably try to get into the matter before signing up. Thus, a teaser campaign
will win you some impulsive participants in the first place and also a bunch of interested folks who
would like to know more about it. This way, your contest will get considerable social shares even
before it gets launched. The result is an increased success rate.
Day- 2
3 Days to Go! Spread the word to the world! And a DSLR
will be all yours! (Must be supported with a creative
banner)

5. THE TAKE AWAY POINTS
As mentioned earlier, contests are a superb way to market your products
or service. They are crowd pullers too. Here's some takeaway points that
will give you a definite idea about running contests that will surely reap
good outcomes in terms of sales.
1. Not on websites only, run contests in the social media
Social media enables you to reach out to the wider audience
within a short period of time. Thus, it's a more convenient and
utilitarian promotional tool that definitely triggers a large volume of
participation.
2. Promotion should be an integrated Strategy:
Just because your traditional marketing strategies stood
the test of time, it does not mean that you will exclusively rely
on that. Experts say, not to rely on one promotional outlet only.
With the traditional methods, use all the social
networks too. Recently, Twitter Pools, Facebook
Timeline Contests and LinkedIn Contests are making
quite a buzz.
3. Make Contests Sharable
No matter how exciting is the giveaway, if the contest idea is not appealing, it
won't have any far-fetched impact. So, you must have an
awesome contest idea, a visually appealing creative
backed by a URL shortener like bit.ly. In addition, there
should be the links to share the contest in Twitter and
Facebook, so that promotion becomes easier.
4. Generate pre-contest buzz:
This is definitely a fantastic way to increase participation.
Leverage the potential of social media at its best to
promote your contest even before it officially starts.
Pre-contest buzz always takes you a step ahead to
increase conversions.
5. Keep a tab on your success: There should be a way to track the
success rate of your contest. Get a unique tag or a phrase or link for tracking
the contests. It can be a Twitter hashtag or an exclusive landing page right on
your website that is meant for figuring out the results and the efficiency of your
social media initiatives.

6. BEFORE WE FINISH…
No doubt, contests play a key role in creating PR opportunities and
reaching out to the target group effectively. At the same time, these
are fun and entertaining way to involve customers. No wonder, social
media makes a great tool for churning out great contests.