In today’s world, every brand wants to engage its brand advocates in social media. And there are a number of great ways to do just that, including promotions!
A word of caution though if you are planning to run a promotion within the social space: there are several rules, both from the FTC and the Social Platforms themselves, which must be kept in mind.
Facebook proves to be one of the most difficult platforms for running promotions. Facebook’s terms of use prevent brands from incentivizing anything that posts to a user’s wall. This means that promotions on Facebook must be contained to the brand’s Facebook page where commenting on or liking a promotional post could be required.
Even with these entry mechanisms, the winner outreach portion can prove difficult with a Facebook promotion. And because requiring page Likes/Follows is not allowed, that process becomes even more manual or time-consuming. You should factor in time and effort when deciding which platforms to use.
Twitter can be leveraged for promotions in a variety of ways. Brands can incentivize shares on Twitter directly from a webpage, encourage hashtag usage, or request retweets/comments to brand content for entries. Twitter’s only request is that you not promote spammy behavior. You must require each entry posted to Twitter to be unique - no copies or duplicates!
Instagram is much like Twitter except for the ability to share to Instagram directly from a webpage - you can only post via the app.
One thing to note is that Instagram has made it increasingly difficult to aggregate content via its API. We wouldn’t be surprised to see future changes that affect promotions shortly.
Pinterest allows for shares directly from a webpage, but hashtag usage cannot be tracked on Pinterest. Also like most social platforms, Pinterest discourages spammy behavior. As a result, entries are limited to one per person. If executing a pin to win, a variety of images must be offered for users to pin (not just one) to be more authentic.
After you have selected your platforms, don’t forget to reference the FTC requirements for advertising within social media - it still applies to sweepstakes! If you require users to post for entry, that post must include a designation that makes clear the post is for a sweepstakes/contest/promotion (i.e. includes #sweepstakes, #contest, or #promotion). It is up to the brand to be clear in directing users to include such a designation.
Brandmovers has a wealth of experience executing digital promotions for some of the world’s largest brands. Contact us for any sweepstakes or instant win engagements today!