New Update: Boost Social Proof with Reviews & Automation
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New Update: Boost Social Proof with Reviews & Automation
Stacey Corrin
Stacey Corrin
John Turner
John Turner
Recently, one of our customers grew their Facebook Group by over 11,000 real, engaged followers using a simple social media contest. This wasn’t luck, but the result of using proven contest strategies we’ve developed at RafflePress over the years.
The truth is, most businesses struggle with social media contests because they focus on the wrong metrics. They chase likes and shares without thinking about how to convert participants into customers. I made these same mistakes when I started.
That’s why I’m sharing this collection of social media contest ideas that go beyond the basics. Each idea in this guide has been tested and proven to drive real business results, not just vanity metrics.
Top Social Media Contest & Giveaway Ideas:
When I started running social media promotions, I was confused about the difference between contests and giveaways. After running hundreds of both for my blogs and helping others do the same, I’ve learned that while both involve prizes, they serve very different purposes.
In a social media contest, you’re challenging people to submit their best work – whether that’s a photo, caption, or creative answer. The winner gets chosen based on how good their entry is, which means your most creative followers have the best shot at winning. I love running contests when I want to build a stronger community and collect amazing user-generated content.
A social media giveaway, on the other hand, is much simpler. People just need to take basic actions like following your account, liking a post, or tagging a friend. Everyone who enters has an equal chance of winning because the winner is picked randomly. I use giveaways when I want to grow my following quickly or boost engagement with minimal friction.
I remember when getting organic engagement on social media was easy. These days? Not so much. With endless short-form videos and algorithm changes, I’ve seen many businesses struggle to get their content noticed. That’s exactly why I started experimenting with social media contests.
After running many contests across different industries, I can tell you they’re one of the most effective ways to cut through the noise and get real engagement. Let me share what I’ve learned about why contests work so well:
I’ve tested dozens of contest formats over the years, and some consistently perform better than others. Here are my favorite social media contest ideas that you can start using today.
One of my top creative contest ideas is to run a social media photo contest.
Photo contests are an excellent way to collect user-generated content (UGC) for your brand. You can also partner with influencers to promote the contest. UGC can include photos, videos, reviews, and more. This type of content is valuable because it’s seen as more authentic and trustworthy than traditional digital marketing campaigns.
Choosing a winner can be as simple as asking people to vote for the best photo or even via a panel of judges.
Gansetts Beer ran a photo contest in the lead-up to Valentine’s Day. To enter, fans had to share a photo of what Valentine’s meant to them on their social media accounts and tag it with the brand’s hashtag. The winner received a dozen roses to give to a loved one.
Like a photo contest, online video contests require entrants to submit a video in return for a contest entry. You can use a video contest to increase subscribers on your YouTube channel by creating videos announcing and promoting the giveaway.
You can ask users to share the video contest with a friend, watch a specific video, and more for bonus entries. This will help you expand your reach and attract more participants.
Did you know that running a video contest is one of the best ways to get more likes on YouTube? They’re excellent social media contest ideas for students, given the largely mobile life they lead.
Caption contests let users create captions with images in return for entries. You can either pick the best caption as the winner or draw a winner randomly. This is another easy way to attract many entries, as little effort is required to enter.
With this type of creative contest, it’s good to include additional ways to enter and share the contest.
In this social media contest example, Sebastian & Co asked users to follow them on Instagram and caption their photos for a chance to win. You can easily create a similar social media giveaway post.
Essay contests are ideal for collecting user-generated content around your customers’ experiences. You can then allow users to vote for the best entry and share the contest on social media to maximize your reach.
You can ask for submissions on any topic with essay contests, but it’s best to keep things relevant to your brand.
For instance, you could ask for essays on:
You can combine this with a voting contest to motivate users to share the giveaway on their social channels, or a trivia contest where users submit the correct answers for a chance to win.
Scavenger hunts don’t automatically spring to mind when running a social media contest. Yet, they’re a great way to simultaneously engage people’s curiosity and promote your brand.
One way to run a social media scavenger hunt is to hide clues such as photos, videos, and more across all your different platforms.
Alternatively, you can ask users a series of questions to find the answers in posts scattered throughout your channel.
Participants can leave their answers on your giveaway widget and join your newsletter to complete the entry requirements.
Hashtag challenges have been around for some time. Yet, with the growth of sites like TikTok, they’ve seen a surge in popularity. Because of that, it’s now easier than ever for brands to create a branded hashtag that prompts users to get involved and become brand ambassadors.
Chipotle is an excellent example of this in action. To celebrate Cinco de Mayo and drive usage of their app for orders, Chipotle created the lid flip challenge.
After just 6 days of the challenge going live, 110,000 videos were submitted to the challenge, resulting in 104 million video views. More importantly, it created record-breaking digital sales, driving app downloads and delivery among Chipotle’s target audience.
Another creative way to promote your brand and engage your audience is to create a filter challenge to win a prize.
Many companies have created branded filters to promote their products and raise brand awareness.
For example, the Kiss The Brides bridal show ran a filter contest to win tickets to their next show, making this a great ticket giveaway idea.
To enter, participants had to follow the show on Snapchat, visit a participating location, take a selfie using their branded filter, and send it to them in a story. This example is an excellent social media contest idea for events or trade show social media contests.
Another unique way to engage your audience and secure those crucial leads is to turn your contest into a game. For instance, you can ask users to play social media games or participate in quizzes to win prizes.
All they’d have to do is play the game and enter their details. Then, when the giveaway ends, you can notify them of the winner, helping you drive traffic to your website.
Trident implemented some game ideas with the Chew Tunes contest to win a trip to the Grammys or a cash prize.
To enter, users had to play each record and vote for their favorite. Since users had to sign up with their email addresses, this allowed Trident to reach those people with marketing messages in the future.
Consider running a spin-to-win campaign if you don’t have the budget to create a game from scratch. Or you could create a fun game with a trivia question format.
It’s easy to forget the power of Pinterest to drive followers and leads to your business. As one of the largest platforms for visual content, it’s the perfect place to get your audience engaged with your products.
You can run a Pinterest contest to ask users to create a Pinterest board of their dream home using your products. Alternatively, travel companies can get users to pin their dream vacation.
You can then reward the winner with free products or a prize bundle of relevant goods.
Now let’s look at some social media giveaway ideas that you can easily adapt for your own business.
Sweepstakes are like raffles where users can enter their contact details to win prizes. They’re not only a great way to generate leads for your brand but can also help you grow your email list. Since it’s easy for people to participate, it’s a must-have for your list of social media marketing competition ideas.
Universal Studios offers an excellent social media contest example of how they can be fun, vibrant, and easy to enter. To win a trip to Hollywood or Orlando, users simply need to enter their contact details on the giveaway landing page.
Referral contests are a great way to increase your business’s reach. The entry requirement is to share the giveaway on a social network, which helps you reach new audiences. As more people share your giveaway, more people will see it, and so on.
You can also include bonus entries to follow your social media channels to help grow your followers.
Check out more refer-a-friend promotion ideas here.
Commenting giveaways require users to leave a comment on your social media post for a chance to win. Since it’s easy for people to enter, it can generate many new leads for your brand and boost engagement.
The great thing about this type of contest is that you can run it on any social media channel. All you have to do is create your post with a caption explaining the entry rules and contest rules details.
Alternatively, you can host the contest directly on your website using a giveaway tool like RafflePress. Then, you can promote your contest on all your social media channels for maximum reach.
The winner of a voting giveaway is the user with the most votes. This is another fun way to spread the word about your giveaway, as participants will share the contest with friends and family to secure more votes.
You can ask users to vote for a winner in the comments section of your post, host it on your website, and use a giveaway tool to track votes.
This type of giveaway is easy to pair with a submission-based photo or design contest. For example, Drovers began their campaign as a photo contest. And in their social media giveaway post, they asked users to vote for the winner on their Facebook page.
If you’d like to keep track of votes, use the Surveys and Polls entry action in the RafflePress builder. Then you can quickly see who has the most votes at a glance and pick a winner.
Tag-a-friend giveaways are technically a comment and share wrapped in one. When people participate, it creates a ripple effect: one friend tags a friend, who then tags a friend, and so on.
A great example of this in action is this giveaway from Broke Green Mums.
They teamed up with a complimentary brand for their giveaway and asked participants to tag 2 friends in the comments. They then bolstered this with optional entries to follow both Instagram profiles to get more followers.
Follow-to-win giveaways are the most straightforward solutions for broadening your audience and gaining new followers. They’re also usually paired with a request for a like and share to increase engagement. Users need to follow you to enter to win.
But you don’t have to stick to the standard format. Instead, you can run a follow-to-win giveaway to reach a specific follower goal, using our templates to streamline the process. Then, when you reach the goal, you can randomly draw a winner.
You may already know that it’s easy to lose followers quickly on social media. Yet, if you run regular contests on your social channels, you can attract loyal followers who’ll stick around longer, rewarding you with a steadily growing follower count and brand loyalty.
Costello’s Bakery runs a weekly Instagram giveaway with significant effect.
Every Wednesday, they give away one of their cupcake boxes to one lucky random winner. All people need to participate is to leave a comment and follow their profile.
Their food contest idea for social media receives tons of likes and engagement while helping to grow their followers.
Reaching follower milestones on social media is an excellent opportunity to thank and reward your audience. So why not run a giveaway celebrating your milestone?
Create a post thanking everyone who’s followed you in the past. Then, highlight that you’re running a giveaway to celebrate. To help spread the word, ask users to follow, like, or comment for a chance to win.
Alternatively, you can use a giveaway app to get people to follow you on other social platforms. Then, you can grow your audience there, too.
Following up with participants after your social media contest ends is a crucial way to show appreciation and nurture potential leads. Here’s how you can do it effectively:
Here is an example email that you can use:
Dear [Participant's Name],
Thank you so much for participating in our recent [Contest Name] on [Social Media Platform]! While you weren't the winner this time, we appreciate your enthusiasm and support.
As a token of our appreciation, we'd like to offer you a 10% discount on your next purchase. Use code [Discount Code] at checkout.
We'd also love your feedback – what did you enjoy about the contest? Are there any ways we could improve?
Thanks again! [Your Company Name]
The easiest way to run a successful social media contest is to use an online giveaway tool like RafflePress.
RafflePress is the best WordPress giveaway plugin on the market. It makes it super easy to do a giveaway online right from your WordPress website. Plus, it gives you everything you need to accomplish your giveaway goals, whether to grow your email list, increase website traffic, or boost your social media presence.
You can learn how to create a social media contest with RafflePress here.
That’s it!
We hope this article helped you find some great ideas for social media contests you can use for your own campaigns.
While you’re here, you may also find the following guides helpful when running a successful giveaway or contest:
Don’t forget to follow us on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook for more great tips to grow your business.
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