How to Successfully Manage Multiple Twitter Accounts

Are you managing multiple Twitter accounts?

Wondering how to streamline your Twitter marketing?

TweetDeck lets you engage, monitor and schedule tweets for multiple accounts from a single customizable dashboard.

In this article you’ll discover how to manage multiple Twitter accounts with TweetDeck.

#1: Connect Your Twitter Accounts

The first step is to set up your TweetDeck account.

If your company has one or two people monitoring social media, you can create one login using your company’s handle as the default account. Then you can add more accounts/handles to that same user login.

After you login to TweetDeck, you’ll see your TweetDeck dashboard.

The gray navigation bar on the left side of the dashboard is your go-to location for everything TweetDeck can do. From there, you can add accounts, write new tweets, review activity and notifications, read messages, change settings and more.

To connect additional accounts, click on the Accounts icon near the bottom of the navigation bar.

Add accounts to your TweetDeck dashboard.

Next, click Add Another Twitter Account and enter the username and password for each account you want to manage. Now you’re ready to begin.

#2: Add Listening Streams

The most powerful TweetDeck feature is the ability to add streams, which are columns of tweets that are updated in real time. There are a number of different streams to choose from, such as User, Notifications, Mentions, Followers, Messages, Search, Lists and more.

To add a stream, click on the Add Column icon (with the + sign on it) in the navigation bar. Then select the column type you want to add.

Select the stream you want to add.

You can customize the content of each column and remove excess noise. This makes it easier to find the information you want. Click the icon in the upper-right corner of the column to access your filtering options.

TweetDeck allows you to customize columns so you can see the information that’s important to you.

Keep in mind that adding lots of streams isn’t always better. It’s important to choose the columns that will help you reach your marketing goals.

Here are five streams that you’ll want to add.

Notifications

The Notifications stream allows you to see when you have a new follower, someone has added you to a list or one of your tweets has been liked, retweeted or replied to.

Using this stream, you can quickly find active and potential clients, customers and followers. Essentially it lets you monitor every handle that is engaging with your content. You canuse additional filters to narrow down your notifications to engagement, users and content type.

Narrow your notifications by users.

Mentions

Add the Mentions stream to monitor every tweet that mentions your Twitter handle, whether for the first time or as part of a reply/conversation.

The Mentions stream tracks tweets that mention your Twitter handle.

By monitoring and using this stream daily, your marketing team can track every company mention, and then react in a timely manner. You can quickly jump into conversations,offer customer support or engage with your existing user base or potential prospects.

Search

Search is one of the most important streams in TweetDeck. It allows your marketing team to go beyond users and monitor content related to keywords or hashtags.

Using the Search feature, you can keep an eye on topics and conversations that are essential to your business.

For example, if your company is about to launch a new technology product, your marketing team can set up a Search stream to monitor all tweets for keywords such as new technology, today in tech, #techtuesday, and so on.

Set up a stream for a relevant keyword or hashtag.

Bonus Tip: When setting up this stream, don’t forget to use Boolean operators to save space. This way, you can search for multiple terms in the same column.

Messages

The Messages stream allows you to read and reply to direct messages for any accounts you’ve added to TweetDeck.

This is where you can turn your Twitter following into real engagement with prospects andinfluencers in your industry. Once you have this set up, you can respond quickly and appropriately as the discussion occurs.

You can create a separate column to track direct messages for each account.Alternatively, you can track messages for multiple accounts in the same column by adding the Messages (All Accounts) stream.

Add a stream to track direct messages to your Twitter account.

Lists

Lists is a feature that you must first set up within Twitter. After you create your Twitter lists, you can pull them into TweetDeck. This allows you to add any Twitter handle (regardless of whether you’re following it) to a Twitter list and create a number of lists for specific purposes.

Here are a few examples of Twitter lists you may want to create:

• Competitors: Watch out for new content, product launches, events, etc.
• Thought Leaders: Identify industry trends or get ideas for your next piece of content.
• Clients: Build relationships by sharing their content and creating discussions.

#3: Monitor and Engage

Once you’ve set up your TweetDeck streams, you have a complete view of your Twitter presence in one dashboard.

To effectively manage and grow your Twitter account, you’ll need to do some daily tasks. To make sure no tasks or opportunities fall through the cracks, here’s a helpful checklist.

Monitor Mentions and Messages

It’s important to monitor your mentions and messages streams closely. These are the people interacting directly with your company. Often, these tweets are customers trying to reach out for help, complaints or praise.

Retweet

To keep your Twitter feed fresh and engage with people you’re following, retweet relevant content. You can find content worth retweeting in your Mentions, Lists and Search streams.

If a mention offers praise or an interesting story, retweet it. Your Lists and Search streams should also be set up to display industry-relevant terms and information worth sharing.

Schedule Tweets

You can schedule tweets (and add images) by clicking the New Tweet icon (with a quill on it) in the top-left corner.

Click the New Tweet icon to compose a tweet.

Engage With Users

In addition to mentions and messages, aim to start new conversations with customers and industry leaders every day. To engage with potential customers and advocates, reply to their tweets, @mention them in one of your tweets or direct message them.

Participate in Chats, Webinars and Events

Another way to engage with customers and industry leaders is to participate in Twitter chats. Look for webinars, events and other conversations relevant to your field. Most events will have a hashtag that makes it easy to sort related tweets.

Save a chat hashtag as a Search stream to ensure you’re dialed into the conversation all day.

Save the chat hashtag as a Search stream.

Follow New People

Build your profile by following and engaging with new people. Be sure to follow people relevant to your business and industry by using the Notifications, Mentions, Search and List streams. Look out for thought leaders and potential prospects.

Conclusion

TweetDeck makes it easier to keep your company top of mind on Twitter by moving all your Twitter conversations into a single, customizable dashboard. Plus, when you can engage, analyze, monitor and schedule tweets for multiple accounts from one place, you’ll be more productive.

What do you think? Have you used TweetDeck? If so, how has it worked for your business? 

Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

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How Do You Actually “Think Outside The Box” In Digital Marketing?

As marketers, I’m sure we’ve all heard sayings that are meant to challenge our line of thinking and productivity. You may be asked to “think outside the box” or be told that the six words that will kill your business are “We’ve always done it this way.”

Though these sentiments are meant to challenge employees, they foster the notion that your thinking must be grand in scale and allow for widespread changes.

Don’t get me wrong — there’s nothing wrong with thinking big. However, neglecting smaller, more frequent changes in the name of scale can be damaging.

Thinking outside the box doesn’t need to apply to one item or task. It can and should be a mentality that you employ on a daily basis.

You should always be thinking about how you could improve your workflow and the deliverables you present.

Applying This Mentality

Let’s look at reporting as an example of thinking differently by making minor, but impactful, updates. Most reports I review are stagnant month over month. The tables and graphs are the same, while the analysis is vanilla.

To improve the report, review it as if you were the client. Ask yourself questions such as:

• What is this data telling me?
• Does this graph represent anything important, or is it just there?
• Are new initiatives portrayed in the report?
• The analysis speaks to the what, but is it telling me the why?

By asking these questions and then making updates, you aren’t reinventing the wheel, but you are challenging yourself. Therefore, instead of taking things as they are, you’re looking to better your work and provide an improved experience for all.

Another example is with your everyday communication. When responding to a message, are you simply answering the question at hand, or are you forecasting what will be said next to craft a more complete response?

Let’s look at this line of “simple” communication:

Person A: How many webinars should we run in Q2?
Person B: Let’s run three.
Person A: Why do you suggest three?
Person B: That’s one webinar for each month of the quarter.
Person A: Will you be scheduling and setting up these webinars?
Person B: Yes.

Now, let’s see how forecasting would have allowed person B to send one response instead of three.

Person A: How many webinars should we run in Q2?
Person B: Let’s run three so there’s one webinar for each month of the quarter. I’ll plan to schedule and set up these webinars.

On person B’s part, all it took was some thought of how to provide a more complete answer. This foresight allows for more succinct communication and saved time, which could be utilized somewhere more pressing.

Tasks such as better communication may not be your first thought for how to think outside the box, but these small wins add up to make you more productive.

As a final example, I was recently working with a client who had tried Facebook Ads in the past and didn’t see success. For the particular theme he wanted to target, there was no search volume in Google AdWords and Bing Ads.

He was adamant about the obstacle of past Facebook failures, but knowing how much the platform has improved with its audience targeting capabilities, I suggested we give it another shot. We ended up seeing new leads that we would not have received otherwise.

This suggestion to use Facebook wasn’t groundbreaking, but it did challenge conventional thought. Thinking differently can result in wins in smaller day-to-day situations like this one.

Another way to look at thinking outside the box is to think critically — in other words, going beyond the face value of what you see and are told so that you may draw your own conclusions. Too often, we’re content with the status quo.

Again, this scenario doesn’t mean we have to make wholesale changes, just that we should be more aware and willing to question our day-to-day activities.

Other Considerations

You may have inferred this point already, but a large part of thinking outside the box is the desire to be a better employee. Without determination or a passion for your work, there is little motivation to challenge yourself.

That’s why being in the right environment helps foster different thinking. Going back to the main theme of this post, outside-the-box thinking should be considered holistic and not a one-off solution.

Finally, we often forget that it’s okay to fail. Not every idea or thought you have is going to be a winner. In fact, you may ruffle some feathers as you present new ways of thinking.

The key is to be confident as you stand behind your reasoning. People may not agree with your thoughts, but they will respect what you have to say if they can tell you’re invested.

Final Thoughts

Thinking outside the box isn’t a one-off occurrence, but rather a state of mind. If your mindset is to always be questioning and wanting to better execute, you will bring new ideas and ways of thinking to the table with higher frequency.

Propping up outside-the-box thinking as a mythical, grand notion that will change everything isn’t the right way to address this concept. Rather, understand that a culture of innovation occurs when you are consistently thinking critically.

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3 Social Media Engagement Techniques That Work

Need some new social media marketing ideas?

Looking for ways to jumpstart your engagement?

Whether your goal is to spread awareness or grow your audience, better engagement is your key to success.

In this article you’ll discover three ways to improve engagement for your social media accounts.

#1: Personalize Your Approach

Your audience is the greatest asset for your campaign. To run a successful social campaign with plenty of engagement, you have to know your audience and what they’re likely to respond to and enjoy.

To gain these insights, you’ll need to do some research. Find out which social media channels the people you want to reach spend the most time on. Discover what topics they care about and what hashtags they use.

Don’t just listen to your audience, but communicate with them. When you show your fans that you’re interested and you care, and they’ll show you what makes them happy. Once you know what they’re looking for, you can launch a social media campaign that they’ll embrace.

Many brands have leveraged Pinterest to run successful social campaigns, including Kotex’sWoman’s Inspiration Day. The company looked at the Pinterest boards for 50 inspiring women to see what interested them.

Kotex then brought their inspirations to life by creating handmade gifts and sending them to the women as virtual gifts. If the women then posted something about their virtual gift, they received a real gift from the company in the mail.

Almost all of the 50 women responded, generating 2,284 interactions and 694,853 impressions on Pinterest. The campaign was a huge hit because Kotex was able to hyper-target a specific audience and what they want. This is just one of many examples of how you can use Pinterest to launch a successful social campaign.

#2: Put the Product in Your Fan’s Hands

Remember the core goal of social media is to be social, so it’s important to cultivate relationships with your fans and followers. This is an essential step to launching a successful social media campaign.

Yes, your ultimate goal is to sell your product and your brand, but for the purposes of your social media campaign, take a step back on the selling and simply share. Don’t force your product or your brand on your audience or they’ll stop listening to you. Opt for subtlety instead. Give people a way to share your product in a fun and unique way and let your audience come to it.

Ford’s Fiestagram Instagram campaign created buzz for the release of their new Fiesta model by asking fans to post pictures that related to different campaign hashtags.

Each hashtag was a buzzword describing one of the features of the new Fiesta car, such as #music, #entry, #hidden, etc. Ford then chose the best pictures for each hashtag and displayed them on digital billboards. They also awarded weekly prizes to fans who submitted photos for the campaign.

More than 16,000 photos were submitted to the Fiestagram campaign and Ford gained 120,000 new fans on their social media pages.

Lay’s launched the clever Do Us a Flavor campaign on Facebook that asked fans and consumers to come up with a new flavor of potato chip for the company to create and sell. That year, nearly 4 million people submitted their flavor ideas via Facebook or text message.

Lay’s Do Us a Flavor campaign asked fans to submit ideas for a new flavor of potato chip.

Once the finalists were chosen, Lay’s asked fans to vote for the winning flavor on Facebook, receiving over 1 million votes. The prize for the winning flavor was $1 million (or 1% of sales for the chip flavor). The first campaign increased Lay’s sales by 12% and was so successful at generating engagement for the brand that they continue to run it each year.

If you offer your fans a chance to showcase their creativity and connect it to one of your products, you can establish a respectful relationship with your audience, linking their personal creations to your company.

#3: Play the Tag Game

Before you launch a social media campaign, you need to know what your goal is. Without a firm plan in mind, you’re almost certainly setting yourself up for failure. It’s important to identify not only what you want to accomplish, but also the audience you’re targeting and how you want to connect with them.

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge campaign was launched to raise awareness and funding for ALS. The “challenge” was for people to dump a bucket of ice over their heads and record a video of it to increase awareness of the disease.

People who took the challenge spurred more engagement by nominating others to take the challenge.

After each challenge, the person taking it would nominate two or three more people to take the challenge and so on until people around the world were participating. The campaign grew exponentially in a short amount of time. So what made this campaign great? The call to action: Dump ice water on your head, and tag someone else to participate. It was simple, but impactful.

In your social campaigns, use a simple call to action to make it easy for people to complete the goal.

Over to You

Social media is one of the greatest tools you can use to grow your business and promote your brand. Launching social media campaigns helps you spread awareness and build an audience.

To jumpstart participation in your social media campaign, you need a core group of people who are 100% behind your launch to get it off the ground. One way to do that is to create a beta group and give them exclusive perks.

What do you think? Have you used these tactics in your social media campaigns? What tips can you offer? 

Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

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How to Get More Organic Traffic to Your Content

Anyone who knows anything about content marketing understands that a successful blog post or other piece of content is not just a case of "build it and they will come."

You can spend hours writing the most interesting and engaging post, or spend thousands on creating interactive/video content or e-book, but if you don't have a strategy from the start for getting it in front of eyeballs... nobody's going to see it. All that time and money—wasted.

Here are my surefire, tried-and-tested suggestions for getting high ranking on search engines and traffic to your content.

1. Choose the right topic

For best results in the long term, your topic should be relevant, interesting, and evergreen. 

Relevant to your audience 

Relevance is important because it affects how shareable the piece will be within your niche. For example, if you're a bespoke shoemaker, your followers on social may be people interested in fashion, members of the leather industry, or hikers. But it's unlikely that many of them would be interested in a post about video games, for example.

Shares are important because they're one of the most important ranking factors that influence Google's algorithm to feature your post higher up in search rankings. The idea is that if a post is shared more by people, it's more valuable and engaging, and should therefore be served to searchers before other pages are.

Interesting for your audience

Your content should be "interesting" not just in a vague way, but in one that's proven. It may seem hard to prove whether something is interesting—because, after all, that's pretty subjective. However, one thing that you can prove is how many people are searching for a particular term.

When researching your topic, use the Google AdWords keyword planner to find out (a) whether anyone's searching for the topic you have in mind and (b) exactly how (what words they're using when) they're searching for it.

Simply stick in your topic name and the tool will suggest a bunch of similar keywords. For each keyword, you'll see the number of monthly searches, the degree of competition for each term, and a suggested paid search bid. The trick is to find terms with a decent number of searches. You should then optimize your content for targeting those keywords.

Relevant over time: evergreen

If you want a constant stream of traffic, your content should be something that's relevant to your audience for months, or even years, after it's published. News-related content might get you loads of shares and views in the short term; once it's no longer news, however, no one will be searching for it.

Evergreen content will attract searches and will remain shareable for longer, giving you more return for your investment. Page age is also another very strong ranking factor for Google, meaning the longer your page is up, the higher it should rank.

2. Have a strong social strategy

As noted earlier, it's important to get as many social shares as possible for your content, because they are an important ranking factor. Good planning will hopefully ensure you've got an engaging, shareable topic, but here are ways to get share count up.

Target influencers

Influencer marketing is an emerging practice: Google Trends shows that search frequency for the term has tripled since the beginning of 2015.

Simply put, influencer marketing is the practice of targeting well-known and influential brands or people with the aim of reaching their audiences for your own marketing needs. It's useful for gaining exposure for new blogs or authors, and for establishing their own following or audience.

The challenge with this tactic is to choose the right influencers and to target them in the correct way. They need to be relevant to your audience and likely to engage with your brand. Generally, the more influential the target, the more effort you need to put into getting noticed.

Whom do you target?

I have found bloggers to be a great choice, for two reasons:

1. Bloggers respond quite positively to "egobaiting" posts: If you mention them, they're quite likely to share the post because they were mentioned in it.
2. Their audiences are often highly engaged and very likely to reshare, which can set off a chain reaction of engagement.

Sometimes, the more influencers you can mention in a post, the better. A great way to do so is a listicle: Consider, for example, post of the top UK fashion bloggers. We featured 10 influencers in one large egobaiting post and got shares from almost all of them, and even a link or two.

The result of that effort, coupled with some careful keyword optimization, is that the post now ranks in the top 5 for the term on Google.

3. Consider paid promotion

Many people will be put off by paid promotion because of the cost, but the market is increasingly more competitive, so you should consider it. Anything that boosts your share count will also help your post climb the natural search rankings.

After all, we're not talking about blindly throwing $100 at a random Facebook post. At this stage you should have a post that's proved to be engaging and shareable, so there's a much higher chance that promotion should result in more engagement.

Choosing a platform will depend a lot on the content, your audience, and what kind of targeting you want. Generally, follow these guidelines:

• Facebook: More emotive content
• Twitter: More newsworthy content
• LinkedIn: More business content

You should also consider paid options such as Outbrain or Taboola. These relatively new platforms work similarly to the Google Display Network, displaying your post in "featured post" sections on other media sites. You'll tend to get more clicks at a better CPC with these platforms, but options for targeting are more limited.

When making a determination, you should also factor in which platform the content has performed well on already.

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17 Tips for Successful Facebook Contests

Are you planning a Facebook contest?

Want to make sure it’s a success?

An easy-to-follow checklist of tips and best practices will help you launch Facebook contests your audience will love.

In this article I’ll share 17 tips to make your Facebook contest a success.

#1: Review Facebook’s Terms of Service

Facebook periodically changes its rules and regulations about contests and other promotions. Be sure to check the Facebook Guidelines page before you launch your contest.

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#2: Set a S.M.A.R.T. Goal

A S.M.A.R.T. goal is one that’s specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. Make sure you clearly define your contest’s goals before you start planning. Do you want to promote a new product? Grow your email list? Perhaps you’re looking to gather a bunch of user-generated content such as photos and videos.

To set your Facebook contest up for success, focus on one or two attainable goals.

#3: Choose the Contest Type

Consider running caption, photo-vote, video-vote, and sweepstakes contests, which are always popular on Facebook. Sweepstakes are the easiest to enter and the key to driving lots of entries is to pick the right prize.

Del Mar Fans & Lighting’s straightforward Facebook giveaway requires entrants to simply vote on which lighting product they prefer. Once they vote, they’re entered. When the contest ends, a company rep will choose a winner at random.

Remember, you need to develop a contest that will help you reach your goals. Try a photo- or video-vote contest if your goal is to collect user-generated content.

#4: Select the Right Software

Figure out what software you need to run and manage your contest. Look for software with built-in voter verification features, so everything is on the up and up.

If you want to collect email addresses or other contact information, use third-party software that will help you organize all of the data you collect.

If you’d like to increase engagement, run a Facebook timeline contest. Choose a comment/like importer tool that allows you to collect a Facebook user ID number and name from everyone who engages with your post.

Whatever type of contest you choose, remember you can use the information you collect for future marketing efforts. 

#5: Set a Time Frame

Decide how long your contest will run and let your audience know.

Companies offering valuable prizes, like a trip to Paris for two, tend to let contests run for longer periods of time than those offering smaller or local prizes, like a meal or a one-night stay in a hotel. Some companies even do a weekly or monthly giveaway.

Palmer’s Canada recently ran a “Celebrate the New Year Giveaway,” during the month of January. At the top of the rules document, the contest period is listed, right down to the time zone.

How long your contest runs is up to you. Just make sure you share the time frame in all of your promotions.

#6: Create Rules

Write a description of how the winner will be chosen, such as randomly or by community vote.

For example, BroadStreet Publishing hosted a 21 Days of Love Valentine’s Day giveaway. In the rules they state that “a winner will be chosen at random,” among other considerations.

Consider including a rule that says voting is only part of the process, and a judge or panel of judges will determine the final winner. Make sure to include a line stating that if you suspect fraud, you have the right to determine the winner.

#7: Determine Who Can Enter

Are you a local business hoping to increase foot traffic to your store or restaurant? Consider limiting entries to people who live within a 50-mile radius of your business. You can also specify age ranges and even gender in your contest rules.

KLIM, a company that makes technical outdoor apparel, is looking for women to model its clothing. In the contest rules, they specify that they want family-friendly images and “No duck face selfies.”

If you decide to limit who can enter, be sure it makes sense for your business.

#8: Pick a Relevant Prize

Choose a prize that will be enticing to your ideal customer rather than one that will be generically appealing. If you offer a GoPro camera or an iPad, you’ll get lots of entries. However, the people who are attracted to your prize might not necessarily be attracted to your brand.

Do you own a restaurant? Offer a meal for two. Do you have an automotive service shop? Offer a complimentary oil change. You get the idea.

Globe, a company that makes fire-fighting equipment, is offering a pair of boots to its winner.

Choose your prize wisely. This is where many brands go astray.

#9: Feature a Photo of the Prize

It’s essential to choose a compelling image. You want to grab the attention of the easily distracted Internet users you want to fill out your form and enter your contest.

Ride365.com is offering a motorcycle as a prize for a current contest. Anyone who loves to ride will definitely want to enter.

You have eight seconds to make an impression. Capture your audience with a catchy image.

#10: Choose a Custom Hashtag

Come up with a unique hashtag that reflects your brand and your contest. Then use it to extend the reach of your contest across multiple social networks.

Tools like Hashtagify.me will help you find trends in hashtags related to your industry.

Star Olives encourages entrants to use #STAROlives and #HowdoYOUolive on both Facebook and Twitter.

Create a unique hashtag so your customers are able to track your contest on various social media platforms.

Hashtags are gaining more ground on Facebook, now that it’s integrated with Instagram. However, limit Facebook hashtags to one or two, because the more you use, the less engagement you’ll get.

#11: Design Your Contest Images

Your contest’s design needs to reflect your brand. Be sure to incorporate your logos, colors, and art on your contest page, and make sure the theme is consistent.

For instance, DoubleTree Resort Lancaster has a fun, snowy image for their Winterfest contest.

Your contest’s design should reflect your brand, as well as the tone of your giveaway.

There are plenty of free or inexpensive easy-to-use tools, such as Canva and PicMonkey, for creating designer-quality images, even on a limited budget.

#12: Make Your Contest Mobile-friendly

Some contest software works seamlessly on mobile devices, others not so much. Since most people access Facebook via mobile, be sure your contest includes a mobile-responsive smart URL. That way, the contest imagery and form look good on both mobile and desktop.

Since most Facebook users access the platform via mobile, make sure your contest looks good and functions properly on mobile.

Be sure to test your contest on a variety of smartphones and tablets before you hit Publish.

#13: Limit Form Fields to Three

When deciding what people need to fill out to enter your contest, think about the two or three pieces of information that will be most useful for your future marketing efforts(i.e., name, email address, and age). Limit your form to this information.

For their Oscar contest, Me Gusta Leer Mexico only asks for each entrant’s name, email address, and pick for best picture.

The more information you request, the more likely people will skip your form altogether. Keep entry requirements short and simple.

#14: Make Your Contest Easy to Share

If you use third-party software to host your contest, make sure your software has built-in features to make the contest entry form easy to share.

The Mississippi Gift Company recently ran a contest for a Peter’s Pottery Lamp worth $250. When entrants finished filling out the form, they were shown a message that offered extra chances to win if entrants shared the form with a friend.

Make your contest easy for people to share with friends on all social media, not just Facebook.

#15: Promote Everywhere

While it would nice to be able to publish your Facebook contest and have it get ridiculous reach immediately, it doesn’t always work that way. The success of your contest depends on how well you promote it, using both free and paid options.

Facebook advertising gives you a lot of bang for your buck, and allows you to really tailor your Facebook ads to your target audience.

There are plenty of free options as well. Place announcements or ads on your website and blog, update all of your social media profiles, email your existing lists, and write blog posts to get the word out about your contest.

Additionally, list a link to your promotion on giveaway sites like Contestgirl andOnline-Sweepstakes.

#16: Notify the Winner and Reward all Entrants

Once you’ve notified the grand-prize winner, consider how to make everyone else a winner, too. Email all entrants to thank them for taking the time to fill out your form, and give them a special reward.

Lifesize, a teleconferencing business, offered a major prize (a retro gaming console), as well as a sweet pair of socks to everyone who entered their contest. Win-win!

It doesn’t even have to be a physical prize. Even a special discount to all those who enter will be seen as goodwill from your company.

#17: Run Another Contest

Each time you run a Facebook contest, you learn a little bit more about your followers and fans, as well as what motivates them to engage with you and share your contest. Use this information to fine-tune your efforts for the next time you host a contest.

Last year’s Star Fine Foods’ “How do you O-live” giveaway was so successful they ran an almost identical one for 2015-2016.

Fine-tune and re-run Facebook and social media contests, and they’re likely to be even more successful.

Repetition is key to brand awareness. If you find a formula that works well for your customers, consider repeating the contest or some version of it throughout the year.

In Conclusion

Facebook contests are a great way to get to know your audience, and increase loyalty and reach. Know the Facebook contest guidelines and create contests that your target audience will love. Successful contests will help you leverage the power of Facebook even more.

What do you think? Do you run Facebook contests? What tips do you recommend?

Please share your thoughts in the comments.

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