Do you ever wonder why some social media campaigns get more engagement than others? There are several common characteristics that successful promotions, giveaways and contests have, and a huge budget or following is not one of them.
As I help businesses at Rignite to create social media campaigns I have had the chance to observe many creative ways to boost engagement. After examining these and other public campaigns I've summarized five important human 'senses' that a campaign should stimulate.
Titillate These 5 Senses
- A Sense of Urgency
Set a deadline, make it clear what it is, and remind people. Don't run it for too long. This Pop Chart Lab promotion runs for only 24 hours, creating a sense of urgency. It's simple, with clear instructions and a link.
- A Sense of Scarcity
Limited editions, such as 'when we're out we're out' create more demand and people covet these things. And they don't have to have a high monetary value. Outback Steakhouse's free T-shirt giveaway was limited to 100 so not only was it scarce, it was urgent that fans acted quickly.
- A Sense of Excitement
People, being human after all, get excited about things that can show off their uniqueness or creativity. A 'comment on [this]' to enter or a photo contest generates a lot of excitement, encouraging others to participate. Dollar Shave Club has a great contest because it's funny, and people will want to dig up a great old photo of themselves or their friends to enter the contest.
Here's some of the entries they received. Hilarious!
- A Sense of Ease
Make sure it's easy and clear how to enter a giveaway or contest. If you make it difficult to respond, people will give up. In this Twelve Saturdays contest all fans have to do to enter is to comment with their favorite football team.
- A Sense of Appeal
The giveaway, prize, or call to action should be attractive to your fans, and their friends (to encourage sharing). For Olive Garden, it was their Pasta Pass. This giveaway was initially a marketing ploy that went viral - Olive Garden fans were able to purchase these passes for $100 and could use them from Sep22-Nov9 2014. The passes sold out in 45 minutes!
To appease customers who weren't able to obtain passes for purchase, they took to social media to give some away.
While there are no magic formulas to guarantee success for a social media campaign, there are common themes across successful ones. A successful social media campaign will tap into the emotions of your fans and get them to take action.
What have you found to work well in your campaigns?
