From Zero to +51K Clicks: How One ShortStack Designer Made His Campaign a Viral Hit

Social Media 180 is a digital agency, and ShortStack Master, that develops cutting-edge social apps with a primary focus on promotions that drive Likes, shares, email signups, engagement and produce a solid return on investment for their clients.

Their most successful campaigns are staged promotions where they spread prize packages over the course of days, weeks or months.

Their clients include AMD, Kendall Jackson Wineries, Voli Vodka, Smart Shelters as well as numerous restaurants, clubs, tech companies, and most recently, musician Rob Zombie's film "The Lords of Salem.

"I reached out to Marc Preston of Social Media 180, the person responsible for "The Lords of Salem"’s Facebook promotion, to ask him about his ShortStack-built app and the impressive results that came of it.

The app rocks! And here’s what Marc shared with me:

1) Most important: why did your agency decide to use ShortStack over other third-party apps services?

Social Media 180 chose ShortStack over other providers due to ease of use and price. Comparatively, there are no other platforms out there that offer the support, fair price and functionality that ShortStack provides.

2) Can you give us some insight about the concept you came up with for "The Lords of Salem?"

The concept behind the app for "The Lords of Salem" was: Keep it simple! Our conversion metrics, over a data set of 500 apps, shows that the simpler the contest the higher the conversion rate.

We required three easy steps for fans to enter the contest. For the first step we used what we have termed a "passive like gate." This allows fans to see exactly what they are getting into before liking the page.

We still convert at the same rate as a full forced like gate. For the second step, we require fans to watch the YouTube video -- it's already received over 17,000 hits! Next, we asked the fans to click the "Enter Now" button to register.

Particular attention was paid to making the app very mobile friendly. Mobile traffic to this app represents 33 percent of the overall traffic.

‍3) What have the results of The Lords of Salem app been?

So far the results have been outstanding. The promotion began with a partnership with the lead agency Acento Digital Media. Next, we created a blank Facebook Page which means we started with zero fans.

By utilizing a promotion with a desirable prize, we have been able to build that page to 30,000 fans with no ad budget. The day we opened the actual contest we received 7,000 new Likes in a 24 hour period.

Thus far, the app has 19,765 entries, 7,727 shares, and 17,000 hits to the YouTube video. We also get a lot of return traffic to the app from fans who are engaged in the comment stream below the app. There are 357 comments! Total clicks to the app are over 51,000.

4) How are you promoting the Facebook app?

Promotion of the app on Facebook has come through status updates only. Rob Zombie and the Suicide Girls helped push the initial traffic through status updates on their pages. From there, the social actions of liking and sharing took on a viral nature.

‍NOTE: "The Lords of Salem" Facebook promotion is now over (the app’s “Enter Now” and other sharing buttons are disabled), but you can still check out the design of the app, along with other apps Social Media 180 has made, on the agency’s Facebook Page.