The Right Way to do Social Media Promotions: Expert Q&A

ShortStack's CEO Jim Belosic recently sat down with the SEO experts at Media Shower and offered his insights on social media promotions and other contests. We've included a few excerpts below but for the full interview, head here.

‍Media Shower: How important are social contests and promos today for the growth of a brand? Jim Belosic:

They remain the easiest and most effective way to collect data from an online audience and to engage with fans. The great thing about the direction contests and promos are moving in is that businesses are starting to realize that they see value in running them in places beyond Facebook. While promotions on social media gained their foothold on Facebook, Facebook isn’t the only game in town anymore. With software like ShortStack, businesses are building their contests and promos on a micro-site, or landing page, or even embedding them onto their own websites and then using their social channels to drive traffic to the promotion. It’s opening the door of contests and promos to be more well rounded as far as reach.

Media Shower:  What types of social promotions do users seem to be the most excited about? Jim Belosic:

‍People are always excited about product giveaways. At this point, if a fan is following you on a social network and is willing to interact with your promotion, presumably they’re a fan of your product. It’s always been the case that a really cool and relevant prize will attract great entries, but I think we’re seeing fewer “iPad giveaways” because businesses have realized that a more relevant prize is also more valuable.

Media Shower:  What types are they tired of? Jim Belosic:

‍I believe people are tired of the promotions where they’re required to share something on their own personal profile in order to be entered to win. People are more aware of what appears in their feeds and are reluctant to spam their friends. For example, on Instagram it’s common for a brand to say “screenshot this and re-post it on your profile to enter to win” when they’d really be better off asking people to take their own picture and post it to their profile using a specific hashtag.

Bottom line: You should never “force” people to post something on their profiles in order to be entered for a chance to win something.

Media Shower:  What are some of your other favorite tools or resources for social media marketing today? Jim Belosic:

‍My team and I really enjoy Buffer. We use them for all of our social media scheduling. I know that my public relations gal is always talking about BuzzSumo as a great tool for finding popular content and connecting with influencers.