10 ways to start an engaging contest for your business on social media

Social media has become a boon for small businesses and mid-scale business owners. Apart from offering messaging and photo sharing services, social media is also widening the reach of the business. Social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook offer deep information about everything, it doesn't matter if it is a product or a service. Still, this doesn't help all people. This may be due to the algorithms of various social media platforms which do not recognise your page as” trending" or identify it as lacking in "engagement".

To tackle these issues, organising amazing contests for your business can be a great way to increase engagement and followers. This will take care of your business and will make sure that people know about your small enterprise.

Here are some ways you can start amazing contests for your business on social media:

1. Like, Follow and Comment to Win

The most common contests we have seen on social media platforms such as Instagram, and Facebook is to like, follow and comment on a specific post. This contest is usually organised on social media platforms by big brands and a random user is awarded goodies.

One can easily post an eye-catching picture and announce the winners on a particular date. This will definitely increase both followers and engagement on your page.

Another way of starting a contest is by making people share a particular post to enter the contest. Here, you can make an enticing post about the contest and ask your followers to share the post and tag you on the post. You can choose random users as winners and offer them your products and services or other goodies as prizes.

This contest is perfect to advertise about your brand and let people explore your products and services. Sharing contests also create a chain where your follower's followers also get to know about your page and brand and share your posts to enter the contest.

3. Tag a Friend

Tagging a friend to enter a contest is the simplest way to directly increase followers and engagement. It can be a call-to-action post where you can ask users to tag one, two or three friends and thereby enter the contest. The prizes can be anything: your products, services or gift hampers. After the contest ends, you can choose a random user as the winner.

This will ensure that your brand becomes more and more visible and will let those tagged users explore your brand and page. This is a direct way of letting people know about your business.

4. Caption the Photo Contest

Social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook are all about great photos and great content. You can organise a caption contest on these social media platforms and request your followers to caption a photo. The photo can be anything related to your business. You can choose the quirkiest comment as the best caption and award the user with your products and services or other amazing gifts.

5. Games

Another contest idea is to request social media users to play games. The games can be something like "spot the difference" between two pictures or "find the names of a particular brand in a single photo" you can ask the users to directly message the answer to you, make sure you are active on social media as long as the contest goes on. Once the contest ends you can pick a random user as the winner of the contest and gift them with hampers and goodies.

6. Vote and Win

Ever since Instagram introduced the polling feature it has become easier for the poll organisers to know the opinion of the majority of followers. Voting and winning is a great contest as it is great to know about your followers' opinions and it can also be used as a contest to increase follower engagement on your page. All you have to do is, post a photo related to your business and provide them with two options to vote for. Observe the option which was voted for the most and choose a random voter from the most voted option. It is a perfect contest to increase engagement and also to get an insight into your followers' opinions.

7. Partnership with an Influencer

An influencer, as the name suggests, influences people to buy a certain product or service. Influencers are the modern-day brand ambassadors. When people are certain that an influencer actually uses a product and then speaks about their experience, then they definitely buy that particular product. Therefore entering into a partnership with an influencer, with a good number of followers is great exposure for your business as well as for the influencer's brand.

All you have to do is, mention the rules of the contest where users have to follow you and the influencer, and they can be eligible to win gift hampers.

8. Campaign for a Follower Milestone

When the number of followers increases on social media, it is beneficial for your page as well as your business. So why not let everyone know about your achievement?

When you cross a particular follower milestone, you can organise a giveaway contest. By doing this you can enlighten people about your brand too. You can ask your existing followers to tail you across all social media platforms and comment on your milestone post. This is one way of choosing the winner of the giveaway. You can also ask them to share the post and tag to participate in the giveaway contest. Again you can pick a random user who followed all the rules for the giveaway and send them goodies and hampers

9. A Hashtag Challenge

You can create brand individuality by creating a hashtag challenge. Host a contest asking people to write and post about your products or services and why they love them and use your hashtag to feature it on your page. A hashtag challenge will create a ripple across social media and will definitely help your business grow. This will also enlighten people about your brand leading to the growth of your business. You can pick a random user among all the contestants as the winner.

10. Use filters of a Brand to Win

Another contest that you can host for your business is to make your brand personalised filters. You can ask people to use the filter and write something quirky, funny, or enticing about your business and tag you in those posts. You can pick the best post from among them, as the winner and reward them with hampers or your products to promote your business or brand.

These are some ideas for hosting contests across social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Youtube. Contests are great for brand or Business promotion when you don't have a large budget for advertising your business. Arranging contests on social media is a perfect way to promote your products and services and that too free of cost. It requires attractive graphics and content to create awareness about your business. Contests are perfect for those who have small businesses or are mid-scale business owners.

Also read:

1) Social Media Ideas For Business.
2) What Is Social Media Management? Benefits & more.
3) 11 Easy Ways for Small Businesses to promote their Business on Social Media
4) Which of the Social Media Platforms is Important for Marketing?