If you want to drive social media engagement and create a buzz around your business, then a successful social media competition can be a great way to achieve your goals. Fun and cost-effective, a competition can build your following and create brand awareness.

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Identify your goal

Do you want to attract more followers, generate more leads for your business or boost SEO for your business? Being clear on your goal will influence the other decisions you make about your contest, including choice of platform, length of time you want to run your competition and prize on offer, which should resonate with your audience and brand.

Choose your platform

The platform you choose can help you decide the most effective competition. Sweepstakes and giveaways work well on Twitter and Facebook because they’re simple and engage most followers, although photo and video competitions work better on Instagram. Pinterest’s Pin It to Win It is also hugely popular.

Once you’ve decided on your platform and competition, check the legalese to ensure that you’re complying with the rules of your chosen platform.

Promote, then promote some more

If you’re aiming to boost SEO then you’ll need to leverage your presence across all your social media channels, and your partnerships with other businesses for the best results. Cross promotion between platforms will drive existing followers towards your competition, and a mix of paid and unpaid marketing efforts will yield results. Seeking out professional SEO services in London from a company like http://www.elevateuk.com/seo-services/ will add value to your efforts.

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Listen to your followers

If you lack expertise in running online competitions, then reach out to someone with huge expertise – your followers. Over 70% of them will have participated in a social media contest before and will have valuable knowledge on what works, what they’d do with the prize on offer and how you can improve. Ensure you handle their expectations correctly by being transparent in the competition rules, and you’ll create the kind of organic following that boosts SEO.

Keep the content flowing

Generating buzz through a contest gives you the opportunity to integrate your brand’s message, whether that’s offering product information or discounts. Keep your content fresh and alive, add value and optimise for search engine results pages (SERP) and you’ll retain followers once the competition is over.