How to rate the success of social media contests

So how do you rate the success of a social media contest? The word ‘success’ is the key when trying to answer this question. It’s all very well deciding to run a social media contest, but how does one define how successful it actually turns out to be? The vital part of any marketing plan nowadays is content marketing, as it is the driving force behind securing the traffic you want to engage in your contest. Furthermore, it defines one of three major indicators around determining the success of your contest – the amount of search traffic and exposure you get. The other two are financial returns and level of engagement.

 

 

Content Marketing

 

Good content marketing and copywriting skills are what converts traffic into sales and leads, therefore, follows that the more content that exists on the internet that links back to your website, the better. So, compounding this effect would be the exciting and most effective way forward, and blogging is the answer because it has been shown to increase leads to sites by as much as 67%. Not only does blogging increase the content that links back to your site, it also positions your customers to promote you. The more you publish, the more your audience will grow. Before you implement this strategy it would be worthwhile doing a Google search for your business first to see where your pages and profiles fall. Doing the same exercise a few weeks afterward will give you a measurable indicator of how successful your content marketing has been.

 

 

Financial Indicators

 

The financial indicators for measuring the success of your social media contest are the most easily definable, provided revenue is the purpose of the contest. For instance, by giving something away for free, or entering a buyer into a draw whereby they can win something if they purchase a certain product, the financial success of the competition can be measured by analyzing if the sales of the said product increased over the course of the contest. Anything that promotes value to a customer, or the chance of something more when purchasing a product, can easily be identified through increased revenue over the period the contest was run.

 

 

Engagement makes all the Difference

 

Probably the most difficult to measure, the level of engagement is definitely a goal that one must set. Basically, the overall goal is to determine how running your contest increases the level of engagement that the world out there has with your brand. The number of followers you attract and how many of these either like/unlike or share your information, all fall under the umbrella of engagement and can be easily tracked through your Facebook Insights or tweets and re-tweets.

 

If all this is beyond you because you don’t have a social marketing degree, or are still coming to terms with the whole social media vibe, look for inspiration from the mummy blogger, Elena Alternatively, if it’s a Facebook contest you want to delve into but need help, try looking for some Contest Tools online.  Overall, contests are a great way of getting yourself out there so go on and set some up. You won’t be sorry!