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How Contests Can Help You Cut Through The Clutter

We all want our social media strategy to shine right? 🌟 Today’s cluttered feeds and constant algorithm changes can cause uncertainty about this. We’re always getting asked a) How can I tell if my social is working? and b) How can I get more in-store traffic? A contest! Why? You can achieve any marketing goal you set! 👉🏻 Boost online engagement, grow social media fans, promote in-store traffic, gather user-generated content, launch a new product. You can do it all.

Here are 4 tips to running a great contest:

  1. Have a worthwhile incentive – People will enter if they actually want what’s on the other side. 
  2. Brand hashtags – Make it simple to search for entrants and gather content. 
  3. KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid. Don’t ask entrants to do anything you wouldn’t be motivated to do.
  4. Advertise – Hit prospective customers as well as current fans.

Check out this post from one of our Insider’s asking for help on how to get people to share their photos in a contest she was running…

Well, I responded to her question in the video below. I cover some great contest ideas, how to make sure a contest drives traffic, and Facebook and Instagram rules surrounding contests.

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Get More Likes, Comments and Action from Instagram Followers: The Modern Marketing Show, Episode 83

Businesses are finding that Instagram is a great place to connect with your customers online as it continues to become more popular. Many retailers are noticing their engagement has been dropping. Many accounts have even started sharing a viral post asking their followers to like or comment on it to ensure their posts are being seen because Instagram is limiting to the number of followers who see them. Well, this isn’t anything new. The Instagram algorithm shows posts based on who the follower interacts with most.

Watch the full episode here:

Here are two tips on how to get more engagement from your followers:

  1. Have a call to action on a majority of your posts. When you tell your followers what to do (like, comment, or shop now) you have a better chance at them actually doing it. Your event posts, promotional posts, and new product arrival posts should also include a call to action.
  2. Take a look at your messaging. If you’re using language that revolves around community, support, urgency or fear tactics then it has a better chance at getting more engagement. You’re rallying your followers to get behind you.

Remember, people interact on social media differently today than they did 5 years ago. Just because you’re not getting tons of likes or comments doesn’t mean people aren’t interested in seeing your content. The algorithm is able to track how long people stay on your content which is why always looking at your insights can be helpful. And if you’re still unable to build engagement with these tips, it might be time to consider a new content strategy.

Do you need more help figuring out Instagram? We got you covered! In the coming weeks, we’ll be releasing a new Instagram for Retailers training course. Join our email list below to get notified when it’s available!

You can catch new episodes of The Modern Marketing Show every Monday at 10 a.m PST on our Facebook Page. Replays will be available on the blog each week.

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Take A Poll

When using social media to market your store, focus on engaging your audience by posting things they’ll respond to, things that will get them to like, comment, share, repin, retweet, etc.
After researching 100’s of types of posts published by retailers; big and small, I’ve found that taking a poll is one of the best ways to engage your audience AND show off some product. Here’s how to do it:

Pick four products and put them into a collage. You can use a tool like PicMonkey.com to create by selecting the ‘Collage’ option.

picmonkey collage

Select four images that are saved to your computer, and then select ‘Square Deal’ option from the left sidebar.

Screen Shot 2014-04-21 at 10.13.50 AM

Drag and drop the four images into the square areas. You can resize each area or keep perfectly square.

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You can round the corners or change the background color like featured here:

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Then select ‘Edit’:

edit to add text

Next, add a 1-2-3-4 to each image using a font that stands out and is easy to read.

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Finally, share online whether it be on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest or in an email. To increase responses, send via email but ask people to reply online like on your Facebook page and link to that specific post.

Write something short to go along with the image like, ‘Which item do you love?’ or ‘What’s your fav?’

Here’s a very successful example from Karen’s Jewelry asking their network about amethyst earrings. At the time they published this in February they had just under 500 likes, but over 100 people commented on this post – talk about awesome engagement!

facebook success example

So now it’s your turn – take action! Select four items and use pictures from the vendor/manufacture or take your own photos, just make sure they’re clear and the lighting is good.

Use a tool like PicMonkey to create a collage and then post online asking your network which item they like best. To take this a step further, give the most popular item a special price or discount for up to 72 hours.

Please feel free to share your collage and experience with me on my Facebook page. I’m looking forward to hearing what kind of response you receive for this post.