Last week I wrote this post about the new Wildfire App that enables marketers to easily promote their interactive promotions on social media platforms such as Facebook and MySpace. The real benefit that I pointed out is the viral marketing component that social networks enable.
This prompted me to utilize a term that I first used a year or so ago called SocialSweeps. I define SocialSweeps as an interactive promotion, such as a sweepstakes, contest or instant-win game, that integrates with at least one social media platform to help create awareness and buzz.
Interactive promotions are powerful ways to motivate interaction on the Internet. They are highly measurable and most of the time can be very effective when integrated with the right incentive, however they certainly can't achieve defined objectives if proper awareness of the promotion is not created.
So now by integrating a promotion with the viral features of social media you can spread the word about your promotion and your company far more widely and cost effectively than ever before. I believe it is this type of marketing that can create positive brand awareness and is a perfect fit with many types of social media, especially social networks.
The benefits of a SocialSweeps Promotion to consumers are strong. People love the chance to win!
Fifty percent of online users enter sweepstakes at least once a month,
25% enter weekly and only 20% of internet users never enter
sweepstakes. In fact, entering promotions such as sweepstakes and
contests is one of the most popular online activities, second only to
activities like search and email.
By integrating promotions with social media it enables consumers to easily inform their friends about your promotion and these friends can in turn inform their friends. On social network sites like Facebook, newsfeeds are generated when consumers interact with a promotion, so for every person that enters, potentially hundreds more will also see it and have the opportunity to interact.
For marketers and business owners, a SocialSweeps promotion can be a highly cost effective way to build your database and start a dialog with your customers. It is also a great way to drive traffic to a social network "fan" page, a blog, or a website. According to Forrester Research, companies that run sweepstakes have 50% more fans on their social network pages than those that don’t.
I've been covering more and more examples here on my blog of brands and companies that have executed interactive promotions integrated with a social media strategy. If you click on the Social Media Category and/or Interactive Promotions category you can easily find most of them.
Now overall social media marketing by businesses and organizations has been exploding. Just a look at some of the latest stats and it will clearly tell you why.
The social media audience in the U.S. currently totals 122 million, or 64% of the total Internet audience, according to the research firm comScore, Inc., and social network usage globally exceeds Web-based email usage, says Nielsen. Big brands are engaging with their customers through these channels and well as local firms and retailers.
The amount of time people spend on social networking and blog sites also continues to climb, with the total minutes jumping 82% year-over-year in May 2009. Per person, that time increased 67% over the same period, according to Nielsen.
Recent stats released by comScore for May, 2009 show that Facebook is currently the fastest growing social network on the Internet and has finally surpassed MySpace in the number of active members in the U.S. with over 70 million and close to 250 million worldwide. Facebook recently let members choose their own “vanity URL’s” and had 5.75
million usernames grabbed up in the first two days. I grabbed mine, did you?
Twitter topped the list as the fastest growing Web brand in May, increasing 1448%, from 1.2 million unique visitors in May 2008 to 18.2 million in 2009. The growth, however, is beginning to slow, increasing only 7% from April. Twitter is a great tool that businesses can use to connect with customers both by posting info and by monitoring what is being said about them and their competitors.
So now that I shared with you some of my "pitch" I'd like to ask for your input and suggestions. I'm in the process of finalizing the description of what a SocialSweeps Program entails and getting ready to market these services as I prepare to relaunch my website. If you're interested in learning more please contact me. Would love to hear any of your thoughts and comments in order to incorporate into my thinking while I'm still in my "beta" stage. Thanks for your interest.
contests on twitter are banned??
Posted by: yes | July 22, 2009 at 02:01 AM
No, in fact contests on Twitter are becoming more and more popular. The Wall Street Journal just ran an article earlier this week: Contests and Giveaways Move To New, Fast Terrain of Twitter http://ff.im/5tl2
Posted by: Donna DeClemente | July 22, 2009 at 08:06 AM