I first used the term Social Sweeps in early 2008 when I wrote a
post for this blog about interactive promotions and social media. I now
define
Social Sweeps 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 Social Sweeps promotion to consumers are strong.
People love the chance to win! 50% 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 Social Sweeps 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.
