How Companies Down Under Are Using Social Media Promotions To Come Out On Top
We’ve all heard the success stories of major brands using social media to create a massive presence online and real customer loyalty. However, what gets reported are predominantly US based case studies.
From time to time though, it’s good to look a little closer to home, and for those of us in the rest of the world, it’s great to see what’s working in other countries.
That’s why it’s great to see these Australian examples, from consumer fashion through to government, that showcase creative use of competitions on social sites to get excellent results.
Fashion Focus Gets People Moving
Lorna Jane is a leading retailer of women’s active wear. Founder, Australian Lorna Jane aims to create products that will ignite your enthusiasm for an active lifestyle.
With a reasonably well established following on Facebook, they decided to step it up and get their fans and customers to show the world how they used their products to `move, nourish & believe’.
Using the Strutta platform, they created a Facebook competition where you could enter by uploading a photo demonstrating how you ‘move, nourish & believe’ in order to win one of three Lorna Jane Wardrobes valued at $500.
There was no limit to the number of times you could enter either, and the premise was delightfully simple, as taking a photo and uploading it is second nature to most internet users and it reinforced the core brand message.
The Results?
- Their Facebook Fan page received over 25,000 new Likes during the promotion timeline that ran for two months.
- The integrated share tools, provided through the Strutta platform, brought 40%+ increase in visits to their promotion site.
- The competition entries provided valuable data capture that they could use to better understand their audience.
Swap It Don’t Stop It
The Australian Health Department decided to create a video competition for people to have a chance to share their healthy eating and physical swaps they’ve been incorporating into their life over a 6 week period.
With their ‘Swap it Don’t Stop It’ campaign you could enter a video to share your story of you undertaking a physical activity or healthier eating that was no more than 30 seconds long. You were automatically entered in the draw to win a weekly `Swap It’ prize pack including merchandise and a copy of the Australian Health Department’s Healthy Food Fast cookbook.
The grand prize winner was voted in by the public and won a grand prize of a $2,000 Kitchen Pack. This was a smart move to ensure the public would get involved and actually watch the videos to vote and share them through their social network. This brought more attention to the campaign as well as many more fans on their Facebook page.
The Results:
- Facebook Likes increased by 39% in 60 days
- User submitted content was used as a resource to promote healthy habits in Australia
- Shared links averaged more than 10 clicks each = 10x traffic boost due to social sharing
A Picture Is Worth A Thousand
In order to promote the beauty of Australia and share images and stories of Australia’s regions, the Australian Regional Government ran a National Photographic Competition.
The competition aimed to get Australian residents to represent their region and community with pictures of Australian people, places, wildlife, landscapes and nature.
Using Strutta to create a standalone contest website, the myregion National Photographic Competition closed with over 2,220 entries in just one month. During this time the public could vote on their favourite photos and share this with friends through Facebook, Twitter and email. There was then a one week period where the judges selected the winners.
The 17 winning entries went on to be featured in an exhibition and on the government website.
The Results:
- Highly engaging promotion brought in over 2,200 photo entries
- Brand awareness increased with nearly 100,000 views to their promotion site
- Integrated Facebook, Twitter and E-mail share tools increased site visits by 40%
These results and the short time frames within which they were achieved show the power of user generated photos and videos to move people to take action and engage with a brand or cause. In addition to it being relatively easy to submit an entry, people were more than willing to share with their friends, family and networks.
The Keys To Running A Successful Competition on Social Networks
No matter what you’re wanting to promote you need to consider doing the following for it to succeed:
- Decide up front what the purpose of your competition is – traffic, likes, following, data, brand buzz
- Make it extremely easy to enter or participate
- Incorporate social sharing as part of the entry and voting process
- Place the competition directly within Facebook or your own web site depending on your goals
- Follow up with the results and keep the community engaged
How are you going to compete and come out on top with your social media initiative in 2012?
