Emerging from the internet clutter and reaching your target audience via social media is becoming increasingly difficult. One evergreen cut-through is running competitions. Let’s look at some promotion ideas to get you on the path to social media success.
Using contests or competitions is an age-old marketing strategy and has two prime success factors. The first being – Everybody likes to win! And the second being – People love getting prizes!
Hoteliers are increasingly driving online games and competitions to engage with the audience and establish their brand presence. With the right tools, you can have competitions up and running in no time. Now, let’s look at some ideas for social competitions.
- Click a Selfie! Your guests could click and submit a selfie taken during their stay at your property and the most entertaining shot would get featured on the hotel’s social pages. While on the subject, you can also encourage guests to click selfies with property staff who made their stay awesome. This would double up as a great testimonial for your property too. Prompt them to tag your social media page when posting.
- Click the Food! The guest could submit a photo of the food they enjoyed at your property and the winners would get the dish served free on their next visit. Food is a trending topic on any given day, so this is always a good one in the kitty.
- Click with Family! The best family vacation picture with an exciting description wins a free room upgrade on their next visit. Make it entertaining by prompting them to hold fun signs and boards describing what they loved about their stay.
- Click Local! People often make repeat visits to the same place if they enjoyed their vacation. Help mark their memory by asking to get clicked with locals, or in local attire, or by the local attraction. Adding a caption to their emotion in the picture would be an added bonus.
- Make a Video! A candid video is very appealing to a viewer. Seek video entries of their vacation and giveaway a free stay for the best video. Facebook Live too if confident.
- Share a Hack or Tip! DIY crafts and How-to videos are on a surge. But getting it from a real vacationer makes it all the more credible and interesting. The best hack or travel tip video gets featured on the hotel’s social media pages. You could also give away a gift voucher to show appreciation.
- Find the Treasure! Ask questions, answers to which are hidden somewhere on your website. This would not only aid in bringing more traffic to your website but is also a great way to showcase your website if newly redesigned.
- Write a Blog! This is a great way to get travel stories from vacationers who can describe their vacation and experiences in detail. Not only does it bring in more freshness and new content to your blog, but it also grabs the readers’ attention as it interests them firsthand.
- Create a Meme! Memes have this thing of grabbing attention and can easily go viral. A meme from your guest with the hotel featured is a fun way to reach the audience.
The above is just the tip of an iceberg for things you can do on social media. Of course, there are the logo contests, tagline contests, Valentine’s day, Father’s day, Mother’s day contests, etc… The idea is making your presence in the online world and engaging with your target audience so that you stay on top of their minds.