These social media promotion ideas will kickstart your marketing initiatives. But first, let’s get some of the basics out of the way. You want to make sure you’re taking full advantage of the space in your profiles. The first step of promoting your social media accounts is making sure people know where to find you. With social media as steadfast cornerstone of nearly all marketing (regardless of industry), there’s cutthroat competition for attention across all social networks. You need all the help you can get to promote your content on social media and be noticed. Outfy - Social Media Promotion & Sales Amplify your social reach by promoting your products to POLYVORE, Wanelo, INSTAGRAM, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Fancy, Weheartit, Keep, Shopcade. Have you been wondering to promote your exclusive products on the best social shopping sites like WANELO, POLYVORE, INSTAGRAM, PINTEREST, FANCY, WEHEARTIT etc.

Social media has eased the way for eCommerce businesses to easily approach audiences, paving the way for more targeted & relevant marketing. Shopify Apps offers a brilliant line up of Social Media add-ons designed to enhance the reach and capabilities of eCommerce stores.

So, today we dwell deep into the best Social Media apps on Shopify. Do remember that this is not a ranking, it’s a countdown of the top Social Media Shopify apps.

Best Social Media Shopify Apps

Instagram Shop by Snapppt is a popular Shopify social media app known for its unique layout & design.
Instagram Shop primarily converts your Instagram photos feed into a shop, allowing buyers to instantly add and checkout. The app also allows to embed Instagram galleries & carousels into your Shopify store. This provides buyers high quality & prominent product images. The app is compatible with all Shopify themes and requires approximately 3 minutes or more to install and apply changes.

Ease of Use

Fairly easy to use since there is nothing to manage after installation. Once installed all you have to do is add Instagram images to your Shopify eStore and add the buy now button to your Instagram feed.

Pricing

Instagram Shop is currently free to use, you can find out more on their official website.

Shopify Social Media Integration

As mentioned above the app integrates with your Instagram feed and turns it into a shop. You can create a mobile Insta-store, add buy buttons to Instagram images, and convert your eStore to an Instagram feed.

Number of Social Channels

Instagram Shop is specifically designed for Instagram and does not work over any other social media channel except for your own web store.

Number of Positive Review

Currently one of the most popular Shopify apps on the app store, Instagram Shop now boasts over 500 real time user reviews. There are well over 450 positive five star reviews providing us a complete preview of the app. Those with an interest in queries regarding backend coding, website load times, and API development can contact the developers on their official website.

Social Sharing Buttons (SSB) by developer ZotaBox was developed to offer eCommerce stores more social shares and follows. The most amazing thing when using SSB are the added features that you can use for free, they include:

• Social Buttons
• Contact Forms
• Easy Popup
• Facebook Live Chat
• Promo Bar
• Back to Top Button
• Slide Box

The app intuitively places social buttons for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, G+, YouTube, Blogger, Tumblr and many others on a Shopify store. Visitors & buyers can then easily share products with friends and allows them to follow your social pages in a click. SSB can be installed like all others in a click and requires no more than a minute to begin adding buttons.

Ease of Use

Outfysocial Media Promotion & Automation Software

According the multiple user reviews it’s generally very easy to use and options are fairly self-explanatory. You can find some very good reviews for the app on Shopify apps.

Pricing

Social Sharing Buttons is free to use perpetually, and you get free tools with the app. ZotaBox includes several Premium eCommerce tools on Shopify apps that you can also check out on their official website.

Shopify Social Media Integration

Social Sharing Buttons integrates with Shopify stores linking pages to your social media profiles.

Number of Social Channels

Social Sharing Buttons offers a superb line up of buttons to add to your eStore. There is a selection of over 20 social media network buttons including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, G+, YouTube, Blogger, and Tumblr.

Number of Positive Reviews

Supported by close to 400 reviews already, Social Sharing buttons is five star rated by over 350 eStores. App users have especially commended ease of use, added features, and support.

Outfy app is a social outreach app designed by developers of the same name. Outfy has been developed to allow Shopify store owners to drive more traffic to their website using more than ten social media networks. Apart from automating the entire social media strategy, Outfy also provides 24/7 customer support.

Ease of Use
One thing is certain, Outfy is a very easy to use app complimented with several brilliant reviews on Shopify:

Pricing

Outfy offer 3 amazing subscriptions priced as follows:

• Explorer – $15 per month with a 300 shares limit (as low as 5¢ per share)
• Economic – $20 per month with a 500 shares limit (as low as 4¢ per share)
• Super Saver – $30 per month with a 1200 share limit (as low as 2.5¢ per share)

You can read more about features and payment methods available on the official Outfy website.

Shopify Social Media Integration

Outfy integrates seamlessly with all your Shopify social media profiles and proceeds to published scheduled content and products over all your profiles. Not only does it save time, it also allows you & your resources to attend other more important tasks. The fully automated app does not require any supervision once configured.

Number of Social Channels

The development team claim on their website that Outfy connects with more than 14 social networks and several eCommerce platforms. You can definitely connect to all popular ones including Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Pinterest, SnapChat, Instagram, Tumblr, eBay, Polyvore, Fancy, and many others.

Number of Positive Reviews

Trending as one of the most popular Shopify apps in 2018, Outfy has been reviewed more than 600 times by Shopify sellers. The app has a top-notch 5-star rating complemented with excellent user reviews. With over 500 positive reviews, Outfy is a must have app for any Shopify store owner who has no prior knowledge of social marketing.

Now here is an all in one app designed by developers Growave. Growave is an extraordinary app that addresses several pain points for Shopify store owners. Designed with the initial goals of social sharing and landing more traffic from social networks, it provides six more added benefits. These include:

• Increase Conversions
• Request Photo Reviews
• Create Wish Lists
• Identify Interests
• Monitor Behaviors, and
• Convert Data into Sales

Ease of Use

Even with all its features packed into one dashboard, PWIS is a very easy-to-use app as reviewed by several hundreds of Shopify store owners. Here are two latest positive ease of use reviews for PWIS:

Pricing

Growave offers four different pricing include,

• Free – $0 (up to 100 orders )
• Starter – $29.99 per month (up to 500 orders)
• Growth– $69.99 per month (up to 1500 orders)
• Enterprise – $299.99 per month (up to 3500 orders)

A14-day free trial on the Starter and Growth plans and a 30-day free trial on the Enterprise option.

Discover all features and functionality that come with Growave packages on their official pricing page.

Shopify Social Media Integration

Growave integrates with your Shopify social media profiles to allowing instant sharing. You can schedule product posts and content to go at ideal times that your audiences are online. You can request buyers & visitors to submit product reviews, engage them by communicating directly and conduct Q&A sessions.

Number of Social Channels

Growave currently works with the seven globally popular social platforms including Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Yahoo, Tumblr, Instagram, and Amazon.

Number of Positive Reviews

Growave now ranks as one of the most popular apps on Shopify apps. It is also a recommended app to try for those selling clothing, shows, tech products, and jewelry.

Powered by over 400 reviews, the app ranks a solid five star on Shopify. I encourage my readers to check out real-time reviews to see just how effective the app has proved, especially for new Shopify store owners.

As its name suggests, Social Auto Pilot automates the content and product updates publishing process to social networks. Primarily, Social Auto Pilot works with Twitter and Pinterest, publishing products automatically to your eStore feeds. Recently, changes to the Facebook Privacy Policy have disallowed automatic posting using apps.

Ease of Use
After looking through a long list of mixed reviews, I conclude that although the app is very easy to use it does have functionality issues. I will leave you with some positive user reviews, and you can check out all of them on the official page.

Pricing

Currently, Social Auto Pilot is free to install and use with all features. You also get added priority support from the developers, which user reviews have given a very promising rating.

Number of Social Channels

Social Auto Pilot works with 2 social networks, namely Twitter and Pinterest.

Shopify Social Media Integration

Shopify integrates with your official Twitter and Pinterest accounts. You can then schedule content and product listings to be published automatically.

Number of Positive Reviews

Supported by 400+ user reviews, PWIS secures a perfect 5 star rating. There are 418 positive reviews with 10 four star ones. Even user reviews are very promising, since the app is free it is a big surprise for the functionality it offers.

Use social proof to your advantage. People buy products when they see other people buying/talking about those products.

So, how do you tell people that people are talking about your products? You start using Kudobuzz. This app helps you generate product reviews from social media like Facebook, Instagram, etc.

It sends your customers emails asking them to provide feedback for your products and also imports feedback and testimonials from Facebook, Google+, etc.

Ease of Use

Kudobuzz automatically sends emails to your customers so they can easily provide feedback for your products. Just connect your social media accounts to easily import all the reviews to your store.

Pricing

Kudobuzz offers five different plans that cater to different audiences.

• Coffee – Free (Can Publish 20 Reviews)
• Breakfast – $14.99 (Can Publish 300 Reviews)
• Lunch – $29.99 (Can Publish 5000 Reviews)
• Dinner – $49.99 (Can Publish 10000 Reviews)
• Buffet – Custom pricing (Can Publish Unlimited Reviews)

Shopify Social Media Integration

Kudobuzz helps you integrate your reviews and testimonials from Google+, Facebook, Yelp, Instagram, etc directly to your Shopify store.

Number of Social Channels

Kudobuzz supports a good number of social media channels that includes Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Yelp, and Google+.

Number of Positive Reviews

Kudobuzz sport more than 250 reviews on the Shopify app store and holds a perfect score of 5-star rating on the platform.

Most users report only positive things about the app and its features. Also, all reviewers seem to love how great the customer support team is for Kudobuzz.

Tweet Auto Posting does exactly what the name suggests. It autopilots all your Twitter posting so you can focus on other aspects of your Shopify store.

It saves you a lot of time by automatically posting your newer products and blog post directly to your social media channel namely Twitter.

Promote your recent products and blog content with just a simple click using the Tweet Auto Posting app on your Shopify store.

Ease of Use

Outfysocial Media Promotion & Automation Anywhere

The setup takes a minute and promoting your new product addition and your recent blog posts with Tweet Auto Posting takes just a click. So, it’s very easy to use in that regard.

Pricing

Tweet Auto Posting is absolutely free to use for the time being. There are no hidden costs or subscription fees at all.

Shopify Social Media Integration

Tweet Auto Posting automatically posts your product updates and blog content to your Twitter profile.

Number of Social Channels

Tweet Auto Posting currently only supports Twitter profiles.

Number of Positive Reviews

Tweet Auto Posting holds a 5-star rating on Shopify app store and currently sports over 50 positive reviews.

All the reviewers seem very satisfied with the app and how it works. There are certain useful suggestions for adding more social channels, but the provided features work perfectly.

Instafeed lets you easily integrate your Instagram photos and albums directly on your Shopify store with just a few clicks.

It lets you choose as many photos as you want to show on your store and their sizes as well. This helps you engage with your customers while at the same time promote your Instagram page as well to gain new followers.

Ease of Use

Just add your Instagram details, the number of photos you want to show, and set it up anywhere on your store. The photos will be live in a minute.

Pricing

Instafeed is absolutely free and there are no hidden/subscription costs associated with the app at all.

Shopify Social Media Integration

Instafeed connects to your Instagram account and posts all your photos on your Shopify store. You select the pages where you want to show these photos.

Number of Social Channels

Instafeed only provides Instagram support at the moment. You can connect your account to promote your Instagram profile and gain more followers.

Number of Positive Reviews

Instafeed sports a 5-star rating on the Shopify store with more than 100 reviews. Users have been very satisfied with the app and its functionality.

With the Facebook Shop app you can sell your Shopify products directly on your Facebook Page, and provide your customers an easier way to buy product on Facebook.

Customers can quickly checkout without having to leave Facebook at all, on both desktop and mobile.

This is a great way to promote your products on Facebook while at the same time providing your page followers a way to make a purchase on Facebook.

Ease of Use

Setting up Facebook Shop is very simple and can be done directly from Shopify. Any changes to products and new additions automatically sync to your Facebook Shop making it a very newbie-friendly app.

Pricing

Facebook Shop is free, but it requires you to be on a Paid Shopify plan.

Shopify Social Media Integration

As we have already-mentioned above, this app integrates with your Facebook page to create an eStore. You can promote and sell your Shopify products directly from your Facebook page.

Number of Social Channels

The Facebook Shop app only supports Facebook at the moment. It’s pretty much in the name of the app.

Number of Positive Reviews

So far the app has maintained an above-average 3.5 star rating on the Shopify app store. Most users keep complaining about the app not syncing any products and the support being very unresponsive.

TrustMyStore Social app allows you to easily manage and automate all your social media marketing activities.

It allows you to be very effective by sending a single custom-curated social media post to multiple channels which saves you time and also boosts traffic to your Shopify store by reaching a much wider social media audience.

Ease of Use

TrustMyStore can be set up within minutes. All you have to do is install the app, setup your social media channels, and you are done. Now, you can send your updates to all channels with one click.

Pricing

You can install the TrustMyStore app for free on your Shopify store which comes with limited features. If you want to upgrade to unlimited features then there are two paid plans available as well.

• Start – $0 per month
• Grow – $7 per month
• Rainmaker – $30 per month

Shopify Social Media Integration

TrustMyStore integrates all your social media profiles with your SHopify store so you can instantly pot updates, schedule social posts, and much more with just a click.

Number of Social Channels

TrustMyStore supports more than 13 social media channels including but not limited to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, Tumblr, and more.

Number of Positive Reviews

TrustMyStore holds a stellar 4.5-star rating on the Shopify app store with more than 25 reviews. Users report a direct increase in traffic after using the app for sharing their content all-over the social platforms.

See You Again Soon

I hope you will find our countdown of the top 5 social media Shopify apps to use with your eStore. Get those traffic numbers rising, sell more, get more sign ups, engage buyers, communicate directly and build trust with our selection. For more amazing app reviews, guides, tutorials, case studies, success stories, educational content and much more simply sign up to our newsletter.

Do remember to join our ever growing community of entrepreneurs and eCommerce enthusiasts on Facebook. Do leave feedback about the article, and do drop a message if you feel a certain app should make our ranking. Until next time, see you again soon.

Thinking about running a social promotion?

Perhaps you already have and are frustrated at disappointing results. Or you're impressed, but wondering if there's more you can do?

There always is.

This article will give you a complete breakdown of marketing with social media promotions.

This article will...

• Break down the top top five types of social media promotions
• Give you more than 50 promotion prize ideas
• Break down 20 promotion best practices
• Show you four real-world promotion examples (with numbers)
• Make sure you're aware of and follow the rules of social media promotions

Let's get rolling!

Social Media Promotions: Promotion Types

The type of promotion you run will depend very much on what your business' objectives are. I'll get into this a bit more in the best practices section below, but, for the time being, let's break down the top five:

1. Sweepstakes

Facebook Sweepstakes promotions are great for first-time contest runners. They're the simplest promotion type and are excellent for quick and simple lead generation and often yield the greatest numbers.

The weakness of a sweepstakes is that, unless your prize is very specifically related to your business (a product, a gift card, etc) you run the risk of generating entrants/leads who aren't within your target audience and may be unlikely to buy.

2. Instagram Hashtag Contest

Instagram hashtag promotions work by having Instagram users Follow your account and post a photo with a contest-specific hashtag. Each of your those photos will be automatically displayed in the promotion landing page or a gallery page on your website.

The entrants are then incentivized to share their submission with their network. The submission with the most votes wins.

The strength of an instagram hashtag contest (apart from the incentivized sharing) is the 'Follow-gate.' Since Facebook made Like-Gating illegal a couple years ago, Instagram is the only social media platform to allow businesses to require users to Follow their accounts to enter a promotion.

3. Referral Promotion

Referral promotions incentivize sharing. Everyone who enters the promotion gets a discount code and a share URL specific to them. Whoever refers the most people from their network to enter wins the grand prize.

4. Photo Contest

Photo contests work by having entrants submit a photo and then share the contest with their network. That network votes on their friend's photo and whoever has the most votes wins.

The strength of a photo contest are A) that both the entrants and the voters provide their lead information and B) The incentive for entrants to share the promotion with their network takes a lot of the burden off your marketing team. They do the work for you.

Vote contests are very similar to photo contests, except that you provide the content and entrants vote on their favorite.

5. Coupons

Coupons are even simpler than sweepstakes, and function in the exact same way as those pulled from an old fashioned newspaper. Your business incentivizes prospective customers to purchase from you with a discount or 'Buy one get one free' offer.

A top tip with coupons is to incentivize sharing by giving a basic discount (10% off or free shipping) to every entrant and a secondary, more valuable discount for those entrants who refer their friends.

Social Media Promotions: Promotion Prize Ideas

Once you've decided on the type of social media promotion you're going to run, the next step is deciding on the right prize.

Before I dive into fifty promotion prize ideas, I'll take a moment to mention something incredibly important:

Your promotion's prize should be directly related to your business. There's no point in generating a bunch of buzz or entries from people who aren't going to ever purchase from your business.

Sure, your coffee shop could give away an iPad. Your auto repair business could offer a trip for two to Hawaii. And you'd get thousands of entrants.

But none of them would be interested in a latte or winter tires. They'd be interested in the iPad, and then leave - the beach of Kauai, and then you'd never see them again.

So keep that in mind, and let's get on with the fifty prize ideas...

7. Prizes for Easter Promotions

• A children’s easter egg hunt kit
• Egg decorating kit
• Chocolate and candy pack

8. Prizes for Mother’s Day Promotions

• Spa treatments (manicure, pedicure, facial, mud wrap, etc)
• Family photo session and prints
• A nanny/date night for Mom and Dad

9. Prizes for Spring Promotions

• Spring cleaning package
• Gardening tools
• BBQ

10. Prizes for Wedding Season Promotions

• Percent off wedding-related prize (photography, catering, flowers, limo, etc)
• Dress/tux rentals
• Travel Insurance: They’d be going on their honeymoon. Get them to book their vacation’s insurance with you.

11. Prizes for Summer Promotions

• Tickets to a sporting event
• Luggage set
• Camera with tripod stand
• Camping Package
• Round of golf for two
• Picnic Basket and Accoutrement
• Graduation-related prize
• 2 Night Hotel Stay
• Outdoor Music Festival
• Summer makeover - wax/laser, haircut

12. Prizes for Back-to-school Promotions

• $50 worth of photo prints
• Back-to-school gear: Backpack, pens and markers, calculator
• E-reader
• Bike/skateboard/rollerblades
• Body wash prize pack including deodorant, soap, razors etc
• Cold/flu care package: Tea, blanket, heating pad, bubble bath

13. Prizes for Halloween Promotions

• Haunted-House/Corn Maze Entry
• Netflix subscription (focused on scary movies)
• Pumpkin patch and hayride

14. Prizes for Thanksgiving Promotions

• Donation to a food bank
• Catered meal
• Fill up a cart shopping
• Cooking class
• Winterize-your-Car Package

15. Prizes for Winter Promotions

• Wearable tech (fitness trackers)
• Baking set - electronic mixer, whisks etc. for creating scrumptious holiday treats
• Lift passes & ski rentals
• Winter adventures (snowmobiling, snowshoeing, cross country skiing)

16. Prizes for Christmas & New Years Promotions

• Christmas movie box set
• Holiday table set
• Tickets to Christmas events like the Nutcracker, christmas train, or garden of lights
• Gym membership/personal training session

17. Prizes for Valentine’s Day Promotions

• Table for two at a romantic restaurant
• Weekend car rental
• Singles event
• Art gallery/Museum/Concert
• Photo Shoot

Social Media Promotions: Best Practices

Alright let's move on to making sure your social media promotion is actually a success.

Here are 18 best practices to follow for your promotion, no matter if it's your 1st or you 10th.

18: Decide on your contest’s goals before diving in.

There are five primary reasons to run a social promotion, and different types of promotion work for different objectives:

• Brand awareness: Try a Referral, photo or Instagram hashtag promotion
• User-generated content: Try a Photo, Instagram Hashtag, Essay or Video promotion
• Grow social media fanbase: Try a Sweepstakes, Instagram Hashtag or Coupon promotion
• Get sales: Try a Coupon, Referral or Vote promotion
• Get feedback/customer insight:Try a Vote promotion

19: If you don’t have 1,000+ likes on your Facebook Page, start by running a sweepstakes.

The same applies if you have more than 1000 fans but very low engagement. A sweepstakes is the fastest and easiest way to, legitimately, gain fans (even without the Like Gate of 2014).

Similarly for Instagram, if you don't have that many followers, start with an Instagram Hashtag contest and be sure you Follow-gate entry.

20: Tap into exclusivity.

If you're giving away a product, communicate the value of that product in more than just dollar signs.

Consider giving away a limited-edition product or offer only available for a limited-time. Consider making something specific to the promotion (like a clothing item or menu item).

Exclusivity value is the belief that something which has been limited has more value than something always accessible or of infinite supply. Tap into this psychological factor and see your promotion succeed.

21: Give away a prize relevant to your business.

Try a gift card, gift certificate or product package (multiple products increase the chance of your entrants wanting at least one of them).

You need to ensure that the people who enter your promotion will actually be interested in buying from you down the line (provided you have a strategy in place to entice them towards a final purchase once your promotion has finished).

22: Promote your social media promotion on all your social media platforms.

Even if you're hosting on Facebook, your network on Linkedin, Twitter, Google+ and Instagram should hear about your promotion. They might just share with their networks as well.

When it comes to getting the word out about your promotion, sharing more is never a bad idea.

23: Don’t let your contest run too long.

You don’t want fans to forget about or lose interest in your contest. Ideally, keep your contest length between a week and a month - you want the hype to keep going from the start to the finish.

24: Have a short and actionable headline.

Best practice is to include the dollar value of your prize (if it has one) as well as actionable text like 'Enter to win' or 'Enter for a chance at.'

You have about five seconds to convince your page visitor to stay or go. A clear and concise value proposition is the best way to do this.

25: Include specifics and guidelines about the contest.

Trust is a crucial element of any business interaction. Your prospective customers need to know that you're not hiding anything from them.

Include every piece of information you can think of in a page of your website and then link to that page from your promotion page (you don't want to clutter your page with paragraphs of text if you can avoid it).

26: Use a third party app

Third-party promotion apps make this whole thing so much easier. They're faster, you don't have to worry as much about meeting Facebook guidelines, choosing a winner is easy and you don't have to outsource the design or spend a few weeks learning to code.

27: Keep your entry form short

I recommend 2-3 fields: Name, email address and little else.

Long entry forms turn away interested people. A chance at a prize isn't worth giving any business my phone number (unless that prize is a trip to Tahiti or dinner with Beyonce).

28: Don’t over-complicate entry

To maximize entries, don't make the process difficult.

If you do want to get more out of your participants, be sure the prize is worth it.

For instance, an essay or video contest can yield some awesome user-generated content, but the prize needs to be worth the investment of participants.

29: Coincide your promotion with a holiday or event

Your social media promotion will be more successful if it ties into what your prospective customers and entrants are already thinking about.

A few ideas:

• Run a '12 Days of Christmas' giveaway, where you announce a winner of a medium-size prize every day.
• Run a Superbowl sweepstakes with food, a meal out, an entertainment center, football-related merchandise or team-themed clothing.
• Run a promotion around a lesser-known (but equally fun) holiday like a chocolate promotion for Chocolate Day (July 7th), selfie promotion on World Smile Day (October 7th) or offer a free catered lunch for Sandwich Day (Dec 23rd).

30: Optimize for mobile

As of 2016 Q3, Facebook has 1.091 billion mobile active users:

So you need to be sure your promotion's page is optimized to receive them. There's no point in offering anything if your page visitor can't read your headline or click convert.

(Source: investor.fb.com)

31: Clarify what you'll do with your entrant's content

Nobody wants to give you their photo if they think you're going to sell it or doctor it to make money. If you're running an Instagram hashtag contest, photo, video or essay promotion, clarify to participants what you'll use their submitted content for.

They'll be more likely to engage if they trust you to respect their intellectual property.

32: Find a sponsor or run a joint promotion

A joint promotion or sponsor will give your social media promotion significantly more organic reach. You'll reach a new audience of people who don't yet know you and, so long as your partner has a similar target market as you do, it can yield some big wins.

That said, there's no point in teaming up with a business whose customers are unlikely to need your products or services. For instance, it'd be great to get Justin Bieber to run a sweepstakes with us, but very few 12-year-old girls need marketing software...

33: Email the contest winner

This is just common-sense, but be sure you do it before going anywhere near an announcement. Your winner may not respond, your email may get lost in spam, or they may be ineligible. Wait 72 hours or so before moving onto another winner (and include the fact that you're going to do that in your promotion's terms and conditions).

34: Get the contest winner to send you a selfie of the win.

Not only does a selfie make your winner announcement more personal and fun, it also proves to entrants that someone actually won (and you didn't just take their information and keep your prize).

If you're a brick and mortar business running a promotion, communicate with the winner about when they're going to come in to claim their prize and take a photo or video of them. Be sure to get their permission to post it online!

35: Have a follow-up strategy for those who didn't win

This should be more than just a consolation prize (though those are important as well, try a 10% discount or code giving free shipping).

No, I'm talking about an actual strategy. What's the point in generating a few hundred (or few thousand) email leads and then doing nothing with them. They're not going to decide one day, 'y'know that company whose promotion I didn't win? I wonder if they'll sell me a couch.'

For more on creating a follow-up strategy, check out my article 'How to Incorporate Email Marketing and Contests to Maximize Success and Return.'

Social Media Promotions: Examples

Best practices are well and good, but sometimes the best way to get inspired to social media promotion success is to see a few real-world examples from businesses like yours who have done it.

36. Instagram Hashtag Promotion Example

This Instagram hashtag promotion generated 9,173 conversions for the client.

37. Sweepstakes Promotion Example

This sweepstakes promotion generated 18,826 conversions for the client.

Outfysocial Media Promotion & Automation Ltd

38. Referral Promotion Example

This referral promotion generated 665 conversions for the client.

Outfysocial Media Promotion & Automation Inc

39. Vote Promotion Example

This vote promotion generated 4,111 conversions for the client.

Social Media Promotions: Following the Rules

The worst thing is to put energy into your social promotion's page and prize only to have Facebook or another social media platform refuse to host it.

Here are some essential guidelines to ensure you're following the rules and covering your legal bases:

40. What information to include in your promotion copy:

• Company name
• Website URL
• Company Country, State and Zip Code
• Contest start and end dates
• How a winner will be determined
• How a winner will be notified
• Prize and prize value
• Date prize must be claimed by

41. What to mention to cover eligibility

• Contest minimum age
• Eligible countries to win
• Number of times users can enter
• Cases that will result in disqualification

For more on ensuring your business is following the rules of social promotions (particularly on Facebook) check out 5 Best Ways to Announce & Notify a Contest Winner.

Wrapping Up

Hopefully this article has given you a better idea about what it takes to succeed with social media promotions.

A few things to remember:

• Choose the promotion type which corresponds best to what you want to achieve
• Choose a prize relevant to your business and appealing to your target market
• Base your promotion around a holiday or event to tap into what social media users are already thinking and talking about
• Don't skip over the details. Make sure you're following the promotion guidelines to the T, or suffer the consequences.
• Be sure you have a strategy in place to turn promotion entrants into customers through email
• Promote your promotion (ha) everywhere possible, and focus on simplicity and quickly communicating value

If you have any questions about social media promotions, let me know in the comment section below!

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