Brand Strategy by Melbourne Social Co

Running an effective social media competition

Running social media competitions are a great way to increase engagement on your channels and get your consumers actively involved in your business!

By asking your audience to participate in a contest or competition, you help to drive brand awareness and grow your followers while providing a little something extra for your fans that we know they will love!

Are you wondering where to start? Here are our top tops for running an effective social media competition:

Know your objectives:

In order to determine the success of your competition, it’s important to know what your objectives are in the first place. Common objectives could be to increase your followers, grow your email marketing database or increase brand awareness.

These objectives will help you to determine the right call-to-action to include in your competition so you can get the results you’re after!

Be aware of the rules:

Facebook in particular has some strict rules when it comes to hosting a competition on its social media platform, so it’s vital to know the guidelines before starting.

Rules to note include ensuring you don’t ask people to “share” the competition on their timeline, citing T&Cs in the post and acknowledging that the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.

You can view the full list of rules here.

Create engaging artwork:

There’s no denying that all our favourite social media channels such as Facebook and Instagram are crowded with competitions and posts from many other brands and businesses, so to really make your competition stand out from the crowd, you need some engaging and creative artwork. Bold text and an enticing image will go a long way in encouraging people to participate!

Keep it simple:

People are busy and time poor, so it’s best to make the entry requirements for your competition as easy as possible. Simple things like asking them to “like” the post and comment why they want to win are easy ways to increase the number of entrants.

Add an advertising budget:

Now that you’ve put in all the hard work in creating a great competition concept and accompanying artwork – it’s time to make sure people see it! Boosting your competition post with a Facebook and Instagram advertising budget can significantly grow the post’s reach so more people can enter!


Do you need help coming up with engaging content on your social media channels? Here at Melbourne Social Co we are the experts! Call us today to find out more about our services or visit our website.

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