• Build brand awareness
• Build online activity and presence
• Engage your audience
• Grow followers
• Grow mailing lists
• Grow fan bases
• Grow an opt-in SMS alerts database
• Grow an opt-in e-mail / newsletter database
• Grow conversations
• Increase sales
• Improve customer experiences
• Build relationships
• Gather feedback
• etc.

• The target audience must really want the prize; perhaps it has value as it is
  • Unique
  • Unavailable
  • an item that will be highly prized as a gift friend.

• A short term closing date (C/D) and prize draw (P/D) date for the announcement of the winner will attract more entrants.
• Have a clear Call to Action (CTA); tell people what you want done.

Twitter follow competitions can be setup quickly and easily.

• use #Comp to enable your competition to be found with other competitions.
• #Day  eg #thursday to raise expecations / give notice on when to expect chat conversations.
• #preferredsocialmediapage eg #twitter
• URL for the T's and C's

You can use https://bitly.com/ to shorten URL's.

Use hashtags that are unique or if you want to attract a new broad based following then use a popular hashtag. Find a hashtag popularity score at hashtagify.me

• 25 Social Media Contest Ideas to Engage Your Customers
• 21 Tips on Running a Great Social Media Contest
• Best social media contests or promotions award winners

Creating a basic social media presence is easier than getting your audience to actually do something.

Your strategy may call for the building of an opt- in list however remember that people may have preferences as to the nature of the relationship. Messaging can be by way of SMS, e-Mail or by way of a blog, website or communicator app. We offer all these options.

Community building is only the first part of social marketing. Using that community to drive sales, propagate marketing, or to fine tune operations via feedback is the true power of social media.

One way to excite customers is to get the B2C community to collectively host awards events at which prizes marketed by a group of B2C businesses are awarded. Simply put 10 prizes are better than one. Suppliers can offer exclusive discounts or they can offer products and services.

Not only does a contest build buzz organically but the requirement for exciting contests with valuable prizes to be shared from platforms where it is quick and easy to do will boost the chances of the contest going viral.