Social media contests are one of the fool-proof ways to utterly connect with your customers and other potential consumers. Contests like SEO Contest uWelcome2019 are exciting to consumers. Consumers will then share the news on social media and spread the word about the giveaways creating a huge following for you. In real essence, they will have done all the heavy lifting for you.
SEO contests work by you as the host offering a prize incentive to your consumers, then in return, consumers will engage with you on social media sites and also invite their friends to also do the same. The main aim of these contests is to attract attention, get shares and links that will ultimately increase ratings.
Below are a couple of ways giveaways in these contests boost SEO ratings.
* They help in the genuine growth of your followers. Others will opt to go the forbidden way and buy followers. Google will, however, realize the quality of the followers and take necessary action against your website, blog or page.
* They also help in encouraging external inbound links. The best way to go about this is to ensure the links are diverse. The links being diverse makes you a recognized authority.
* They help in the optimization of your posts in searches. You will notice, Google will give priority to popular social media updates and rank them higher in the search engine results page. The crucial thing to do is to make sure the title of your post is descriptive and straight to the point. This not only applies to texts but also videos and infographics.
* They also aid in social media sharing. The number of shares, likes, tweets and favorites you get improves your domain authority.
* They help in the optimization of local posts. An example of this can be achieved when a company attends a function in their locality. It would be best for the company to invite locals and other participants to comment on your post, blog or website. This is proof that you are active in your community and will increase your rankings during a local search.
* They also help in promoting brand awareness. Companies are urged to use Google to improve their reputation so that they get more branded searches in search engines.
The above ways are just a summary to state that the only way to rank higher in search engines is to give your audience quality content. This is what SEO contests are all about.
In order to get the best out of these SEO contests, below is how you should go about it.
PICK A GOAL
Before starting a contest, have a clear goal of what you want. A few years back, likes were the in-thing but not anymore. These days, there are goals like increasing brand’s awareness, converting followers into users, boosting user engagement among others.
You could also decide to have multiple goals but at the back of your mind, you should know what goal is of top priority and followed by which other.
PICK A PRIZE
This is one of the most crucial things to do. Pick a prize that your audience will love and at the same time, a prize that is true to your brand. Do not be tempted to come up with flashy prizes for the sake of drawing entrants. Have relevant prizes that your audience will relate to. This will ensure that when the competition is complete, you still have genuine followers and audience.
You could also opt to come up with various prices for the contestants. This will ensure more people register for the competition since there is a bigger probability of them winning
PICK A PLATFORM
Depending on the kind of contest you are hoping to run, choose a platform that will work best. For example, if your main goal is to increase engagement, create a Facebook tool that allows the user to use the ‘comment tab’ to collect information like the name and ID No. of every person that engages in the discussion.
PROMOTE
A well-executed SEO contest takes into consideration the numerous efforts, paid and free efforts. This, in turn, makes a contest successful.
Also make use of social media. Anything you do, ensure it will influence your audience to like, share and retweet.
PICK A WINNER
The last thing to do is pick an overall winner. If there is a tie, make sure the prices of the top contestants are shared equally between them.
In order for the losers to not feel neglected, get in touch with them and tell them nice encouraging words and thank them for their participation and time.
rahul