Contests: best practices for maximizing engagement

Smart contest strategies to spark real interaction, build momentum, and grow an engaged social community

Contests can give you instant attention. However, turning that attention into interaction is a different game. Besides the exposure, you need to come up with a giveaway strategy that encourages your audience to take part in the campaign, whether you want them to comment, share, or create something. On top of that, you need to make them stay engaged even after the contest is over.

If you are looking to launch a social media contest, this guide highlights some key best practices you can use to get people actively involved, not just passively interested.

Design for active participation, not just entry

When designing social media contests and giveaways, most brands tend to focus on one goal: getting people to enter. But if you are looking for engagement, you need to do much more.

For a start, you need to shift from the question “How do we collect entries?” to “How do we get people involved?” This is because, unlike most giveaways, contests should invite actions like submitting ideas, posting content, answering questions, or joining a conversation.

Here are a few giveaway strategies you can use for this:

• Ask open-ended questions.
• Invite people to post something on their feed (not just in comments).
• Instead of tags, encourage short-form videos or UGC.

Since it’s a contest and not a simple giveaway, make people invest in their entry, as it will also help them feel more connected to the outcome and your brand.

Make the engagement worth it

Since you are asking people to do more than just provide their email addresses or share your post, you need to give them a reason to care. It takes effort and creativity to create content, so the reward should feel worth that effort.

This doesn’t mean that you need to offer something expensive, you just need to match the ask. If it’s a simple comment-based contest, a small gift can work. But if you want people to create videos showing how they use your products, the prize should reflect the extra time and creativity involved.

Another way to boost social media engagement is to think beyond the grand prize. You can layer in smaller rewards for participation, such as discounts and freebies. This way, more people can win, and participants will feel recognized.

Simplify entry while encouraging interaction

If the entry process feels like a chore or is confusing, you’ll lose engagement before it begins. Essentially, all contests should be easy to enter, but designed in a way that naturally leads people to interact more once they’ve entered.

Start with a single, simple step like commenting or filling in a short form. From there, you can lead them to the main contest. If you like, you can then layer in optional engagement boosters, such as tagging a friend for a bonus entry.

Incorporate gamification elements

Gamification involves adding game-like features to the contest. These tap into the natural part of us that likes to compete, track progress, and win.

Game mechanics help enhance engagement as they make the contest more fun and give people a reason to come back, check in, and boost their progress.

Here are a few elements you can add to your giveaway strategy:

• A leaderboard showing the people with the most entries.
• Badges or rewards for completing different actions (like sharing or submitting content).
• Countdown timers that build urgency.
• A progress bar that shows the level of participation in the campaign.

These elements help create momentum and keep participants coming back.

Close the loop: keep the conversation going

The end of the contest shouldn’t be the end of the engagement. If you’ve already sparked interest and got interactions, you need to keep the momentum (and conversation) going.

You can start with a thoughtful follow-up where you thank participants, publicize winners, and share highlights from the contest. You can then give people a reason to stay connected. That could be:

• A discount code or exclusive offer for all participants.
• A new product drop they helped shape or vote on.
• A series of emails or posts that show the top entries or behind-the-scenes content.

You can also keep the energy by promising or launching a follow-up campaign that ties back to the original. This will create a sense of continuity and give your audience another chance to engage and stand to win.

Ready to launch a contest that actually gets people talking? Partner with Promosfera to craft engagement-first campaigns that go beyond likes and drive lasting brand interaction.