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There’s no particular formula or recipe on how to successfully promote your brand on Twitter or social media in general. There are all sorts of effective moves and strategies you can employ, and which one you will choose depends on the type of your industry, your audience, timing and goals of your campaign. You have to change your game all the time and adapt to new algorithms, new demands, new competition and much more – there’s a lot of factors you have to consider when developing social media marketing tactics. However, one of the things that works for basically everyone is rewarding your fans. Here’s why.
The benefits of rewarding your fans
At the most elementary level, advantages of giving stuff out to your fans are quite obvious – if only one person shares the news of the reward they got, you have a chance to reach all the person’s followers and if the award is cool enough, the word can easily spread. This is a simple way to get to a few dozen, few hundred or even thousands of people who will not just see your brand or your product, but will be eager to engage themselves if there’s a chance for them to win something, which in turn again increases your visibility.
It’s not hard to imagine why this happens, even with small and seemingly worthless prizes. Small doses of gratification hormones that are released when one gets stuff for free or gets rewarded for something can be very powerful and thus people easily fall for any sort of giveaways.
The real deal, though, is to reach the most authoritative influencers on the network. Sending cool giveaways to them can be a great way to get them to share their thoughts and feelings about your product or at least mention you in a tweet or two. This might not seem like much at the first glance, but if this person has tens of thousands of followers, it’s a brilliant way to gain some visibility for your brand. And it’s not necessarily complicated and difficult to get them to do this. You should pay attention if there’s an influencer or two that seem to like a product of yours, then reach out to them and offer them to try some more free stuff. You probably won’t have to ask for a share or a mention – if they like the gift, they’ll do it themselves.
How to do it
The simplest way to intrigue people on social media with rewards is to offer freebies, giveaway or coupons to those who start following you, share a post or mention you. This won’t only increase your visibility, but will also automatically make people try your product and see what it’s about, which can be even more useful on the long run. There are different ways to implement this strategy – for instance, you can give your fans a very practical universal gift card they could use to buy whatever they want.
Another method you can use is some sort of loyalty program, where your fans will be awarded points for following you on Twitter, or for their first share, mention or review. This points can then be turned into free stuff or discounts at your store. One of the most effective strategies is to organize a competition, where people will compete either in collecting points or in any other way you can think of. This doubles the pleasure of instant gratification, since people are as much keen to win any sort of competition as they are to get free stuff.
If you’re thinking more about non-material rewards, then giving your followers even the tiniest bit of control over your business or your Twitter account is a great idea. Giving them a chance to choose what your next blog post will be about or the color or taste of your special-edition product can initiate a lot of engagement. In this respect, a lot of brands could learn something from Starbucks, that has the entire platform where people suggest improvements and vote for the best ones. This is not only a way to reward your customers, but also an excellent source of fresh ideas you might’ve never come up with yourself.
All in all, rewarding your fans (and potential new followers) on Twitter is a very good way to boost your brand’s visibility on this social network. These giveaways don’t have to be big or expensive, since a small treat can do the job just as well if it’s interesting and cool enough. Use this to your advantage and keep an eye on influencers – they can be the real force that could do wonders for your social media marketing campaign.
Guest Post: Alex Williams is an blogger and a journalism graduate. She currently is a regular contributor at Bizzmarkbloc.com.
