Guest Blog by SonSeri Kennedy, a recent graduate of the Hay There Social Media Training Program

For nonprofit organizations, getting social media exposure isn’t always easy.

However, one way nonprofit organizations can boost awareness and participation is through giveaway contests or sweepstakes. Effectively executed, they can grow brand awareness; enhance relationships with followers; and boost overall page engagements.

Recently, through Hay There Social Media, I had the pleasure of working with one of their long-standing clients in creating, running, and tracking a Facebook sweepstakes campaign.

Who:

A nonprofit organization committed to supporting local literacy and educational projects.

Obstacle:

The COVID-19 global pandemic made it impossible for this nonprofit to hold its annual used book and media sale. This is an important event, as the proceeds go toward supporting literacy initiatives throughout the local area.

Creative Solution:

In place of an in-person book sale, the nonprofit chose to pivot and hold a book bundle giveaway on their FB page, thus supporting its core mission of putting books into the hands of people.  Facebook has strict guidelines to follow in order to run a giveaway. Therefore, many of the nonprofit’s initial choices, such as sharing a post in order to win, were expressly prohibited. Facebook will also not allow you to require any particular actions on its platform in exchange for being allowed to enter. Translation: There’s no asking for likes or shares as a means of entering the giveaway.

In order to run a giveaway that followed Facebook’s rules and still honored the goal of the client, I opted to use a third-party tool that leads participants off Facebook. It solves the problem of adhering to Facebook’s strict guidelines, provides more accurate data collection and analysis, and as a bonus, is a tool to collect email addresses to help build the client’s email list. In the end, more than one-third of the people who viewed the sweepstakes link signed up for the giveaway (10 times the industry average). This was a win. And for the client, the contact information collected during the giveaway is now valuable currency as these email addresses can be added to its future marketing initiative e-blasts and communications.

The Takeaway:

Overall, the giveaway campaign was been very successful for this nonprofit’s Facebook page as well. Since launch, there have been increases in the following areas:

• New page likes
• New followers
• Page views
• Engagements
• Link clicks
• Page reach

The good news is, there are still future growth opportunities here. Future sweepstakes may be able to achieve even more success if the organization targets giveaway bundles to audience demographics. For example, the yoga bundle fared better than the thriller and suspense bundles. I attribute this to a Google search that showed women in the age range targeted prefer self-help and romance titles.

Because I was able to track and interpret metrics for this giveaway, this client got better results and valuable data for people who already support its mission AND a solid plan for future sweepstakes.

If you work for a nonprofit organization that is interested in learning how social media giveaways and sweepstakes might be able to boost awareness, contact us today. We can help you implement a strategy that works.

SonSeri is a proud mama of three, a work/life integrator, and a graduate of Hay There’s social media management program. She has an MBA and a background in marketing.

Originally from the Republic of the Marshall Islands, SonSeri has a strong passion for music, storytelling, and Pacific Island dancing.

Having lived in six countries outside of the United States, SonSeri combines her life experiences from living abroad, her unique skills from motherhood, her marketing training & expertise to harness the power of social media to help small businesses gain visibility and make an impact.

Learn more about SonSeri at www.kamaosocialmedia.com.