Competitions = Engagment

Hey all

Today we’re going to talk about Competition and the number of ways they can increase engagement such as; getting people involved, letting people give their input, allowing that input to affect change and that change being a reason to continue engaging.

This cycle can be used as a repeating loop to increase consumer engagement on a number of different platforms and outside the social media world. Though for the purpose of this article I will be using a competition I have run on my facebook pages for the past two years as an example.

• Getting people involve: 

Competitions are a way of reaching out to people. You asking for their involvement which is important since whether you a running a site or a business it has to be relevant to the people you are interacting with. Competitions can be a way of checking this relevance if not insuring it.

in the case of the competition example, I mentioned as regular readers will know I run a fandom Facebook page amongst others. Today there are so many fandoms however so it is hard to appeal to all fandom lovers, everyone has their favourites. So on my page, I run a Monthly Fandom cup where every month my fans get to vote for their favourite to win a months worth of posting. This ensures that the page stays relevant to my viewers and gets them interacting with the page when they vote.

•   Letting people give their input: 

This point is similar to the last but a no less important part of the cycle. Since people are getting involved and giving their input its shows people that what they think matters which is again very important since we all want our view to be hear. By using a competition that input is being requested and taken on board which helps to build a positive relationship which is very important in business.

In my Fandom competition, it shows I’m not interested in converting people to the fandoms I like but instead interesting in sharing in the fandoms that they like too, which again creates a relationship and allows for their input

• Allowing that input to affect change: 

Giving a customer or a person some ability to affect change is a powerful and important thing, it shows you not only care about their input but are willing to act on it. Competitions always have some effect whether it’s winning a free trip or adding a new flavour of Ice cream to the dessert menu, people enter into a competition with the expectation of getting something back so why not use competitions to get back useful information that you can then act on.

My Competition does just this it allows my fans to not only say what their favourite fandoms are but also to control some of the content I’m posting since whichever fandoms wins gets posted about more often. This can even be extended beyond the competition if I know ab certain fandom has won then even after their winning month is up it’s useful to keep posting about that fandom occasionally to continue to encourage my fans engagement.

• That change being a reason to continue engaging: 

This cycle builds a positive relationship throughout and in business can lead to repeat customers. They will feel more willing to come forward with their input in future which means you can keep adjusting to fit their needs which mean the business continues to stay relevant and you’re customers continue to engage.

This also applies to social media platforms. In the case of my competition once a fan knows their fandom has won throughout the month they are going to keep tuning in to see the post about that fandom and engaging with the page as such.

 

This process can be repeated as many times as you might like. It can even be a constant process of my competition since its monthly my fans are always engaging as long as they are taking part. This demonstrates that competitions in themselves are a form of engagement that requires two-way communication. You communicating with them by asking for their engagement and they communicate back by giving it. Communication is vital in all relationships including business ones, so, therefore, this particular form of engagement through Competitions can be very beneficial and can lead to greater levels of engagement.