Want more social followers? Need to generate more leads? Giveaways on social media may be the missing link in your digital strategy.

Social media giveaways accomplish many goals in one swoop. However, you don’t want to implement a new social strategy just because people say you should. It needs to be thought out and planned strategically, and if that’s the case, we’re here to help with this post! 

We’ll explore the benefits you can reap when it comes to giveaways on social media as well as strategy tips so that your giveaway rocks the social platforms you host it on.

Why Giveaways?

Giveaways appeal to both brands and consumers. Brands can generate more brand awareness and even leads while audiences get free stuff!

Giveaways give brands a way to promote themselves without appearing overly self-promotional.

Define Your Goals

Before designing your giveaway, determine your goals so that you can craft an exceptional strategy. The most common goals that giveaways achieve include:

• Grow number of followers
• Increase contacts in email list
• Brand awareness
• Engagement
• Promote new products

Once your goals have been determined, you can start designing a giveaway that achieves these goals. For example, if your goal is to grow your number of followers, then an entry to win your giveaway should entail following your brand on social.

Choose Your Platform(s)

Determine which platforms you want to boost visibility on. You can run your giveaway on one or multiple social platforms at once.

Tap into your buyer personas and determine which channels your target audience is active on.

When choosing which channel(s) to host your giveaway on, it’s important to consider that each social platform has different rules for giveaways. For reference, here are the Facebook Guidelines, Twitter Guidelines, and Instagram Guidelines.

Set Terms and Conditions

Once the big details have been sorted out, it’s time to organize your giveaway to get it ready for activation. Things to consider include:

• Timeline (1-2 days keeps a sense of urgency)
• Who is eligible to participate in the giveaway?
• What constitutes an entry to win?

Pick a Prize

To ensure maximum engagement with your giveaway, you want to offer attractive prizes. Usually it’s product or a gift card from your brand. 

Your prize needs to match what you ask of your audience. If you just want them to follow you on social, an entry to win a $50 gift card is good. If you want them to post on social with your hashtag, you may need a steeper prize.

Find the Right Tool

There are a number of tools, widgets, plugins, etc. that help brands organize and run their giveaways. To make your life easier, here are some popular options to consider:

• SweepWidget
• ShortStack
• Outgrow
• Rafflecopter

Most tools offer a demo and free trial so don’t hesitate to “test out” a few tools before choosing the right fit for your giveaway strategy. 

Promote Your Giveaway

To capitalize on all the hard work you put into your giveaway, you need to promote it!

Here are some common ways that brands promote their giveaways:



• Share on all social channels
• Email it out to your list of contacts
• Run some paid ads to support your efforts
• Recruit influencers to help promote it

Do you have any strategies when it comes to running a successful giveaway? We’d love to hear about it in the comments below!