Looking for social media contest examples that actually work? Don’t worry — you’re not alone!
Since contests and giveaways are so effective, lots of people have asked us how to use them in social media marketing.
To help you folks out, we’ve used out 10+ years of expertise in social media marketing to put together a list of proven social media contest ideas.
Since this is a comprehensive guide, here’s a table of contents so you can skip to the section you’re interested in:
- Easiest Way to Run Social Media Contests
- How to Promote Your Social Media Contest on WordPress
- 13 Best Social Media Contest Examples and Ideas
Let’s get started!
Easiest Way to Run Social Media Contests
Want a no-nonsense way to run effective social media contests?
Instead of doing everything manually, you can save that time and effort by using a WordPress plugin instead.
Out of all the options in the market, one stands out as the best WordPress contest and giveaway plugin: RafflePress!
Using RafflePress, it’s easier than ever to run social media competitions and giveaways that actually bring results.
Just select a social media contest template you like, enter your details, and the plugin will handle the rest for you. RafflePress can enforce the social media competition rules, block fake entries, and even pick the winner!
What’s more, RafflePress also helps you go viral on social media by giving bonus entries to people who share the contests and giveaways.
As you can see, RafflePress makes social media competitions worth it by managing everything behind the scenes.
Ready to get started with social media contests? Get your copy of RafflePress today!
How to Promote Your Social Media Contest on WordPress
Let’s say your social media contest is ready to go online. The next step is to make sure you’re reaching as many people as possible with the announcement.
An easy way to do that is by embedding social media feeds on your brand’s website. Doing this can give you lots of advantages:
- Once you announce your contests on social media, you can embed these announcements on your website to get more participants.
- By sharing your best social media content on your website, you can get tons of followers with ease. So, you’ll have more people that can join your contests and giveaways.
- You can share social media posts from previous winners to build trust in your contests and get more people to join.
For the easiest way to embed social media feeds and promote your contests, you can use Smash Balloon.
As the #1 social media feed plugin out there, Smash Balloon lets you embed beautiful feeds with content from the biggest platforms out there:
- TikTok
- YouTube
- …and Twitter
Just like that, you can showcase engaging social media posts to grab people’s attention, convert visitors into social media followers, and grow your business with ease.
To help you get started, Smash Balloon comes with tons of amazing features:
- Easy Setup: You can follow a 3-step guided flow that will walk you through the process of creating, customizing, and embedding social feeds – no coding needed!
- Built for Speed: All Smash Balloon plugins are optimized for speed, so you can display tons of social media posts, and your website will load as fast as ever
- Social Wall: To promote all your social media accounts at once, you can create social walls that combine content from different platforms.
- Quality Support: Whenever you need help or have some questions, you can reach out to the dedicated support team of WordPress experts
- Easy Customization: Creating beautiful social media feeds is easy. You can import templates, copy professionally designed themes, or use the visual customizer.
As a bonus, you can also get the best reviews aggregator plugin with Smash Balloon. That way, you can boost your sales by displaying positive reviews from highly trusted platforms, including:
- Tripadvisor
- Yelp Reviews
- Trustpilot
- WordPress.org
All in all, Smash Balloon is a fantastic all-in-one package that lets you get the most out of social media marketing.
Ready to promote your social media contests with ease?
Grab the All Access Bundle today to get a huge discount on the best social media feed plugins, as well as the best reviews aggregator tool!
13 Best Social Media Contest Examples and Ideas
Now, we’ll look at some of the best social media contests and giveaway examples that you can copy for your marketing campaign.
1. Instagram Selfie Contest
This one’s pretty simple: ask people to post selfies with your brand’s hashtags for a chance to win a special prize.
If you’re trying to promote a makeup or skincare brand, you can even ask people to take selfies after using your products.
As a result, you can get tons of people sharing their experience with your brand. This can work as social proof and show others that real people on Instagram are happily using your products.
Want even more people to see this social proof and buy from you?
You can embed a hashtag Instagram feed on your website so your visitors can see all the people participating in your contests.
To learn more, check out this guide on how to embed Instagram hashtag feeds on your website.
2. Leave a Comment to Enter
Instead of asking people to post selfies, you can make a social media post where users can leave a comment to join.
Since leaving comments is quick and easy, you can get tons of participants here. And if you get lots of comments, your social media post can go viral as well.
This means even more people can see the post, join your contest, and help boost your brand’s online presence.
Wondering what other example sentences you can use for these contests? Here are some effective ones:
- Include a question in your post and ask users to comment with the right answer
- Ask people to talk about their experience with your product or services
- Use the post to ask what new products they want to see from your brand
- Tell people to respond with their favorite memes or jokes
- And more…
Plus, you can embed the contest announcement on your website as well to get even more people to join the contest.
Just check out our beginner’s guide on integrating social media with your website.
3. Follow on Facebook Contest
This is another great context example for brands already on Facebook. All you have to do is announce your contest on Facebook and ask people to follow you to participate.
On top of helping you get tons of engagement, you can boost your Facebook following as well.
When it’s time for the next contest, giveaway, or announcement, you can have lots of Facebook followers checking out your posts.
Like the previous contest, you can embed the Facebook post on your website to reach even more people.
To learn how you can follow this WordPress tutorial on how to embed Facebook posts on your website.
4. Tag a Friend on Instagram
By asking people to tag their friends on Instagram, lots of people can see your contest. And this means you get more potential customers and Instagram followers.
That way, you’re letting your Instagram followers promote your contest for you!
As you can see, it’s a great way to promote your Instagram account, boost your followers, and even go viral.
You can even cross-post this announcement on your website by embedding the Instagram post.
Plus, using tools like RafflePress makes it easy to set up and run these contests—even if you’re not super experienced.
For more information, check out this in-depth guide on how to run Instagram contests and giveaways.
5. Video Submission Contest
Video submissions are another great way to let your users create promotional content for your brand.
Like selfie contests, you can ask users to make short videos involving your brand or products.
After that, they can either post these videos on social media or share them with you so you can post the winners instead.
To run a successful social media challenge involving videos, you can reach out to people on video platforms like TikTok or Instagram.Â
Plus, you can use opinion polls to ask your customers to pick the winners. It’s a great way to build a relationship with your customers and get them invested in your brand.
As a bonus, you can also ask for people’s permission to post their videos on your TikTok account while crediting them.
So, you can get engaging content for your TikTok without making a single video yourself!
You can even embed TikTok videos on your website so more people can see the social proof.
6. Trivia Contest
Are you looking for the perfect social media contest examples for a younger audience like students? Running a trivia contest can be perfect for you then.
The whole thing is pretty simple, too. Just ask an interesting question from your social media account so users can respond with the correct answer.
After that, you can randomly pick a winner from the people who answered correctly.
Interacting with people like this can help you turn your social media followers into dedicated customers.
For more ways to build a relationship with your followers, we have a guide on how to turn people into brand ambassadors.
7. Caption Competition
This one’s pretty simple, too: just post a pic on Twitter or a similar platform and ask users to suggest the perfect caption.
For the winner, you can select whichever caption you think is the funniest or the most fitting since there are no hard rules.
Regularly hosting competitions like this can be a great way to get a following of people who interact with you on social media.
If you use Twitter, you can even embed a Twitter feed with your audience’s captions on your website’s homepage.
As a result, you can let your site visitors know about your caption contests to attract more participants in the future.Â
Ready to promote your caption contests on your website? Get your copy of Twitter Feed Pro here!
8. Holiday Giveaway
To give people another reason to celebrate the holidays, you can offer a prize pack filled with goodies related to your brand or niche.
Spreading holiday cheer? A festive giveaway is a perfect way to do it!
This is a great opportunity to showcase your products or services in a fun and exciting way.
You can also embed the announcement post on your website to include your site visitors in the giveaway. Just add a social media widget with the contest post on your sidebar so everyone can check it out.
Here’s a guide on how to embed social media widgets in WordPress in case you want to learn how.
Expert Tip: Partner with a complementary brand to expand your reach and offer a more enticing prize pack. For example, a coffee shop could partner with a bakery to offer a holiday coffee and pastry basket.
9. Subscribe to Win Contest
Looking to grow your YouTube channel or email list? A “Subscribe to Win” contest is a fantastic option!
Here’s how it works: Ask users to subscribe to your channel or email list in exchange for a chance to win a prize.
This is a win-win situation: you get more subscribers, and they get a chance to win something awesome.
Before you launch your contest, make sure you have clearly outlined contest rules. These include eligibility requirements, the contest duration, and how the winner will be selected.
If you’re using RafflePress, the plugin handles all of that for you, so you can sit back and watch your subscribers grow.
As a bonus, you can combine this contest with a YouTube channel feed to get tons of followers with ease.
10. Product Naming Contest
Stuck on a name for your new product? Why not involve your audience?
A product naming contest is a creative way to get some fresh ideas and generate buzz around your upcoming launch.
Plus, you’re also making your fans feel like they’re contributing which means they’re likely to become dedicated customers too.
For a simpler way to sort through the submissions, you can use the #1 form builder out there: WPForms.
In just a few clicks, you can build a lightweight form to collect product name submissions from your followers, making the entry process smooth and easy.
After that, you can sort through the names and pick the winner just like that!
There’s also this amazing guide on how to create a contest entry form that you can check out.
10. Voting Contest
Want to get your audience super engaged? Ask your followers to vote on something, like a new product design, a blog post topic, or even the winner of a photo contest (more on that later).
This is a great way to generate excitement and get valuable feedback from your audience.
You can also use RafflePress to give out bonus entries to users who share the contest with their friends.
That way, you can get ideas from outside your usual audience and get more social media followers as well.
Like with the previous entry, you can also use WPForms to collect votes and pick the winner.
Or, you can also use the polls feature that some social media platforms already come with. So, you can get more interactions with ease.
12. Photography Competition
You can also showcase your brand and get stunning user-generated content with a photography competition!
For inspiration, you can look at the social media photo contest example below.
Ask users to submit photos that capture a specific theme or concept related to your brand. The best photo (as voted on by your audience or chosen by you) wins a prize.
This is a fantastic way to generate beautiful visuals for your social media channels and website. After all, videos and photos can boost your social media views by 45%.
Expert Tip: Clearly define the contest theme and photo submission guidelines. This ensures everyone is on the same page and helps you receive high-quality entries.
13. Milestone Giveaway
Celebrating a follower milestone? You can use this chance to thank your audience for their support with a special giveaway.
On top of improving your relationship with your customers, this can inspire more people to follow you for a chance to take part in similar giveaways in the future.
Instead of promoting this contest on a single platform, you can announce it to your followers on all the major social media platforms.
That way, you can make it a huge event and get as many people as possible involved in the celebration.
In case you don’t have a large following on different platforms, we’ve got you covered.
You can use the Social Wall Pro plugin to combine your best content from different platforms and showcase them on your website.
And this includes the biggest social media platforms in the world, like Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter.
Just like that, your visitors can follow you on whichever platform they use the most.
What’s more, you can even create a social wall of people’s reactions to your giveaways. This will showcase all the entries in one place and encourage even more people to participate.
To get started, check out this guide on how to combine social media feeds into a social wall.
And there you go!
As you can see, there are some great social media contest examples that are easy to copy and use. You can then create a fun and interactive experience that benefits everyone involved.
If you’re looking for the best way to run contests and giveaways, RafflePress can be a massive help. With it, you can run effective social media contests that help grow your business.
Ready to run social media contests? Get RafflePress for your website today!
If you want more ways to promote your business online, we’ve got a list of the best social media marketing tips for small businesses.
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