A social media contest is a great way to let your dance studio families do some free marketing for you. It’s the best kind of marketing, because it’s coming straight from people that are already big fans of your studio. They are already talking about how much they love your studio and posting pics of their little super stars at your place all over their social media accounts. We are just going to take the opportunity to say thank you by rewarding them for their posts, and hopefully, inspire them to post a little extra while we are working on boosting our enrollments at the beginning of our new year.
I do similar social media contests a few times during the year with slightly different formats. I originally learned this concept from Darryl Retter of MusicWorks Unlimited and heard about it again from Micaela Crites of The Streamlined Studio. I’ve tried it several different ways now, and put together my own version that I am going to share here with you.
I love running social media contests like this one, because it builds pride and excitement with current studio families while simultaneously increasing your visibility to new prospects that already know, like and trust the source of the information; their friends. It’s better targeting than you can pay for with a Facebook ad and is much less expensive to run.
Here’s what you’ll need…
Dates: Give yourself two weeks to build up excitement with emails, posts and a mention in your monthly newsletter.
I’ve experimented with different lengths of time, and recommend keeping the run time of your contest down to no more than 4 weeks.
Rules: Be clear about how to play and what you can win.
Example: One check in per day per student. You don’t have to be physically present to check in. Pictures must be of student at Your Studio. Participation is limited to families currently enrolled.
Prizes: Prizes don’t have to cost a lot to get people excited. You can offer account credit at your studio, a gift certificate for your boutique, a pair of tights, a special piece of studio swag they can ONLY get by doing this contest, gift certificates from other local businesses that you have partnered with in your community. Get creative and think about what the people at your studio would really like to get. Consider a tiered system of prizes like this…
5 check ins= Studio Water Bottle
10 check ins= Studio Water Bottle and $10 Boutique Gift Certificate
20 check ins= Studio Water Bottle, $10 Boutique Gift Certificate and Studio T-shirt that you can only get by participating in this contest!
Optional: Try throwing in a little extra something like- Every check in is an entry to win $50 account credit. Winner will be drawn on Facebook on (Give the date).
Advertising: Don’t worry, this isn’t advertising that will cost you money. You are going to let your current studio families know about the contest with your newsletter (with great stuff like how to win goodies inside, who wouldn’t want to read it), a couple very short email reminders, a few fun social media posts, and some posters at your studio.
Follow Through: Keep the excitement going during the contest by picking some check in posts to share, thanking the person that posted for participating in the contest and restating the rules. Create update posts congratulating people that have won some prizes and reminding everyone there is still time to join in the fun.
Count up the check ins at the end of each week that the contest is running and have an email ready to send out to thank and congratulate participants that have won prizes.
To count up check ins go to your studio Facebook page, click on the notifications tab at the top, select activity in the column on the left side of the screen and click on check-ins under activity.
Set a calendar reminder to draw your winner if you’re giving away that extra prize. Do the drawing in a live Facebook video.