The Problem With Social Media Contests

It seems everywhere you look these days, companies are not only jumping on the social media train, but working to sleuth out ways to create more interaction and engagement on their pages.  While the foundational goal of engagement is great, the route many companies are taking is off base with the goal.  One shining example of this is the barrage of Facebook contests and website contests that use 'voting' as the criteria for picking a winner.  These campaigns may spike traffic, but not in the way companies truly need, or in a way that builds the engagement companies are striving for.

Most of the Facebook and web-based contests I see lately involve people posting something for an entry (an idea, picture, comment, etc.) and then encouraging friends, family, and the general public to come by and click that they "like" your entry better than the others.  There is no true contest here, simply the social media game of who can push the most folks to the site repeatedly to vote and cast "likes" for an image or comment.  The prizes range from small gift cards to local stores to national retailers giving away all sorts of things, including large cash prizes.  See, for example, the Dockers Wear the Pants campaign.  

The crux of the issue with these contests is how they are driving traffic and what that traffic is focused on when they arrive on the companies page.  In most cases, it goes something like this:

• Mary enters a contest online, she wants that prize they are offering
• The contest runs either in one round or in a series of rounds
• The site has little traffic that is organic and regular, so there is a small base of random visitors to vote and push opinions
• The contest is segmented in a tab on Facebook or a separate section on a website, so that folks must actively seek out the page and place to vote
• Entries are rarely limited to a reasonable number, so sorting through and honestly selecting a favorite is unlikely for a visitor
• Entrants are tasked with pushing traffic to the site and their entry, in many cases forcing friends, family, and anyone else they can convince to register and/or "like" the page in order to cast a vote (in one recent twist, hhgregg required folks to not only 'like' them on Facebook, but to also 'like' their partner, All Pro Dad in order to enter)
• People go, and respond, but true engagement with the brand and message is left behind
• Voters go to the subpage or entry they want to vote for and then leave
• Folks with strong online social networks stand a huge advantage, but also may deliver markets to the site which are not ideal prospects or customers (high school and college age markets come to mind immediately, but may work for some brands and goals)
• At the end, the "one with the most votes wins!" or is entered into yet another round of voting and plying on their social connections to get folks to vote for their entry and help them win a prize

My challenge here is not with the contests themselves, but with what they are saying and doing to the brands which are implementing them as a quick way to drive traffic.  Without engagement, the message and purpose fall flat.  Who cares if you had 200,000 hits to your site (unless your goal is simply page ranking in Google searches...and many major brands don't need this kind of help there) if 199,000 of those hits were driven by folks who couldn't care less about your brand and barely remember who you are in their quest to help a friend?

Is this really what we want to be harnessing the power of social media for as brands and brand ambassadors?  Clicks and hits have become the new buzzwords of measurement, but they hold less than ample value in the greater picture.  The true question should always be how engaged and what quality of engagement did visitors feel?  Messaging that engages awards people for clicking through and gives them a reason to click through again, and pass along the info to friends and family while feeling good about the message.  Walgreen's does a fantastic job of this with their regular photo specials and promotional codes distributed via Facebook.  I can get the deal, and share it with my friends and family.  And in order to create even more engagement, on an occasional basis Walgreen's runs amazing offers that anyone can tap into.  Valentine's Day of 2009, for example, they allowed visitors to submit a picture of themselves and their sweetheart and displayed it live on their jumbotron in Times Square NYC.  They then snapped a picture of the display and allowed users to download and print the photos as a unique gift.  Engaging, interesting, sharable, and memorable.  

Market research is all about touching the drivers and motivators, the reasons that people emotionally connect with your brand and products/services.  Social media contests, at least what the majority are doing today, are approaching things all wrong.  They may drive traffic, but they don't drive true fans and engagement.  And I wonder how many of the push messages that are published to those new 'followers' are deleted from news feeds and how many 'unlike' pages after a campaign ends.  The trickle may be slow, but skipping messages and blocking from feeds are simple steps that make the initial reason for running a campaign all but moot.

Have a differing opinion?  I'd love to hear about it.  

Comments

[Kim E Williams]

You describe an interesting phenomenon on Social Media, especially in the realm of Facebook pages. I suspect one or two things are going on here. 1. Some folks are just doing it wrong. You've covered that well with the questions you've raised. 2. some folks are up to something more complex. such games, if directed at Facebook pages and websites might have value even if missing the overall drivers of their target market. A surge in traffic from a variety of Social links and profiles can have a very positive affect on Search Engine ranking. If the wrong people coming to your site, makes your site more visible to the right people - it works. It's a numbers game. If Facebook is the platform for these antics, it may well be the first step in an overall plan. Most strategies involve a mix of activity around acquisition, engagement and retention of 'fans.' It all begins with having enough people gathered in your social space in order to begin to engage and make social noise' around your brand. Again, it's a numbers game.

I'm not saying that this is good for brand reputation, but it is what is being done.

I know there is a better way - I'm just not sure 'we've' figured it out, yet.