Improving the image of your brand on websites like Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram is quite paramount nowadays. After all, 71% of people who had a positive social media experience with a brand are very likely to recommend it to others.

So, trying to improve brand advocacy on social media platforms is definitely worth it since it’s a very effective marketing tool.

Well, if you’re looking for ways to take advantage of the most popular platforms out there, here are 7 ideas you should consider:

1. Rewards for Social Media Promoters

The idea is to entice clients to promote your business on social media by offering them the chance to redeem various rewards if they do so (it can be free products, discounts – anything you want). All they need to do is mention how much they like your business (and preferably what they like about it too).

Letting your customers know about this is quite easy. Promote this campaign on your social media pages, and be sure to have flyers that advertise this offer at your place of business as well.

Now, with these types of social media campaigns, it’s best to use a hashtag so that you can quickly check on the people who are promoting your business online. Make sure the hashtag catchy, easy to remember, and easy to type.

Afterwards, all you’ll need is someone (or a team) who will be responsible for monitoring the hashtag usage on various social media platforms to verify that the clients who want to redeem rewards did their part. This is also a great way to find out which ones of your customers are influencers.

2. Facebook Reactions Contests

Holding Facebook Share contests (where users share your post for a chance to win) is still the norm nowadays, but we’d recommend asking people to use a Facebook React instead. Why? Because it makes participating that much easier for people, so they’re more likely to engage with the post.

For example, if you run a Mexican food-oriented QSR (quick-service-restaurant), you could post a photo of 3 or 4 different types of tacos, and ask people to vote for their favorite one for a chance to win a coupon, free item, or discount. Since all people will need to do is hit Like or use a Facebook React, they’ll be more than willing to enter the contest.

Overall, you’ll come on top with plenty of satisfied customers, a ton of exposure (the fact that people reacted to your post will show up on their friends’ newsfeeds), and more than enough market research data about clients and potential customers.

3. Instagram Photo Contests

The premise is pretty straightforward. You let customers know that if they take a photo of their meal (or retail products if you’re not in the restaurant industry) and upload it to Instagram, they can win a discount or free item.

However, you can go the extra mile and do something completely different. For instance, you could place a sign outside advertising a certain product or special deal. But instead of just mentioning said product or deal, you present them in a funnier, more joke-ish manner. We realize that might not seem appealing to you, but it is to today’s average consumer.

If you do something like that, passers-by might be more likely to stop, read the sign, and actually take a photo with it and post it to Instagram. They can also post it to Facebook or Twitter, of course. What’s more, said passers-by might even come inside to check out the product or deal in question.

And if you don’t like speculating about consumer behavior, you can just tell customers (on social media or by adding a note to the aforementioned sign) that they can win a discount or enjoy a special offer if they take a photo with the sign and post it to Instagram.

4. Facebook Live Campaigns

Essentially, you should run Facebook Live videos on your Facebook page on a regular basis. You could organize a quiz where the winner gets to enjoy a discount or a free item, or an Ask-Me-Anything type of video where the most interesting question is rewarded.

Those are just some examples, of course, but they should give you an idea of just how engaging a Facebook Live video can be for consumers.

Plus, don’t forget how popular Facebook Live is nowadays. After all, not only are Facebook Live videos watched 3 times longer than videos that aren’t live, but users also tend to comment 10 times more on Facebook Live videos than on regular videos.

So, getting top-notch engagement for your brand with Facebook Live is quite easy, and it will offer you the chance to get more people interested in your business.

5. Encourage Customer Experience Tweets

By that, we mean that you should let customers know that they are more than welcome (and that you actually encourage them) to Tweet about the experience they had at your place of business. This type of social media campaign usually works very well for restaurant and QSR businesses.

You can have your staff tell your customers about it, have in-store flyers promoting this, and even mention it on your social media pages. The main idea is to let people know that if they do this, they stand to win a coupon, discount, or free item (usually a meal or food item).

Once again, you should come up with a hashtag, and tell clients they should mention it in their Tweets.

All in all, your business will get plenty of positive exposure, and you’ll be much more likely to attract new customers this way (not to mention turning existing customers into recurring ones). And in case any of the Tweets are negative in nature or contain complaints, make sure you address them in a timely and professional manner.

6. Social Media Campaigns That Target Influencers

The people who talk about your business a lot on the Internet, who share your content, and who have a large audience listening to them would be the influencers you should be targeting with this campaign.

The idea would be to focus your strategy around them. For instance, you could post on your social media pages about your most loyal customers. Posting a photo of them enjoying their 10th consecutive meal in a month or week or so can work. All you need is their approval and you’re good to go.

While at first glance this might not seem a powerful strategy like the rest of the ideas on our list, do keep in mind that doing something like this shows both your customers and potential clients how much you value your patrons. In the long run, it will enhance your brand’s image and attract new customers.

7. A Facebook 360° Contest

This type of social media contest works best when you just opened up a new place of business. Basically you could use Facebook’s 360° feature and upload a compatible image or video that showcases your new restaurant, QSR, or retail store.

Marketing-wise, this is a pretty smart move as it quickly generates interest for your new place – especially if the photo or video gets shared a lot by your customers. But that doesn’t mean you can’t do something extra to make this experience much more engaging for consumers.

You could do a sort of an “Easter Egg Hunt.” Basically, you could ask people to closely examine the photo or video to find a hidden detail, screenshot it, and share it to enter a contest to win a redeemable prize. For example, you could ask one of your staff members to hide in the background holding a sign with a password on it.

There are plenty of possibilities of course, so let your creativity soar. Just be sure to make the “hunt” a bit easy cause consumers tend to lose interest in a social media contest if things are too complicated and time-consuming.

Interested in Improving Your Brand’s Social Media Presence?

We can offer you just the tools you need then. While our platform already specializes in loyalty program features and advanced analytics, Spoonity will now also include social media packages that are designed to help people like you build and enhance your business’ brand advocacy on social media platforms.

Our new features will make it extremely straightforward for you to run social media campaigns that let customers earn rewards by using Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Plus, you can actually choose which people you want to target, be them loyal customers or even those identified as influencers.

And since you’ll have an easy time offering properly-targeted incentives all the time, you’ll get to also enhance your word-of-mouth marketing efforts and improve conversion rates. Not to mention that you’ll also get to cut marketing costs by getting direct access to advanced social profiling.

The bottom line is this: You’ll be able to actually turn existing clients into brand advocates who will, in turn, attract new potential customers to your brand (who will already view you in a positive light).