20 Social Media Contest Ideas for Holidays

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In the competitive world today, it is difficult to grab the attention of the audience. So, what do you do to increase your engagement and awareness? Run contests on your social media accounts.

All you need to do is give them a creative angle, and boom! Around 63% of Facebook users agree that they will share the link to a holiday giveaway or contest. So, you get the idea of how effective it can be for your account, right? 

Let's analyze some key contests you can run during holidays on your social media. 

Popular Social Media Contest Ideas for Holidays

Social media contests aren't like your regular posts. They are run for specific purposes and on special occasions. So here are a few ideas that you can try:

#1 Curate a Tag Campaign

A tag campaign can be extremely attractive and give a creative angle. You can ask your followers to draft an interesting tag for your brand and post it. It is important that you mention that the tag should have a holiday angle. If you plan on using those tags, make sure to mention them in the post. 

#2 Plan Gift Giveaway

Gift giveaways have always worked the best. You can post a giveaway on your profile, with some terms and conditions, with respect to liking and commenting on the post. You can choose a person and send them a gift for the holidays. This will also help in your promotion and building a positive image. 

#3 Host Daily Prize Draws

The daily draw gifts should be small but extremely effective. These daily draw gifts play an important role in capturing the attention of the audience. You can announce the winner of daily draws at the end of the day to make them more interesting and engaging. 

#4 Begin Holiday Hunt

The holiday hunt that you conduct should run across different platforms. For example, you can post a clue on one social media platform and redirect them to another one. This can play an important role in increasing your followers across all platforms. 

#5 Schedule Virtual Catalog

You can ask your followers to create virtual catalogs for your brand. Whether you're providing a service or product, a virtual catalog will work effectively across all platforms. However, make sure to include an enticing prize so that the audience creates engaging and attractive catalogs. 

#6 Share a Selfie Contest

Who doesn’t love taking selfies? But what if you can get a gift with a selfie? You’ll be excited to win it, right? So, you can ask your followers to share a selfie using your product during the holidays. What would they get in return? Something better and more attractive from your brand. 

#7 Take Who is the Best Fan Contest

Ask your followers to share a post tagging you, stating why they're your best fan. This is perfect for eCommerce and makeup brands. Make sure to ask them to include this on a wider scale in the caption and to tag you. Once you've selected the winner, you can send them their gift to their registered address. 

#8 Let the Scavenger Hunt Begin

A scavenger hunt can also be a type of daily post so that the audience gets the chance to reach the final answer. Make sure to drop daily hints; whoever is the first to answer by figuring out from the hints will win. Make sure to include holiday themes as well to make it more attractive. 

#9 Post a Video Contest

Let your followers post a video with their family and friends, giving a shout-out to your brand. Videos express much better emotions on social media, so let your fans be your ambassadors. Whoever has the best shout-out gets the advantage of being on the top. 

#10 Conduct Brand Trivia

Who knows your brand the best? There are several people who may be following you on social media for a very long time. You can ask some engaging questions related to your brand via posts or stories. Whoever answers the question will be declared the winner. This way, you can engage your audience more with your brand.

#11 Have Fun with Meme Contest

Memes are trending, and there are always some memes that drive relations with your brand. So, ask your followers to have some fun as they create memes related to your brand. These memes will be relatable and impressive for the viewers of your social media.

#12 Re-design the Logo Contest

Do you want a new logo or not? Even if you don't, there's nothing wrong with getting a unique angle or understanding what your followers think about you. Give your followers a chance to redesign your brand logo with respect to the holiday theme. 

#13 Showcase Your Best Recipes

It's the holidays, it's the time of delicious cooking. So, why not let your followers showcase the best side of them? Ask your followers to showcase their best recipes. This way, others will get the best recipes and the talented ones will be recognized.

#14 Suggest New Products for Brands

Your brand already has a lot of products, but there's always a scope for the best. Ask your followers to suggest new products for your brand. It will give you an idea of what your customers want and whether you can launch it. 

#15 Tag a Friend

If you want more engagement on your profile, ask your followers to tag a friend on your holiday post. This gives you a better view of your audience.  It will also increase your followers as the friends will get to know your account.

#16 Caption the Holiday Post Contest

Just post a holiday picture related to the brand and also ask your followers to caption it. Make sure that you state the terms and conditions so that the followers can adhere to them and create the best post. Ask them to comment on their holiday experience too in the comments for more engagement.

#17 Choose a New Brand Name Contest

Give your followers a little creative freedom and allow them to choose a new name for your brand. Either way, it will provide a new way to stay on top and let you understand what your audience wants. 

#18 First-to-answer Wins the Trivia

Post any holiday trivia and ask your followers to answer. Most of them are going to answer it, but the only one who answers first will win. Make sure that the post is related to the holiday as well as your brand. 

#19 Creative Hashtag Contest

Let your followers create a creative hashtag for your brand. The hashtag that the followers create you can use throughout the holidays. After all, user-generated content gives a more organic following. 

#20 Choose Our Mascot Contest

Every brand deserves a mascot, so why not should you have one too? Let your followers decide who your mascot should be. Ultimately, that's what will cater to the needs of your audience. 

How to Plan a Successful Social Media Contest for Holidays?

Planning a successful social media contest for holidays? Well, you need to have the right strategy in place. which also incorporates tips from the Guide to Use Trending Topics and Holidays for Social Media for better results. 

#1 Eligibility Requirements

Not everyone can be a part of the social media contest. Well, it is your responsibility to specify the same too. Depending on your business requirements, you need to set an eligibility requirement. 

It is important to specify the legal guidelines in the eligibility requirements, too. Make sure to mention the guidelines in all the posts that promote giveaways. 

#2 Disclaimers

No matter which platform you're hosting the contests on, checking the disclaimers and specifying them goes a long way. Well, the disclaimers of every platform vary, which is why you need to enter them accurately. 

A lot of social media platforms require the hosts to mention that the contest isn't sponsored. Thus, carefully check those conditions and mention them. 

#3 Link to Landing Page

When there are too many terms and conditions to your giveaways and contests, it can be complicated. Moreover, the audience wouldn't no longer find it fun. This will prevent your audience from entering the contest. 

Rather than skipping the requirements, your prime aim should be to link to a landing page. This will allow the audience to read the terms and contest before they enter a contest. 

#4 Prohibit Illegal Activities

Depending on the platform you're running the contest in, you need to be very specific with the guidelines. Thus, you need to know the rules of platforms like Facebook and Instagram. 

If you're not following the network guidelines, the contest campaign will be taken down. Thus, before you launch a contest, make sure that you're reading the guidelines and preventing illegal activities. 

#5 UGC Collection and Reuse

Social media contests can help in generating a lot of UGC for your brand. Thus, you need to plan the reuse of the content accordingly. For example, you can't repurpose a lot of content that has been provided by your users. 

If you are going to share UGC on your social media or website, you need to specify the same conditions. Moreover, you can also discuss the same with your legal team and seek permission accordingly from your users to repurpose the content. 

Benefits of Hosting Social Media Contests for Holidays

Hosting social media contests during holidays can help leverage brand presence on social media. Some of the major benefits that the businesses are likely to face are as follows:

#1. Increased brand awareness

While running social media contests, a lot of customers will engage with your brand. This allows the post to pop up in different feeds, thereby increasing the chances of going viral. Thus, it helps in boosting brand awareness. 

#2. Improved engagement with customers and prospects 

As brand awareness increases, a lot of customers will also interact. This helps in increasing engagement, especially in terms of likes, comments, and shares. 

#3. Boosted social media following

The more awareness and engagement, the more will be the chances of following. As awareness increases, the audience will find the content interesting, thereby interacting with your brand. 

#4. Increased website traffic

If your social media presence takes off, your website traffic will take off, too. This will help in making you relevant and increasing your engagement and revenue.

#5. Generating leads and collecting contact information

Hosting social media contests during holidays is indeed one of the best ways to generate leads. As more people participate in the giveaway, they'll share their information, thereby giving you options to collect information. 

#6. Cost-effective marketing solution

Believe it or not, your social media contest is one of the most cost-effective marketing solutions. As it increases your reach and awareness, it will help gather more attention, thereby increasing sales. 

#7. Ability to target specific audiences

With your social media contests, you should only be targeting specific audiences. Your target audience is one of the biggest assets for your business, and contests help you leverage the power of that. 

#8. Measurable results

Social media contests help you get measurable results. These can help your brand analyze your growth and move toward a better presence. 

#9. Encouraging user-generated content

With the help of social media contests, you will be able to gather a lot of user-generated content. This will play an important role in giving you a major boost with organic engagement. 

Utilize the Social Media Contest Strategy And Grow Organically in 2024

Having a social media contest strategy is one of the best ways to grow organically. As 2024 arrives, it is crucial to plan a strategy that would include defining your audience and creating valuable content. 

At the same time, while posting during the holidays, you need to post content regularly. With the help of a social media contest strategy, your prime aim should be to engage with the audience, as suggested by insights from the Social Media Benchmarks: A Complete Guide.

These are the smaller aspects that help in boosting your presence. Moreover, it's through the strategies that you establish the metrics to get results. 

Wrapping Up

Your social media contest during holidays is one of the best ways to stay ahead. With so many holidays arriving this year, it's important that you promote your effectiveness across different platforms. 

There's nothing better than social media and the power of campaigns to leverage your presence. If you want to reach the heart of your audience, the contests and campaigns go a long way. So, make sure that you're using the contest the right way and planning the strategy in a proper manner, utilizing insights from the Top 30 Social Media Monitoring Tools to maximize effectiveness.