Social Media Giveaways

Social Media Giveaways


There are plenty of ways to find free things online, and one of these tried - and - true forms is known as Social Media Marketing. How can you make the best of it?

Most popular brands know in order to better reach their target audience, they need to stay up-to-date on social media platforms in the age where information is more readily available. For freebie hunters and samplers alike, as well as reviewers, a great way to get goodies is by "Liking", "Following", "Retweeting", "Sharing", and typically engaging with these products, brands, and companies. 

FACEBOOK PAGES
Facebook pages can be found by searching for them in Facebook's search bar. 

Here is an example of a brand search
When searching for the brand pages, it is important to pay attention to the TYPE of page in the search results. As you can see, the first actual result is "Charmin Community" and directly below it shows it is an "app" page. You will want the official brand page (the one shown highlighted). You are going to want to visit the page and give them a "Like" so you can follow their updates. This is usually required for giveaways that certain brands may offer. This is not to say that you have to follow every single brand that you like, and in fact, you don't need to follow them at all until you hear about a giveaway. 

Usually these pages are far and few between on their "giveaways" but you may find it easier to find samples this way. When it comes to giveaways however, the pages will usually have a "Pinned" post as first post on their page, or announcements following the post. They usually tell you about the giveaway including end dates and what you need to do to qualify to enter. Below is an example of a page that ran a giveaway:

This is an example of a company's giveaway on Facebook
The above example linked you to their company website to enter. Sometimes you will see they only ask you to "Like", "Comment", and/or "Share" or interact with the page. Pages like Freebie Mom (See suggested pages) have you interact with their page throughout the day and they will pick a winner at random for all that interacted with the page on that given day.

TWITTER PARTIES
Some of the other platforms like Instagram and Pinterest will usually just have you "Heart" a photo and comment or "Repin" a post for your chance to enter. Twitter however, does things a little differently with Twitter Parties.

Twitter Parties are a form of live chat where instead of an actual chat room, it is a thread following a "hashtag" - or rather a key word that is used specifically for a certain giveaway. 

Example of a Twitter Party live feed
As you can see from the photo above, you would type the given hashtag key word into the search bar in the top right. Once the results displayed, you would then click "Live" and watch all of the posts. This usually requires quite a bit of refreshing and most times Q&A's are timed for your responses. You have to tweet to the brand (the names with the @ sign) and the hashtag as well as your response. These can get cumbersome. However, there are third party apps that are available to download, or even some that just allow you to visit the site and link your Twitter account - that make these much easier to participate in. 

Screenshot of Tweetdeck, a third party app for Twitter



Show above is my recommended third party app for Twitter Parties, TweetDeck You do not need to download it, you can visit the site directly, log in with your Twitter account, then set up with the brand in one column, the hashtag in another, and your tweet set up right next to it. There's even a spot for your Direct Messages as well as your Mentions so you can do everything from one page without refreshing. TweetDeck is a free service. 


FACEBOOK GROUPS (FREEBIE HUNTERS)
Next to mention would be "Freebie Hunter" groups (Like the one I post in, Totally Free on Facebook) These groups are usually a collective of people who search the web to find free offers, samples, giveaways, etc, take the time to create a blog post with information about the offer and the link, then share it to the group members. Some may post just direct links and by pass a blog post all together. A common misconception with these is that people will think those making the posts are actually the ones responsible for whatever it is they posted about and in all actuality, they are nothing more than an acting middle man between you and eliminating your need to search.




Not all that post may take the time or effort to look into offers and instead will go with the crowd of other freebie posters - which often leads to repeated giveaways, freebies, etc., that are no longer offered, and even some scam sites that tend to slip through the cracks from time to time. 

Some groups may differ from others, some may have their own hosted giveaways and some may not.
Some may allow discounts and free items, others may not.
Some may allow promotions of your pages/blogs/groups/referrals and some may not.
It is important to read the rules and understand them as you join a group to keep the environment in a respectful manner. Mistakes will be made from time to time however most groups will welcome you with open arms and be happy to help. There are some out there however, that won't be as kind. Groups are a wonderful way to connect yourself with freebies and offers as this expands the horizons for you beyond the middle man blogger. You are then able to connect to others that have applied for that same posting and are linked to many other resources as well.







No comments:

Post a Comment

Mental Health is Not a Competition

I have been wanting to talk about this for a while from consideration of conversations I have had regarding anxiety and mental illness...