How will people find my contest or sweepstakes?

We always tell our clients that in addition to creating a great contest or sweepstakes, you have to promote it!

You can tell your existing social media audience by:

1. Tweeting about it in Twitter.
2. Posting messages about it on your Facebook page.
3. Posting about it on your company's LinkedIn profile page, and on the status updates of your individual employees.
4. Create a video about it and post it on YouTube.
5. Mention it on your corporate blog.
6. Announce it in your marketing newsletter(s).
7. Telling your clients about it directly.
8. Posting signage about it in stores.
9. Advertising it using Facebook ads, Google AdWords, display ads across the internet and even ads on traditional media (like radio or print).

The list goes on!

Any time you promote your promotion, you should:

1. Include a link directly to the Facebook tab where the contest or sweepstakes is live.
2. Include simple calls-to-action, such as "Join our contest and win a...;"  "Tell your friends about our...;" etc.,.
3. Be responsive to users who reply, comment or re-post your messages.

Take advantage of the viral qualities of social media- not only within the contest or sweepstakes itself (people inherently tell people about their entries into a contest to try to get more votes!), but also by tapping into the cross-channel reach of all of the social and traditional media strategies outlined above.