Running Competitions with Clearview Social

How to keep your users engaged with competitions.

Adrian Dayton avatar
Written by Adrian Dayton
Updated over a week ago

Want to really get your people sharing? Try a competition. The latest research on forming habits by best-selling author and New York Times reporter Charles Duhigg shows that to form a habit three things are required: a cue, a routine, and a reward.

You want your team to start sharing? Using Clearview Social to send frequent sharing emails provides both a the cue and routine. Now your team just needs a reward! A contest is a great way to reward the behavior you most want to encourage. A great contest has three components:

  1. A fixed time frame. (In our experience this needs to be at least 30 days and no longer than 90 days.)

  2. An achievable goal that every participant can reach. The scores can be tracked by the Leaderboard on Clearview Social. This can be accessed by all users.

  3. A real prize (not just bragging rights). Some firms use gift cards, iPads, or even cash. One firm gave a set of steak knives for third prize. Be creative, be fun, make it interesting. 

One of the biggest complaints we get about contests is that after the leaders emerge, everyone stuck in the back of the pack gives up. To prevent this from happening you have a few different options. Here are some of our favorite types of contests that are fun for everyone:

  1. The raffle. Everybody that shares at least twice in the first month is entered to win a $250 gift card. This way everybody can win, and the power users are not at an advantage.

  2. Everybody Gets an A. In this contest, which should more accurately be referred to as an incentive program, everybody that shares a certain number of times (2-5 times in a month) wins a $15 gift card. Not as exciting, but everybody has an incentive to log on and get going.

  3. The Group Bonus. One of our all-time favorites. This incentive was once used to get a team of 35 radiologists to all write on the offices' blog. 100% of them wrote articles because for anybody to get the group bonus, everybody had to participate. We haven't seen other companies try this one yet, but we think it could work.

  4. Office against Office. Put each office in their own Group on Clearview Social and then whichever Group has the highest percentage of professionals participating in sharing wins a fabulous lunch or maybe just a pizza party. This one is fun because it is a prize that everybody in the office can work toward.

  5. Monthly and Annual Bonuses. Another great way to incentivize competitions is to award participants for going above and beyond.  Perhaps if everyone in the office can share 20 articles each, the boss gets dunked in a dunk tank.  You can even award outstanding power users who have been in the top three positions for X months with certificates or plaques.

These are just a few ideas for contests, but it certainly isn't an exhaustive list. You know your people better than anybody. Figure out what motivates them and create the contest that is just right for your team.

Here is an example email you can send out to announce the contest (feel free to copy and paste and change this email to suit your firms needs):

Subject: The Great Social Media Contest of (insert year here.)

Congratulations, you have been selected to join an elite group of social media users at our firm. To ramp up our social media efforts we are launching The Great Social Media Contest of (insert year here.) The contest will start July 1st through the 31st.

What can you do to win? To win you must get the highest score on the Clearview Social Leaderboard. This is done by:

  • Share to as many platforms as possible, Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin

  • Add a comment to each post you share

  • Use at least one #Hashtag in your comment

  • Make sure the "Headline" only has between 40-50 characters

  • User speculative words in your "Headline" (would/could) 

  • Make sure the "Preview Text"  (sometimes referred to as "Description") has between 200-210 characters

  • Share your own content, not just what your Admins send you

First prize will in an iPad, second prize a Kindle Fire, and third prize wins a set of steak knives. 

Good luck sharing, and may the best person win!

Any Further Questions?

If there is anything else we can assist you with, you can contact Clearview Social Support either by emailing support@clearviewsocial.com or through the Intercom chat button in the bottom right of the site.

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