After reading this week’s blog posts, you will have a better idea on what to do when planning a viral competition however planning a competition on social media platforms is different When planning a competition on social platforms it is very important to first decide what the demographic will be for the competition. This will make it much easier to choose which social platform will work best for your competition. If you want to run your competition on Facebook you need to keep in mind that 61% of Facebook users are aged 35 or older and 64% of Twitter’s users are 35 or older.

I’m going to do a case study on Facebook where a company is running a competition and are giving away a 32 GB iPAD with WI-FI + 3G every week. The homepage of their website contains information about the competition that is running on Facebook. Users can enter the competition from the homepage which links directly to their facebook fan page. If you entered the competition you can share it with friends. (This is the viral infection which Chris mentioned in his blog). This company chose the right social platform for their competition because the highest percentage of users who are interested in iPad’s are also aged 35. If the social platform and the demographic of your viral competition are chosen correctly, you will see how your fans increase in just a few hours. This company is constantly interacting with their Facebook fans and updating information about the competition. On the fan page where companies generally display information about their company, they instead posted all the winners names and also created a photo album to contain photos of the winners. After a month of running this competition where they giving away the iPad’s they are starting a new competition where they give one of their own products away. This is a brilliant way to get fans and build your brand.

Okay, now you know that a viral competition will be successful on social media platforms, but I know most of you are wondering how to start a competition on these platforms. It’s important to have a strategy which you follow consistently throughout the competition.

The first thing you need to do is to set your goals for the competition. Ask yourself the following question: “what would I like to achieve with this competition?” After setting your goals you need to decide on your target market and if the winning prize is suitable for your target market. As in the case study, if your target market is not interested in the prize you are going to waste time and money. After defining your target market, decide on which social media platform you would like to use. Make sure you know exactly how to manage the social platform. Decide on a dedicated team who are experts on the specific social platform and interact with the fans or the people who entered the competition.

WOW, that was a mouthful of information. I’m hoping that you will keep this information in mind when you decide to start a competition of your own. In a nutshell, plan your viral competition in advance, set your goals and stick to the strategy that you have devised for your competition!