On the hunt for ways to increase your Tik Tok profile engagement or raise your follower count? There’s nothing like a little friendly competition to get that engagement rate rising.

That’s why this week we’re teaching you how to create a Tik Tok contest in eight easy steps – keep reading! 

Set a goal

The first step in creating a TikTok contest is to set an achievable goal, so before you begin, ask yourself: what is it that I want at the end of this promotional campaign? For more details on TikTok advertising, check out our guide.

Remember that Tik Tok doesn’t allow users to add website links in TikTok posts, so focus your goal around profile engagement, likes and followers rather than traffic to your site. Additionally, when solidifying your strategy, look at what’s trending on the app and try to incorporate popular themes into your content.

Choose the prize

There’s nothing like a great prize to lure in potential followers and customers, so make sure that what’s waiting at the end for the winner is worthwhile! 

Here are some examples of enticing prizes that we’ve seen used by other Tik Tok businesses: 

• Tickets to events
• Paid vacations
• Large cash prizes
• Jewelry

If these big ticket items are outside of your capabilities as a smaller business, have no fear! You can still attract some great attention with more humble prizes like: 

• Gift cards
• Electronics 
• Toys 
• Music gear
• Beauty & cosmetics

Lastly, don’t forget that a gift or experience that’s unique to your business is worth its weight in gold! 

Set the rules

It’s super important to have your rules and regulations clear and ready to share before launching your contest to the public.

Try to think ahead and cover any user questions or issues that may arise from the start, (age limits, how many times each person can play, eligibility for players, etc.) and make sure that the rules and regulations are accessible to everyone participating so that you’ve set up a fair and even playing field. 

Define how users interact with the contest.

There are lots of way to participate in contests on social media, but here are some of our favorite ways for viewers to play along that can lead to a big boost in overall engagement: 

• Visit a profile
• Follow your profile
• Watch a video
• Like a video
• Comment on a video
• Share a video using your branded hashtags

Launch your contest

Now that you’ve set a goal, chosen a theme, clarified the rules and regulations, and defined how to participate, it’s time to release your contest to the world! Create an announcement video sharing all of the above information, and be sure to note the start and end date.

Don’t be afraid to play around with text overlay, etc. in order to share as much information as possible and make your video eye-catching and aesthetically pleasing. 

Promote it

Keeping your contest to yourself doesn’t help anybody – so don’t be afraid to share it wherever possible! Here are some of our favorite ways to cross-share across multiple platforms: 

1. Post about it on your other social media platforms and encourage participants to do the same. 
2. Share contest info with your email listserv.
3. Publish about it on your website. 
4. Create a contest promo ad and target it first to your relevant audience, then switch to cold audiences.  

Choose the winner

Depending on how you’ve structured your competition, you can either manually select a winner, or randomly select someone. Use the announcement as a way to turn the spotlight on the lucky participant!

Report the results

You can measure the success of your contest by referring to the goals that you set at the beginning and analyzing the contest data available to you. Reading these numbers can help you to find places where you can improve next time, and empower you to create even better proposals for future campaigns!

Conclusion

When it comes to engagement, it’s always useful to shake it up every once in a while. If you’ve never dabbled in contests, consider throwing one out there in the new year – and as always, we’re here to help with all of your digital strategy needs. Contact us today.