I recently wrote an article about Twitter contests at live events where I equated an iPad giveaway to having an Elvis impersonator at your booth.  I’ll leave it to you to figure out why having The King at your conference booth might not be a wise investment. But let me delve more into the reasons why giving away an iPad will most likely detract your business from reaching its social marketing goals.

It Invites The Wrong Crowd 

Did you know that there is noteworthy community of people who enter sweepstakes as a full-time hobby? These prize-winning fiends are called “sweepers” and are way serious. They even have email accounts set up for the sole purpose of entering contests. iPads are a MAJOR score for sweepers — so if you’re doing a good job promoting your contest, they’ll find you, fill out your entry forms, and heavily skew the target market you hoped to attract.

Think about the goal of your contest for a second. Then check out this episode of “Wife Swap” that features a sweeping family. Do you want your iPad to go to them?

It Kills Word Of Mouth About Your Brand

While an iPad contest can certainly provide you with tons of new Facebook fans, these new fans might very well be sweepers or other people simply looking for a nice gift or back-to-school tablet. If they don’t have an interest in your brand, they most likely will “unlike” your page shortly after entering the contest. Worse, they’ll stay on as fans but will hide your status updates from their news feed. At a minimum, these will not be the folks you’d hope would join your Facebook community, regularly “like” your updates, and tell their friends about your page or products.

It Is Expensive

Contests should not be a loss leader for you. They should be geared to either drive sales or provide the potential of future sales. An iPad 2 currently runs for about $400. If you don’t think you can drive more than $400 of business as a result of your contest, think of a more affordable prize.

It Is Illegal

You wouldn’t think this is the case from the plethora of iPad contests around — but it’s true. According to counsel I have spoken with, in addition to the news announced in early 2011, iPads may not be used in third-party promotions. (Note: If anyone knows of a reversal of this rule, please let me know!)

So while an iPad might be an easy and coveted prize, it should take a back seat to a prize that speaks tons about your company and what you offer.  That’s the juicy stuff I like to brainstorm about with my clients. As a marketer, I want my clients and their randomly selected entrants to all come out winning from a sweepstakes.

If you found this post on social media contests helpful, please “Like” it on Facebook or share it with your followers on Twitter!

Photo: iStockphoto

If your business is already active on Twitter, consider using this platform to bring more qualified visitors to your booth. It’s certainly a more cost-effective way to drive traffic. And with strategic planning beforehand (along with the help from the five tips below), you can use your 140 characters to maximize the number of signups, leads, and potential brand evangelists at your event.

1. Find Out If Attendees Are Active On Twitter

A key way to determine the “socialability” of the conference is to hunt down a conference hashtag. Why is this important? Because if you add the hashtag to your tweets, it will be seen your followers in addition to conference goers who are following this hashtag. Without this hashtag, you’ll just be tweeting to your followers — many of whom will be hundreds of miles away from the exhibit hall.

Your conference host should have a good sense of the Twitter usage of its market. Two weeks before your conference, check the conference Website or Twitter account. Has an official hashtag been set up yet? If not, search Twitter or Google by using the name of the conference in quotes, the year, and the word hashtag. Here’s a search I did for a BlogWorld, a conference I will attend in June.

Using Google to find a conference or event hashtag

Once you get the hashtag, type it in Twitter or your favorite Twitter app to see if potential customers are already tweeting with the tag.

Be sure to also keep an extra eye on your competitors’ tweets during this time. Are they talking about the conference? If so, are those tweets getting many retweets or replies? What are those responses saying?

If not much activity is sparked prior to the conference, you may wish to save your contest for a more active event. If there is indeed buzz, than carry on with at least the next step.

2. Determine If Your Tweeps Are Mobile

Tweets from International Reading Association 2012 Conference (#IRA2012)

About half of all Twitter users use a mobile application to tweet. For a booth marketer, that means potentially one in every two tweeps may not have a handy way to show you a contest tweet, take and upload a photo to win a prize, or use a hashtag from the conference floor. If hashtag activity has begun for your conference, see from what devices people are tweeting. If you find folks are tweeting primarily from iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, or Android applications, you’re in luck. If the majority of tweets hail from the Web, a Twitter contest might not bear fruit for this conference … but keep it in your toolkit for an upcoming event.

3. Hook The Prize Back To Your Business

iTunes, iPads, and Starbucks gift cards are often popular prize giveaways at conferences. But they’re really the equivalent of that popcorn and Elvis impersonator I talked about earlier on. When your winner is  jamming to her newly purchased Jack White album or is nursing that tall soy chai, do you think is she going to be thinking about you and the products or services you represent?

Think about a prize that a winner will value,  remember you by, and perhaps purchase for or recommend to a friend.

4. Make The Contest Simple

Conferences are a busy time for both attendees and exhibitors. If the contest takes you more than 140 characters to explain, it’s too complicated for your information-overloaded attendees. An easy-to-enter contest also makes it easier for you to administer and choose a winner.

5. Offer a Wrap Up

Be sure to follow up your contest by announcing the winner. A happy winner could very well retweet your message to share her glee (and your username) with her followers. And thank all those who entered and who chatted with you about the contest.  A goodwill gesture like that might just overcome a tweep’s disappointment of not winning a prize!

What Twitter contests or promotions have you used at events? Which ones were successful? Which ones failed to reach its desired goal?

Photo credit: iStockphoto

If you think about the two hottest questions right now in the social media universe:

• How did Pinterest become the world’s third largest social network?

and

• Why did Facebook purchase mobile photo app Instagram for one billion dollars?

They both point to the same conclusion: people love to share and connect with others through images. Do you know how your Facebook fans react to photos? Here are some proven ways to tap into current social trends, engage your fans, and get a few perks along the way.

Pets and Kids

Actors might not like working with pets and children, but phooey — they don’t work on Facebook.  Those who spend leisure time on social media platforms can’t get enough of the universal innocence of adorable kids and animals.

Algonquin Books posted this photo of a bichon frise and cupcakes of his likeness. I have yet to draw the connection between the image and the book company, but fans could have cared less about that detail. The combination of sweets and a cute canine resulted in an astounding 188 likes and 107 shares.

(And do you remember the headline photo for this blog post? Why do you think I choose that one from all the other choices on iStockphoto?)

Celebration of Lifestyle

If you have seen me give a live presentation on Pinterest, you know that I constantly hold up a sign that says “LIFESTYLE.”  It’s a reminder that businesses that currently excel on Pinterest are either notable “lifestyle” brands (think Real Simple or Martha Stewart) or are brands that place proper emphasis on their fans’ particular lifestyle (like CNET does).

If you’re still skeptical of Pinterest or do not have the resources to both post and pin, then try to bring that Pinterest “lifestyle” vibe to your Facebook page.  Mark Zuckerberg and his crew won’t mind — why do you think they’ve recently increased the photo sizes on Fan Pages and now allow for “pinned posts”?

Consider what Elsevier Chemistry (client) did in sharing the passion that fuels their fans’ work and research. They combined an inspirational quote and an uplifting, instantly recognizable image of a chemist with a related article about chemical sensors. This cheer motivated 77 fans to like the post and 4 to share it with their Facebook friends.

The extra clicks you take to find (or snap) and post a photo — in addition to the happy responses you’ll get from fans — will help you with your EdgeRank algorithm. For those who don’t know EdgeRank, it is the manner through which Facebook rewards certain types of posts by having them appear more often in fans’ news feeds. So while these photos are certainly crowd-pleasures, they also make social media analysts and page admins squeal with delight!

Words of Assurance

Don’t stress about being an Ansel Adams or Cindy Sherman to visually resonate with your Facebook fans. Fans will appreciate that you’ve taken the time to show them your world — even if your best camera is attached to your iPhone.

These tips are not to say that all your messaging on Facebook has to be about smiles and sugar. But you should remember that having fun and tapping into what your fans like is an essential part of being “social” in your social media marketing endeavors.

Photo credit: iStockphoto

Earlier this month, I gave two seminars on “How Pinterest Can Be Your Business’ Secret Social Media Weapon.” During my talks, I offered marketers and business owners a variety of Pinterest how-tos and marketing tips.

As I mentioned to the seminar attendees, making a success of Pinterest is more than figuring out how to masterfully repin and create boards. It’s about getting the vibe of Pinterest — which, as it stands, is about learning, interacting, monitoring trends, getting feedback, and focusing more on your followers’ lifestyle and less about your product.

Do you think you’re ready to use Pinterest for your business? The first step to determine this is to make an honest assessment of what you’re already doing on your existing social media plaforms.

If you

• view Facebook primarily as a means to “push information” or “spread the word” about your business
• send the same messages simultaneously to Facebook and Twitter
• rarely reply to messages or replies to your posts

and you don’t

• ask your fans and followers for feedback
• know what your fans do for fun
• give followers any sense of what YOU do for fun
• monitor and analyze trends in your Twitter stream

… then don’t bother with Pinterest. The pinning community is decidedly anti-”pushing messages” and against overt promotions. Heck, even Pinterest on its Pinning 101 page says that at present, “making money isn’t our top priority right now.” So if they’re hesitant to sell, sell, sell, you should be too.

With this in mind, take the next few months to work on these essential social skills on Facebook and Twitter. Get it to a point where you see increased interaction with your fans and followers.

During this time, you can set up an account on Pinterest to lock in your username. Use the “Popular” tab on top to see what images resonate most with fans. Get RSS feeds of your pinning competitors to see what they’re doing to tap into their followers’ lifestyle.

And learn what brands outside your market are doing well on Pinterest. My article on how select book publishers on Pinterest have tapped into the social nature of this platform should give you some preliminary ideas.

You probably don’t want to just “do Pinterest.” In all probability, you want to do it right. So take your time, get comfortable with the “social” of social media and use it to your advantage once you decide to have your business start pinning.

Below are the slides to the “Secret Weapon”  presentation I gave at Workbar Boston. Read on and keep those questions coming!

Photo credit: Flickr/scottiet812

Over the past two weeks, I’ve massaged a bunch of Facebook fan pages in preparation for The Big Change on March 30, 2012 — the date when Facebook will wave a magic wand and turn business pages into timelines.

Here’s what this experience has taught me:  begin with the cover photo. And once you have a photo idea, get ready to resize, revise, and rethink it.

Through trial and error, I learned that a great timeline photo is not just a matter of following the Facebook guidelines and specifications of what you can and cannot do. There are also certain restrictions that no one is talking about that are REALLY important to know prior to picking the perfect timeline photo.

1. Keep The Good Stuff Away From The Edges Of The Photo

851 pixels wide seems like a ton of real estate to showcase the people, products, or services associated with your business — but the 315 pixels you have for height is downright puny. So get a photo that is short and wide — like a smile you’ll get upon posting the perfect fitting photo on your new timeline.

Since the image is short, resist the urge to put important images or branding near the top or bottom of your new photo. These borders have had a tendency to get unintentionally cropped upon uploading.

And it’s best not to put important material on the leftmost and rightmost edges of your image, either. Why you ask? Because when you upload your new cover photo to Facebook, you have the opportunity to reposition the image up and down — but not side to side.  (This shortcoming clearly goes in the “What in the What?” category.)

2. Embrace the Profile Picture

The timeline profile picture functions similarly to your old Facebook page. This logo-y looking square will continue to accompany your posts in your fans’ news feeds. In the timeline, this image will also appear on top of the lower left hand side of your cover photo.

So keep that profile picture space in mind when choosing a cover photo. Or better yet, figure out how to incorporate the picture in your cover photo. See how the Sweetgreen timeline (above) integrates its the profile picture with its cover photo to say that that the company has been around for 5 years.*

The all-female reggae band Universal Speakers used a free template from HyperArts to have its profile picture lay transparent on its cover photo. (Larger companies like Ford Motor Company have also taken the transparent profile picture approach.)

3. Bigger Is Better

Through a few misfired uploads, I’ll can tell you how small you can go with your cover photo:  Facebook does not allow an image smaller than 399 pixels wide. To maximize the clarity and branding “pop” of your image, go long. Get the image as close as possible to the allowed 851 pixels.

Does this information get you closer to designing a killer timeline cover photo? What other insight or specifications do you still need?

*Vegan disclaimer: I do not eat some of the food shown in this photo. I’d love to learn of vegan businesses rocking the new Facebook timeline cover photo — feel free to share examples.

Headline photo credit: iStockphoto