If you’re wondering where I got my enthusiasm for hosting contests and giveaway here’s a little background. I began my career working in radio promotions. You will hear me say this over and over again but I’m so grateful I had an opportunity to work in the Radio industry. Successful contesting is one of the things I learned in Radio which is an industry known for hosting contests that receive the most hype and having the hottest giveaways in town! Working in radio gives you the keys to the city and access to all major events, concerts and funky swag meaning there’s a lot of fun stuff to give away!

I always enjoy seeing people  happy because they received free tickets to our next event, an awesome prize pack for summer, music to their ears concert tickets, etc. Giving people what they want makes you a valuable resource and sought after commodity. When I entered into the professional online industry I decided to take contesting to the next level and incorporate elements of social media. Here are six great things to keep in mind to host a successful contest.

1.  Supply a Demand- Give something away that’s not easily accessible by everyone. If you give something away people can’t get anywhere, your giveaway is more likely to be highly perceived as a valuable promotion. When deciding what to give away do some research, which in this day and age means listen to the Social Media space to see if there is a high demand for something you plan to give away.

2. Increase the Value of Your Business - It’s important not to confuse giveaways and contests with giving away your product  for free. Giving away your product for free may devalue it into the eyes of your consumers.   Why would I want to pay for something that I once was able to get for free? My friend Chris Brogan shares great insight on the Audacity of FREE. With contesting you aren’t giving away your product for free. You’re creating a promotion that provides value, showcases all the benefits and perks of your product and giving one lucky person a chance to win. Make sure to highlight important features in your giveaway. If giving away tickets to an event emphasize the benefits of winning the tickets. Perhaps you’re giving away VIP access or the chance to meet and greet a celebrity. What are you providing that’s not readily available?

3. Make it Viral- Utilize social media to incorporate viral elements into entering your contests. This increases the awareness and reach of your promotion. There are several ways I generally allow people to enter my contests. They include retweeting my contest on Twitter. This promotes my contests to networks far beyond my own. Joining my Facebook page which grows my fan base so more people receive the content I put out and subscribing to my YouTube channel so my videos are viewed by influencers in my industry and so on. Take this even a step further by encouraging contestants to enter by submitting user generated content. Ask people to create blog and vlog entries. Social media is a powerful tool in contesting and can create a lot of buzz in a short period of time. Take advantage of it’s power.

4. Keep it Simple- While it’s fine to have multiple ways to enter your contest make sure the rules and conditions of your contest are very easy and clear. Having too many restrictions may cause confusion with people who don’t read your rules carefully because it’s too long. In our fast paced society almost everyone, myself included skims long instructions. Be succinct when you define the rules and what the winner receives so there’s no confusion.

5. Collect Information- Make sure you have a way to collect contact information so you can reach out to contestants in the future and contact the winner. I do recommend you make it mandatory to enter contact information but please disclose to the contestants if they will be entered into an email list or receive future information for entering your contest. Respect privacy for any contact information given. You want everyone to feel safe when entering your contests.

6.  Have Fun!- Get creative and add fun elements to your contest! This increases the chances hype you’ll receive. The best way to do this is to ask contestants to create user generated content as mentioned above. This really engages your audience and gives them an active way to participate in your community.

Check out successful contests I’ve hosted in the past. I’m a marketing professional and educator so you will notice I give away prizes that relate to marketing education and tie in marketing insight to all of my contests. I have yet to participate in a Blog Carnival which I’ve heard is another great promotion. Please leave your comments about contests you’ve won, cool contests that are currently happening, information about blog carnivals, ideas for future contests and anything else you’d like to share.

If you’re a business that would like to provide a prize for me to give away, please contact me and if you’re a fit lets discuss ways to create a mutually beneficial contest.

Melodie on the Radio: 1st segment
Melodie on the Radio 2nd segment

Thank you to everyone for your positive feedback! I sincerely appreciate it and am am grateful for those who have reached out to me for advice, partnerships and hiring me for Social Media strategy. Please don’t hesistate to comment on my blog or reach out to me in any of my other social networks at any time! Always happy to help!

San Diego’s Top 40 radio station, Channel 933 does a great job at having their on air personalities update and interact with listeners through Twitter. They realize as a radio station that represents pop culture they need to be at the forefront of what’s happening. As more people sign up for Twitter, more confusion is caused and it becomes difficult to understand what Twitter really is and how to benefit from it. I was invited by my friends on Channel 933′s morning show, AJ’s Playhouse to educate listeners on Twitter. If you’re finding my blog from the segment on April 14th then welcome! The invitation to the show inspired me to compile some Twitter tips for beginners.

Before I go into specific tips, lets get this main question out of the way: WHAT THE HECK IS TWITTER?! Twitter is a micro blog that allows users to communicate by providing real time information quickly and efficiently. The 140 character limit allows people to cut to the chase in their tweets. The following tips will define my answer.

1. Establish why you’re on Twitter: Twitter is an incredibly powerful viral marketing tool. If you identify in the beginning what you’d like to accomplish through Twitter you can create a strategy aligned with your goals. For example some people use Twitter to promote an event, brand a business or establish themselves as an authority in a certain industry.

2. Choose a Screen Name: Your Screen name, aka Twitter handle is extremely important in branding your online persona. Choose a screen name that identifies you. Keep it simple, your screen name should be easy to remember. The longer and more complicated your name is the harder it is for people to recall it.

3. Fill out your Bio: It is important to completely fill out your bio. Be concise and let people know the value they’ll get from following you. It’s  important to have your website link,  link your blog, LinkedIn, etc. This gives people another way to connect with you. This is especially important if you’re brand new and people don’t have much criteria to go off of in deciding whether or not to follow you.

4. Choose your avatar: Your Twitter Avatar is your face in cyberspace. It’s a unique reflection of your online persona and a way to brand yourself  visually. I’ve blogged about some tips and tricks you can use to maximize the power of your avatar.

5. Follow your friends: The best way to start connecting on Twitter is to follow your friends who are already active. Listen to what they’re saying and start interacting with them. This will warm you for interacting with the larger Twitter community.

6. Follow people with similar interests: Once you get the hang of interacting with your friends start following people in your industry or those who share similar interests. This allows you to learn new things and converse with others about topics you’re familiar with.You can find people through the Twitter “Search” function or Twitter directories such as Twello and WeFollow. You can build a community around people who share your passions.

7. Interact: Now that you’re following friends and people with similar interests you’ll have an opportunity to reply to things that interest you with ideas and insight and ask questions about things you’d like to learn. When you’re replying to someone use the “@” symbol next to their screen name. This automatically hyperlinks the other person’s twitter account ie: @MyMelodie

8. Retweet: Retweeting is a great way to accelerate the viral power of Twitter. When you Retweet something you’re reposting a tweet from someone else and sharing it with your entire network.  Place “RT” and the @name before the Tweet so you’re giving credit to the person who originally posted the Tweet. Posts get Retweeted if they’re interesting, informative, original etc. It’s a great compliment to the person who posted the original tweet and it shows that you’re actively participating in your community. Please view the image of some Retweets I received about being on AJ’s Playhouse.

9. Contribute: Twitter is all about building a community so make sure you’re actively engaging your followers by seeking and posting interesting content. Others will begin to trust you as a resource and authority in your particular niche. This is the next step to establishing a stronger relationship with your network.

Congratulations you’re now part of the Twitterazi !

I also want to address 2 questions I always get asked by newbies. The answers will give you more insight on how to use Twitter.

Why would anyone care that I’m eating a sandwich or drinking coffee? No one cares, but they do care if you’re eating a sandwich from a restaurant you highly recommend and they do care if you received poor service from the coffee shop you’re at. Add value to your tweets to provide others with insight. For example instead of Tweeting “I’m eating a sandwich”  say “I’m eating a sandwich at Subway they’re having their $5 foot long special today don’t forget to take advantage of the delicious deal”

Isn’t Twitter just like updating my Facebook status? NO. While you can integrate the two, they serve different purposes. Twitter is a real time tool that provides instantaneous information on what’s happening now. Facebook has a similar feed but the overall viral power for spreading information is not as efficient as Twitter.

Before I sign off this blog post, of course I must promote myself. Follow me on Twitter @MyMelodie and feel free to Retweet this post directing from the “Tweet This” button on my blog. If you have any other questions about Twitter or Social media in general, please feel free to leave a comment. I will be glad to respond.  Happy Twittering!

In many cases, there is little or no attempt from traditional media to engage their audience through social media. Setting up a Twitter account for your radio station and having it sit there doesn’t count. Creating a Facebook group for your TV station and never updating doesn’t count. Attempting to put your newspaper online word for word without a Social Media Optimization campaign, also results in FAIL (aka: the famous internet term for something gone wrong!).

For as long as we remember people relied on Traditional Media as their main source for news and entertainment. That is until recently. In the last year, Social Media has trumped traditional media in usage. People spend more time on Social Media than they do reading the newspaper, watching TV or listening to the radio combined. This not the end for traditional media. This the beginning of a new opportunity to engage, interact and compel your audience to continue viewing your media as a credible resource!

Radio on-air personality excited to announce their new Social Media Networks.

Traditional Media companies pride themselves in being at the forefront of what’s current so if you don’t have an effective Social Media campaign you’re contradicting yourself. Need some ideas?

Radio: On-air personalities should create a Twitter account to connect with listeners through microblogging. Promote your on-air contests, on-site events and online photos and videos in real time to keep your listeners engaged even when they aren’t tuned in.

Newspaper: Most newspapers have digitized their articles. But few have worked on community building. Allow forums so readers feel connected as they post on different news stories. Allow readers to easily share articles through social bookmarking.

TV: Have your personalities blog about their broadcasts to create a more authentic voice than reading off a teleprompter! Blog about the TV shows on your station to boost your traffic from an entertainment standpoint.

You know what they say, “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!” What does this mean? Don’t get stigmatized as an old-school dying industry.TV stations, Newspapers, Radio Stations, Magazines, it’s time to hire an Online Marketing company to help you with an overall Social Media strategy that really shows your audience you get it!

The main question I get is “Why did you leave?” First I’d like to say that I absolutely loved working at Clear Channel. For almost 2 and 1/2 years I have felt nothing less than proud to represent the company. It was a difficult journey and succeeding there is by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Long nights, stressful days, driving all over town, cancellations, internal battles etc, but my hard work at Clear Channel was well worth it! The things I learned about building client relationships, developing targeted campaigns, interpersonal relationships, having a strong work ethic and marketing in general are priceless! The perks of working in radio aren’t bad either!

After working there I am confident that I can take on any challenge and succeed. It was a stepping stone that opened up so many doors. I didn’t leave because I wasn’t doing well or I didn’t like the company. The more I grew in my position there, the more I wanted to offer more to my clients. By creating campaigns for people only within Clear Channel Properties I became extremely limited. I wasn’t creating targeted campaigns. I was reaching out to thousands of people with a commercial that probably only 1% of listeners actually cared about. Out of those 1% only another 1% actually remember to go home and look up info about the ad. Radio is the largest form of word of mouth and works great if you’re a huge corporation with a large marketing budget but for companies who can’t afford to spend as much as Coke or McDonalds the online presence is essential before considering any other medias. Thus my transition to online marketing.

I’m an Entrepreneur at heart. I’m always formulating new ventures, business ideas and plans to grow my career so the transition to online marketing is perfect because . I never sold a campaign that I didn’t believe would work but the more I learned about marketing, I realized that there is more that I can do to help businesses grow. I will now create campaigns where my clients will be found by consumers specifically searching for their product/service instead of trying to find consumers who probably don’t care. My campaigns will be permissive and the advertising will be sought after rather than interruptive like most TV and Radio Ads. I will help my clients build a community to really engage their customers. I will optimize websites to increase conversion rates and I’ll be able to track everything which will allow me to fine tune and customize the campaign as it progresses. I could go on and on about what I’m now able to offer with the online world! If you’d like to learn more about my new marketing resources please don’t hesitate to reach out to me!

So there you have it! The real story about my transition and new business venture!