Social media campaigns continue to grow in importance and stature as part of a brand’s wider, ongoing marketing endeavours. Promotional gifts can help give your brand an inside lane in the social media battle for more followers, friends and viewers – and subsequently, customers.
Celebrity Endorsements
Social media platforms (in particular Twitter) have been widely embraced by celebrities looking to connect to their fans and reach new audiences. With stars such as Katy Perry and Taylor Swift enjoying more than 50 million Twitter followers apiece, their Tweets and pictures are witnessed by huge audiences.
A celebrity endorsement on social media can have significant benefits for your brand, exposing your products or services to a huge new audience. Sending a promotional gift to a relevant celebrity could result in them publicly enthusing about your brand or uploading a photograph of the gift – earning your brand instant recognition.
It’s important to be aware of the social media regulations for sponsoring celebrity endorsements – your brand could be hit with a fine if found to be paying celebrities for endorsements and retweets without making it obvious in the content.
Retweet Gold
The old adage dictates that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ and this remains true on Twitter and other social media platforms. Posting an image of a new branded or promotional gift is more likely to receive retweets and shares than a message explaining that such new gifts are now in stock without an accompanying image.
Offering visual stimulation to your audience is more likely to provoke positive action, resulting in greater exposure for your brand and products/services. Offering value to your social media followers and friends can also help you retain them in both the short term and long term – even as social media users become more and more protective of their online accounts.
Exponential Sharing
Social media has increased the potential of message sharing around the world – with greater inter-connectivity between brands and different facets of their audience and potential audience. Whilst sharing, retweeting and pinning takes just one click on the social media platforms, the majority of users require a little encouragement to do so. Promotional gifts can simply offer this extra encouragement – helping your current audience share your wares with your potential new audience.
A spokesperson for Leighmans Promotional Business Gifts explains: “We find many brands offer promotional items as an incentive for sharing information and news stories related to their company and products. Even small, simplistic promotional gifts can encourage information sharing.”
Intuitive Competitions
Competitions have been central to marketing since the turn of the 20th century and the birth of marketing as a recognised discipline. From collecting coupons to being the 100th customer of the month, consumers have long been encouraged to offer patronage to brands with the incentive of competition and freebies. Social media has increased the simplicity of professional and branded competition – helping more people become involved.
Without the help social media – entrants would have to physically post an entry or input their information on an online form. With social media, people can enter competitions with one simple click of the button – offering more encouragement for participation. Promotional gifts make simple but effective competition prizes.
Video Content
Web-browsing patterns continue to evolve with more integrated formats on a single platform – allowing viewers to enjoy content in its preferred form. Many viewers will prefer to watch informative videos than read extended bodies of text – making the integration of social media video platforms incredibly important to successful social media campaigns.
Promotional gifts can offer a central focus to a promotional video or can serve as background props offering a professional touch to a corporate or fun video – increasing the value and message of the content.