46 Social Promotion Ideas - Contests and Giveaways to Help You Profitably Engage During Every Season

Social Promotions have been a big part of driving revenue and engagement for local media companies and publishers for the last decade and they're a fun part of our $40k plan.

Not only do giveaways and contests drive revenue but they grow traffic and email subscribers while also repositioning legacy publishers in the minds of their readers and advertisers.

To support ongoing engagement activities, we've been working on our Engagement Module which makes running sponsored giveaways, contests, polls, and even Reader's Choice Awards/ Best-Of's easier-than-ever by incorporating it directory into our local media CMS - Community Content Engine.

Looking for inspiration?

Look no further... here are 46 Social Promotion ideas that you can run with local sponsors

Holiday Themed

• Christmas Tree
• Santa Pictures / Scared of Santa
• Ugly Sweater
• Holiday Photos - father’s day, mother’s (Mommy & Me), valentine, easter, prom, 4th of July, graduation, Holiday Lights, Halloween etc

Personal / Lifestyle

• Biggest Loser / Weightloss
• Most needed makeover
• Cutest Kid
• Cutest Dog
• Best local craft
• Photo Contest - seasonally themed
• Parent/ Kid look-alike
• Recipe w photo - seasonal
• Poetry or Essay contests - themed
• Share your love story / cutest couple
• Wedding Photos / why you should win…
• 80’s photo contest / bad high school picture
• Drawing/art
• Mancave Makeover / kitchen cabinet/ need a roof / grimey grill / bathroom
• Best un-named themed outfit
• Ugliest Car
• Best Staycation Ideas
• Best Local Daytrip
• Best Rainy Day Afternoon Idea
• Best thing to do when you need to get out of the house with your kids

Seasonal

• Holidays & Summer vacations - local prize or win a vacation
• Disneyland memories or other local destinations
• Beat the heat
• Staying warm
• Best Snowman / Sandcastle
• Hunting/fishing contests
• Garden Contest / Best Blooms
• Action Sports Photo / Ski
• Upcoming concert theme / biggest fan

Student, School or Community

• Drawing/art
• Do-Good contest (picking up trash, building houses, tutoring) - beneficiaries are the causes
  
• Teacher of the month
• Local athlete of the week/month or Year write-ins
• Calendar Contest - then print & distribute said calendar
• “Local” Favorites or How-You-Support-Local
• Biggest Local High School, College, Pro fan - Fan Frenzy
• Weekly Football Score/Over-under or other big game-related predictions
• Why do you love ____________
• Cover girl / family - for magazine or advertiser
• Blogger Contest