The OpenWater Blog

Putting Social Media Ads to Work for Your Awards Program

With 86% of marketers viewing social media as an important aspect of their business, chances are that you feel the same way, particularly when it comes to your awards marketing. In fact, leveraging your already-existent social media accounts for advertising is one of the best choices you can make, especially when you want to keep your program top of mind for all potential entrants.

But how do social media ads work? All of them seem so different. Well, don’t worry, in this post we’re going to cover the basics for some common social platforms.

Making Advertising Work on Facebook

Awards programs can always use a boost, and their social media advertising efforts are no different. That’s why when it comes to Facebook, using the Boost feature is something that you shouldn’t overlook.

Now you’re probably wondering, “how does a boost work?” And, if you are, you aren’t alone. Boosts can be used to promote any post shared from your News Feed, Timeline, or anywhere else on your page. When you do so, your post will appear higher in the News Feed to get more eyes on your post, on your page, and on your awards program.

The benefit? You can choose a maximum budget to control the cost of promoting a certain post. As you already know, controlling your overall budget is essential to your program’s success, so this tool is definitely worth noting. Of course, you can also promote special posts to your audience, and fast! This gets the word out about your call for entry or other essential aspects of your program, giving your awards advertising a boost.

Getting on Board With Promoted Tweets

Another way to get your program in front of the highest amount of potential entrants is to use promoted tweets. Equipped with analytics, you can be sure that you can see what works and what doesn’t. And, through targeting, you can get in front of specific audience members when appropriate. This means that you can get your ad in front of people based on their:

• Interests
• Specific Keywords
• Usernames, especially if you are a small program familiar with those you want to target or have new interested entrants that you want to target with certain Tweets
• Geography, particularly if your program or its awards gala will take place in a specific city
• Gender

Promoting Professionalism on LinkedIn

You already know that LinkedIn is the perfect professional networking tool, but did you know that its also an invaluable social media platform for your awards advertising? Chances are that your business is hooked up to some of your program’s key players on LinkedIn. And with 310 million worldwide members on the platform itself, finding new potential entrants is always a possibility.

On LinkedIn, you can choose to target your ads, or “sponsored updates,” to specific entrants while also controlling how much you spend. You can also control even more specific criteria on LinkedIn than you can on other networks, meaning that you can choose to tailor your targeting efforts according to:

• Job titles or functions
• Industry or company size
• Seniority in a company or age
• LinkedIn Groups

Advertising today means breaking beyond traditional methods of press releases and newsletters and extending your efforts into social media too. By putting your accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to good use, you can rest assured that your budget and your advertising efforts are always under control.

So, how does your company take advantage of awards advertising on social media? Share some of your successful tactics in the comments below!

If you want more information about how to take your efforts even further, you can download our guide to reveal “7 Ways to Market Your Awards Program Using Social Media.”

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Miriam Hancock

Miriam Hancock
Miriam is the Marketing Coordinator for OpenWater. When she isn't writing and designing content she paints and cooks for her own personal blog.

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