The OpenWater Blog

1 Simple Trick to Make Your Awards Program Go Viral through Social Media

Photo: Alexandre Normand via Flickr

There are lots of ways you can market your awards program through social media: changing up your profile images, coming up with a great content calendar for twitter, and so much more! These are all great ideas that you should definitely be using, but there’s another one I’ve got in mind. And the best part about it?: it takes almost no time at all to do!

I’m talking about suggested social sharing. You know, the little window that pops up when you fill out a form or download something that suggests you share what you just did on the social platform of your choice. This is such a cool tool because it allows the person who filled the form out to announce what they’ve just accomplished, while simultaneously spreading the news about the event.

Why is this so great for your awards program? Most people your organization wants to reach are active on social media. So wherever your target audience is spending most of their time, you want to spend time there too in order to connect with them.

On top of creating content for these platforms, social sharing is a great marketing tactic because it provides free advertising for you and no work for the applicant beyond pushing a button! It shows that people are engaging with your program and are excited and passionate enough about the awards to want others to know about it.

So when someone applies to your program, give them the opportunity at the end of the submission form to share that they submitted on a social media site. Provide a pre-written message like “I just submitted my application to the OpenWater Awards!” (Don’t forget to include an image or graphic to go with the text to catch more viewers’ eyes. I suggest using your awards program’s graphic.)

And that’s it! One little set-up and you’re allowing applicants to get excited, while also being evangelists for your program and creating buzz that can help your program go viral!

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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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