I realized today that in yesterday’s post on social media marketing, I left out one very important step in the evolution of digital contests between online entry forms and Facebook; blogs. Oops!
Blogs began as online journals called weblogs. People would blog about their lives in general or on specific topics. Julie Powell is one of the more famous bloggers as her blog on cooking called The Julie/Julia Project (now defunct) turned into a book deal followed by a movie staring Meryl Streep as Julia Childs and Amy Adams playing Julie.
There were also “mommy bloggers”. These were SAHM (stay-at-home-moms) who had enough spare time to write a few quick words. (Blog posts don’t have to be long. Read 10 Misconceptions about Mommy Bloggers to gain more perspective on this segment of the blogosphere.) As their popularity grew companies began to realize the untapped potential of such an influential segment of the market. Mommy bloggers began to add product reviews and giveaways to their blogs. Here a few good examples:
Frugal Family Fun (@FrugalFamilyFun)
One Bored Mommy (@OneBoredMommy)
Since not every product or service fits into the mom, baby, child, or family demographic, sites catering to giveaways began to appear. Sweeps 4 Bloggers (@valerie2350) is an example of a blog that specialises in contests and sweepstakes. The site owner Valerie doesn’t blog in the traditional sense. She only posts product reviews and giveaways. To gain entries in a blog contest you need to take various viral marketing and social media actions such as: following the giveaway sponsor on Facebook and/or Twitter or signing up for their newsletter and/or blog feed. You leave a separate comment on the blog post for each action taken. Each comment counts as one entry. You can garner 5–10 entries on average per blog contests. Blog contests are great to enter, although they take a bit more time than a traditional digital entry form, but the odds of winning are much higher as fewer people are entering.
Then there are sites like Lenzr (@lenzr) They have combine blogging, interactive contests and social media marketing. Currently, they are running four photo contests. Each one has a different theme, prize and sponsor.
Win an Apple iPad! This one is sponsored by EcoDeckBuilder (@ecodeckbuilder). The object of the contest is to submit a photo of people participating in construction projects such as: building a deck, balancing playing cards into a house or digging a moat around a sand castle.
Win an Apple iPad! This one is sponsored by Solarline Power. The object of the contest is to submit a photo of morning sunshine. Are you lucky enough to wake-up to the sun rising up over the water at your cottage? Through the trees over your camp site? Or the one you took last winter as it glistened off fresh snow?
Win an Apple iPad! This one is sponsored by All Weather Roofing. The object of the contest is to submit a photo from a roof top. Well, don’t hurt yourself. From a very high window is OK too.
Just to mix it up… Win a Blackberry Bold 9700! This one is sponsored by SMOjoe (@SMOjoe). The object of this contest is to submit a photo of conflict. Do you have any old family photos of you and your brother wrestling you could scan? What about your family pets scrapping it over a favourite pillow?
(NOTE: Each contest is open to all of Canada, excluding QC.)
You can also visit a site like Prizey (@prizey) on a daily basis. They are a hub for blog contests and have listings for every type of prize imaginable. Remember to check out my blogroll (to the right) for more blogs that post giveaways.
Your posts are so informative! From reading this one I went to Prizey, where I’d never been before, and really liked it! Thank you!