Social Media Tracker: Are social media competitions a useful tool for driving engagement in the igaming industry?

In a world where social media is one of the most useful tools in relation to marketing, many igaming brands are trying out new things to drive their engagement. While there has been a strong focus in the past on video content which was seen as the ‘next big thing’ in social media, some brands are taking a different approach.

Social media competitions and giveaways might seem like a bit of a hassle for operators that isn’t really worth it but is this really the case? Some big brands are using this tool to their advantage and really getting some useful engagement to build their brand online. With 74% of Facebook users visiting the site every day – social media might just be the key to getting to the top.

Find out a bit more about this tool for driving engagement below and what it means for the igaming industry below.

What do social media competitions involve?

Social media competitions are nothing new. Brands from around the world have been using giveaways to encourage engagement and spread the word of their business through their customers with the promise of a reward. Think hair salons giving away a free treatment to a random winner or a restaurant giving away a free meal. While they have changed throughout the years, and social channels like Facebook and Instagram have clamped down on the rules, they are extremely important.

In terms of the igaming industry and casino brands, social media competitions come in many forms. Did you know that the average organic reach is only 6.4% of page likes and this has been dropping over the years? This stat is one of the main reasons why casino brands are jumping on competitions. For this kind of brand, you would expect to see a giveaway that asks customers a question, to tag a friend or share the post. Then, a random winner could win anything from bonus points or a tangible prize. The prize differs from brand to brand, but you’ll find that most are quite similar.

NetBet Casino

One of the brands doing social media competitions best is NetBet Casino which now has a total of 32,161 likes on Facebook. It is extremely active on social media posting almost every day and its content stands out. Interestingly, NetBet is also using Instagram to drive engagement with similar competition posts on there as well. At the time of writing, it had 21.2K followers on its Instagram account. This is a smart move because out of the nearly one billion active users on this channel, around 32% make between £40K-60K a year, meaning that they have a disposable income that could benefit NetBet.

A quick look at the social channels for NetBet Casino will show you that they are putting a lot of time and effort into their competitions and are getting the results that matter. One example is a recent competition that had only a small prize but received a lot of engagement. This was a competition which involved some fruit symbols and a calculation. Users were required to guess the final combination in the comments section. The prize? Only 10 free spins which would cost NetBet next to nothing to give away.

This particular post was active for three days and received 351 comments in total. Ninety-one people liked the post and 10 shared it, although these were not requirements of the competition. This is a huge amount of engagement for a simple competition and it wasn’t just active on Facebook either.

The winner of the competition came from the Twitter version of the post where the brand has 6,919 followers. While this account has a much larger following, the cross-posting works well. By choosing the winner of the competition and informing Facebook fans that the winner came from Twitter, they would head straight there to check out who won. This then opens the door for them to follow their other channels.

Are other brands doing this?

NetBet Casino is not the only brand offering social media competitions, but it might be fair to say that they are doing it best. Another brand using this tool is Iceland Bingo which has over 30,000 likes on its Facebook page. Iceland Bingo is good for creating content that is branded when posting its competitions. Despite a similar number of page likes, however, it does not always get the same level of engagement as NetBet.

A recent competition on the Iceland Bingo page received only nine likes, 26 comments and three shares, despite the promise of 2,000 loyalty points to the winner. This could be for a number of reasons including the fact that the competition was a spot the difference one, which was quite tricky and might have put players off. This also could be down to a general lack of engagement with users on social channels that NetBet is more experienced at.

Are they useful?

While social media competitions might not be the best way to drive engagement, ignoring them would be foolish. As can be seen from the success of just one example in a long line of competitions run by NetBet, this can be very beneficial to the business.

As social media engagement continues to fall, we look to the future and consider what other casino brands might do in order to boost their social following and convert those visitors into players.

Sharon McFarlane is the managing director of Crystal Content – a digital marketing agency that specialises in igaming. She has eight years’ experience in the industry and has contributed regularly to industry magazines and conferences sharing her expertise on all things digital marketing. Her company (www.crystalcontent.co.uk) offers an outsourced solution for igaming businesses when it comes to: content marketing, social media, UX design, website design, branding and conversion rate optimisation.