Raising Brand Awareness through Contests

Case Story:

Media For Hire ran an Indiana Social Media Top Gun Contest on Facebook:

“CONTEST! We want to feature one of YOU at the end of this week’s episode. Nominate someone you think is a “Social Media Top Gun” in a comment below & the nomination w/ the most “likes” by 5pm tomorrow will be featured at the end of this week’s episode (P.S. No shame in nominating yourself).”

In the original post a few Indianapolis Social Media men were tagged.

The following edited dialog took place over <roughly> a 24-hr period. Captured below are the highlights from my perspective.

______________________________

Media For Hire ‎(Example) We’d like to nominate CHUCK GOSE for Social Media Top Gun.

Chuck Gose Thanks for the nomination. Does the person need to be located in Central Indiana?

Nope

Aaron Craig:  I also want to nominate Chis Theisen for the “Top Gun of Funny Car Commercials.”
I hope I can nominate more than one person, because I just did. Sorry if I broke the “rules.”

Media For Hire:   The official rules state that the comment, containing a nomination, with the most “likes” will win, so everyone “like” those nominations!

• Just to be clear, we are looking for nominations of a person you think is a Social Media Top Gun, i.e. they are the best of the best in social media. Nominate by commenting, vote on a nomination by “liking” the comment.
• Chris Theisen:  I already voted for Chuck but the other person I steal ideas from all the time is Ryan Cox. I have no witty synergistic tie in with the movie however.
• Rich Maier:  I nominate myself, Rich Maier. I am a newbie to social media, but am a small business owner starting a family business. Besides, who else has a WW2 Troop truck parked in his drive way or a Grandfather who met Adolf Hitler??

• Richard Orelup:   I nominate @davewoodson , because the 4sq mayor of his house Dieter (http://twitter.com/theDieterDog) said he didn’t want the nomination because it was below him (yeah, my dog has serious ego issues, though he is probably right 😉 ) so he said give it to the man he thinks is the closest to him in Social Media greatness, The Daver.

• Paul Poteet Mr Chris Theisen, a creative promoter who gets the most bang for his buck. In fact, even today we’re doing a small Cause Marketing project on our respective platforms. His mind never stops and he understands the 21st century audience for his client (HARE CHEVY by the way!) will respond best to content that is engaging, not sales pitch-y. He does have a bit of a mascot fetish.

• Chris Theisen:   LOL on the mascot fetish. Branding Paul its all about branding. And is that first line a thinly veiled attempt to say I make you do alot of stuff? 😉 Seriously though thanks!
• Steven Shattuck I nominate Kenny Loggins.

• Megan ‘Flynn’ Giannini I would also like to nominate Julie Perry for the “Social Media Top Gun” as well!

• Chris Theisen Megan is a suckup! 😉

• Michelle Morris Woah, I was told to come here and vote, but I would rather nominate myself, sorry @dave woodson!!!

• Rick Wilkerson I nominate “The Twitter Ninja” Amy Stark. She has game.

• Bg Kahuna:   How do I “like” the Kenny Loggins nomination from my phone?

• Haha, Rick =) Thank You! I’m honored and humbled. I go by Erik Decker’s definition of ninja = skilled moves and a cool outfit. I just received a DM from a twitter friend (you know who you are) encouraging me to vote for a mutual friend, bu…t I’ must vote my conscience instead => Douglas Karr <= he was the 2nd person I followed on twitter.    Does Top Gun indicate a certain gender? I’m sad the contest was up for 24 hours before a female was nominated.

• @Media For Hire this contest is a great awareness raising tactic for your brand. Recruiting people who have social media clout to recommend other people with social media clout to like you – is very clever indeed =)

• With about an hour and a half left, we want to again clarify the rules. We are counting the number of “likes” on comments with nominations, whether they are from the same person or not. So, in essence, you can vote more than once if a person has been nominated in more than one comment. Also, the comment with the nomination itself does not count because it is not a “like,” so if you nominated, you should still “like” to votel Just FYI.

• Richard Orelup Amy – the 3rd person nominated was a female and that was an hour in.

• Hey Richard, do you mean? “@Cari Downs Young I nominate my daughter and anyone in my family that loves me should nominate her as well”      I don’t see a name but you are correct in that she must be a female. When I first logged on to this grou…p the ONLY nominees were: “Chuck Gose, Chad Richards, G…reg Cross, Douglas Karr, Chris Theisen, Aaron Craig” … As a matter of fact those continue to be the only nominees listed in the profile. =) Just Sayin’

• Steve Walsh:  Woodson fans. I messed up you have to Like the Richard Orelup post for it to count.

• Steve, you didn’t mess up. All the “likes” count no matter which comment they are on.

• I would like to lodge a formal complaint with the governing board of the Media 4 Hire Social Media Top Gun Contest citing the following infractions:

• Chris Theisen Amy rules were pretty easy, comment on the post with your nomination. Click like on the nomination to vote for the person nominated in the comment. Ladies dont like Rocky and Zach they are pigs. You nominated Doug in your comment 🙂 It does appear Mr. Woodson’s huge Chicagoland drawing power will take the crown so you might as well vote for him anyways.

• ‎@Amy, unfortunately we don’t have the budget for a complaint department, or even a governing board for that matter. Thanks for nominating and voting though! We still think you’re pretty great too. (Chris is right too, by the way, we are pigs).

• Media For Hire We’d like to thank everyone who nominated and voted! Check out tomorrow’s new episode to see your Social Media Top Gun!

• Chris Theisen If I dont win Im not watching 😉

• @Chris… Are you really not going to watch? That seems a bit unfriendly … even anti-Social =) Thanks for the rules flush out, btw. I suppose — since Media 4 Hire has no governing board for the Social Media Top Gun Contest — I will… rescind my nomination rescission.

  @Media4Hire – when I said this was a brilliant tactic, I meant that sincerely. I spent a couple of hours yesterday afternoon laughing right out loud as I wrote about your brand. There’s nothing like a good contest to tap into the competitive nature of Social Media Geeks. Especially #Indiana SM Geeks. That’s why Foursquare works!

  In the spirit of true transparency, I called my friend Rick Wilkerson from keywerx and asked him to nominate me because I wanted to jump into this thread. I was too proud to nominate myself, it made me feel icky for some reason.

  I want to learn everyone’s back channel story. I already revealed mine: a twitter friend DMd me asking me to vote. I looked over the thread then called Rick to ask him to nominate me! All my other interactions regarding this contest is part of the public thread.

  Who is brave enough to share their own back channel story?