Social Media Marketing Case Study – Facebook Contest for Startup Companies to Go to California

Discover a Few Social Media Marketing Secrets

 Welcome to our Social Media related case study page on our SEO, Social Media Optimization and Online Reputation Management website.

You may see who Joanna Vaiou is on the left side of the picture right below. She is with her team which she supported with Social Media Marketing Services. As a result, her team was announced as the winner of the “Social Media Battle 2015” contest.

Live Pitching Battle - In the Ring!

Facebook Social Media Marketing Insights for the “Next Startup Champion 2015” Contest

Recently, Joanna had the honor to represent a technology startup that participated to a contest for the “Next Startup Champion 2015” and its winners would win the opportunity to travel at a later date to San Francisco, California in order to pitch their business idea and business plan in front of KEY potential investors and distinct entrepreneurs who can evaluate their assets and decide if they will support their ideas with funding to help them make the next big step.

This contest included two (2) different types of battles to announce the winners:

  • The Social Media Battle 2015

This contest was held (prior to “The Pitching Battle 2015) strictly on Facebook through a Facebook voting application that was installed on Industry Disruptors Facebook page. It lasted almost 2 weeks (ended in 30th of September 2015) and 14 startups participated, representing several niches like ENERGY, High TECHNOLOGY, Food – Health, and Medicine. The startup which would win the social media contest would gain a secret award and plenty of media coverage.

  • The Pitching Battle 2015

This part of the contest was held LIVE in Technopolis on 3rd of October 2015 after the Social Media Battle Ended and 8 startups participated in battles of 2, representing the same “niche”. There was a live ring, the participants who represented their team in the ring and the judges who would choose which startup from each two “same category niche” team would be granted the opportunity to go to California and pitch their business plan and idea in front of KEY investors, entrepreneurs and influencers.

Social Media Marketing Facebook Advertising Case Study

What Happened at the Live Pitching Event

All teams’ representatives were great in the ring dealing with the judges and the restricted amount of time (seconds) that they were allowed to reply to the judges’ questions! All participants did their best even though what they did was very difficult and very stressful, especially for some that this was their first “live pitch” to claim funding or any other kind of support for their startup company.

All Startups together with the Organizer!

Image Source: Facebook Page of Industry Disruptors

All startups had the same chances to win the big prize which was to be granted the opportunity to send their representative to San Fransisco California and pitch their idea to larger audiences including key investors, key influencers and key entrepreneurs.

Unfortunately, during this “Live Pitching Battle” literally in the RING, Joanna’s team lost the battle and thought that lost the big opportunity of seeing her team going to California, since the winner of the live battle would go there, according to the battle’s rules.

In the end of the live pitching event, after all winner startups were announced, Joanna’s startup partner was announced as the Winner of the “Social Media Battle 2015” that was held strictly on Facebook. And although, this would only offer and award and media coverage to her team, the judges called out her team’s representatives and told them that due to the fact that their team WON at the “Social Media Battle Contest” and despite the fact that they lost in the live “Pitching Battle” they are given the chance to go to San Francisco California after all.

It was a wonderful summer afternoon with lots of adrenaline in the air.

The feeling of WINNING the Ultimate PRIZE not directly but indirectly through the Facebook contest WIN was amazing both for Joanna and her partner startup that either way, got what they wanted and had prepared so hard for!

This is just one of the reasons why businesses should never ignore their presence on Social Media, especially for these kind of promotional reasons like contests, short offers, sales, brand awareness and so forth.

 

Marketing Methods Used – Facebook Sponsored Posts Case Study Facts and Data
  • #1 Method: Word of Mouth Online (Social Media) and Offline (Encouraging & instructing friends, associates and family to vote for her team on Facebook) marketing.
  • #2 Method: Facebook Advertising – Sponsored Facebook Page Posts by creating highly targeted Facebook page posts (with specific calling and message, call to action to vote for her team and detailed steps about how to vote successfully). These sponsored Facebook page posts were targeting specific people globally according to their related interests each time, their nationality and their language.
  • Feedback #1: When Joanna saw that the word of mouth marketing was not enough to give her team advantage with the votes score, she went into Facebook ads and chose the Sponsored Posts type of Ad as a supplementary effort. Soon the difference in votes with the 1st startup declined.
  • Feedback #2: After one day of Sponsored Facebook page posts, her team was “even” with the 1st startup and soon acquired a sweet advantage in votes difference. The budget ranged from $5/day through $110/day according to how the difference between her team (who was first from there and after) was declining. So if the difference was declining fast, Joanna created more sponsored posts and was constantly tweaking the settings so she could see what type of settings were working better for her team’s advantage by bringing more votes faster through larger “Paid Reach to a strictly targeted audience” according to each post’s calling.
  • Feedback #3: The difference between the 1st (Joanna’s) and the 2nd startup in votes did not decline more than 30 votes from there and after.
  • Feedback #4: A specific sponsored post’s Paid Reach (meaning the amount of people who saw the post with the call to action to vote successfully) was 29 Times Larger than the Organic Reach (meaning the amount of people who saw the same post organically, because they either had already “liked” the Facebook page and saw the update naturally, or someone from their Facebook friends had interacted – liked, shared or commented on the specific post). So if the organic reach was 1000, the paid reach was 29000 for this specific post. Comparing the incoming votes when a specific sponsored post was on, the score was 30 times more votes in a matter of 1 hour. So, organically and typically, the same Facebook sponsored post got 1 vote per hour and when the sponsored post started running there was a score of 30 votes in one hour.
  • Feedback #5: Joanna’s team won the Social Media battle Contest with a 182 votes difference apart from the 2nd startup and ultimately won the top prize due to this social media contest victory. This method (Facebook Sponsored Posts) works great because Facebook offers a wonderful range of targeting options that allow you to INSTANTLY reach the right people that are most likely to take action and help you achieve your business goal either it is a Facebook contest win, sales offers, email subscriptions, brand awareness and anything else. It is highly recommended! You can find plenty of valuable free training videos on YouTube on how to create the best ads.
  • Feedback #6: There were few technical hardships for all startups such as the voting application that the organizer installed to accept online votes which did not work on mobile phones. All startups definitely lost votes from that fact alone, since many people only log in Facebook via their cell phones.

Founder/Owner info: Joanna Vaiou is an enterprise SEO and digital marketing expert from Greece.

Joanna makes sure your company is visible (and found) on Google search engine’s results the exact time your potential customers/clients, search Google to find more information or buy/purchase your products/or/and your services. This is what “SEO” or “Search Engine Optimization” is about. This special marketing and online promotion method on Google, attracts a whole new pool of already interested prospects to your business by taking advantage the substantial popularity of Google as a search engine for global users’ personal interests, revealing what they want and what they need anytime.

Joanna also offers extra special services like Social Media Marketing and Social Media Optimization (SMO – Online Brand Reputation Management Services on Google search engine).

Click on the precedent link to follow Joanna’s personal case study on Google that can position YOURSELF as well to have FULL CONTROL of how YOUR business/brand/personal name appears on Google in front of people already looking to find more information about:

  • What you do
  • How good you are in what you do
  • What is the quality of your products or/and services
  • How happy your clients are
  • What are your competitive advantages
  • How well you interact with your target audiences through multiple communication channels like your website content, your social media channels (Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest), your newsletters, your status updates, your advertising efforts etc

Thanks for dropping by to read our Facebook social media marketing case study.

 

Do you have any questions? Contact us below to ask us for client testimonials or to inquire for Mrs Vaiou SEO, Social Media and Corporate Online Branding Services.
>>> For inquiries or questions about Joanna’s social media, seo or online reputation management services you may contact her via email: [email protected], phone: +30 697 938 5729 (GR) and Skype: joanna.vaiou.