Social media giveaway
What is a social media giveaway?
A social media giveaway is a campaign where a small action — following the account, commenting under the post, answering a question — buys a ticket in a draw for a prize. Most brands run one for reach and new followers. The platform’s promotion rules, a written set of terms and the tax treatment of the prize all apply from the day it starts, not after the draw.
Example
A toy shop gives away a tablet worth €120. In a week the post collects 1,400 comments and the account gains 900 followers. A month later 610 of them are still there and seven have ordered: at an average order of €38, that is €266 of turnover against a €120 prize and about six hours of work.
The second attempt keeps the budget and changes the prize to a building set from the shop’s own catalogue, with a comment naming the child’s age as the entry. Entries drop to 340 and new followers to 210, but 19 orders follow within the month, worth €722. The prize picks the crowd: a tablet collects people who collect tablets, and something from your own catalogue collects your own buyers.
Why it matters for a business
A giveaway is the fastest way to lift the numbers on a profile and the fastest way to spoil them. An audience assembled by prizes reacts weakly to everything that follows, and the platforms rank content by reaction, so the reach of ordinary posts stays low for weeks afterwards.
Two rules are worth knowing before the post goes up. Meta does not allow entry mechanics that run through a personal profile or through friend connections, so “share this on your timeline” and “tag three friends to enter” are out, and the post has to state that the promotion is not associated with the platform. Separately, the terms have to be written down: who may enter, the dates, how the winner is drawn and announced, how the prize is handed over. In Bulgaria a prize above the statutory threshold for insignificant value is taxable income for the winner and is declared by the organiser — the current figures are a question for an accountant, not for a marketer.
What to ask
- Does the prize attract our buyers, or everyone?
- Are the terms written down, and where do they live?
- Do the mechanics comply with the platform’s promotion rules?
- How will we judge it after 30 days — by orders and by the reach of ordinary posts, not by follower count?
- Who handles the tax side and the handover of the prize?
Mechanics, terms and the read-out afterwards are handled inside social media management.