Let's Get Real About User Generated Content Contests
Honestly, let's just talk for a second. I was working with this fantastic little bakery in Minneapolis last month-great people, amazing sourdough-and they were pulling their hair out. They'd tried running one of those "post a photo with our bread and tag us!" user generated content contests on Instagram. Total entries after two weeks? Three. And one was from the owner's cousin.
It's a story I've heard a thousand times since I got into this game back in 2010.
Look, the idea behind user generated content contests is solid. Of course we want our customers to become our marketers. It's the holy grail, right? But the way most small businesses are told to do it is, frankly, broken. It's advice from people who've never had to worry about making payroll on Friday.
The Big Lie We're All Told About UGC
Here's the thing that drives me absolutely nuts. You get these marketing gurus-usually 22-year-olds who've never run a P&L-screaming about "building a community" and "sparking a conversation." They tell you to just ask people for content and they will provide it.
They won't.
I mean, think about it. People are busy. They're scrolling on the toilet. They're trying to ignore their kids for five minutes. The amount of effort it takes to stop, take a nice picture, think of a clever caption, find the right hashtags, and tag your business... for a chance to win a $50 gift card? The math just doesn't work. We're asking for way too much and offering way too little. It's been a problem for years, I remember seeing the exact same thing happen with a client back in 2018 who ran a Facebook contest that got them basically nothing. It's not a new problem.
So, How Do You ACTUALLY Get People to Play Along?
You have to lower the barrier to entry and up the fun. Drastically.
This is where I started getting obsessed with gamification, probably around 2015. Yeah, I know, it's a buzzword and I hate buzzwords, but stick with me. Instead of asking for a huge creative effort, you give them a quick, fun, almost mindless game to play that has the same result for you. You give them a little dopamine hit, a quick win, and in exchange, you get what you need.
This is where I've been using this platform, Faisco, with a lot of my clients lately. It’s not some revolutionary thing that will change the universe-it’s just a tool that actually works for normal businesses.
Let me give you some real-world examples, not just theory:
- Austin Pet Grooming Salon: They needed Google Reviews. Badly. We set up a Faisco "Puzzle Challenge" game. Customers had to unscramble a picture of a cute dog. To get extra chances to play (and win the grand prize), one of the main actions was "Leave us a Google Review." We got 2,185 new reviews in two and a half weeks. It was insane.
- Boston Bookstore: They had a great little shop but their Facebook page was a ghost town. We ran a "Star Seeker" game-it’s a simple speed game where you tap stars as they appear. One of the ways to earn more plays? Like our Facebook Page. They got 766 new, real page likes in about two weeks. Not from bots, from actual local customers.
- Calgary Bakery: This is my favorite one recently. They wanted TikTok content but felt, you know, too old for it. We launched a "Happy Hopping" game (it’s a silly little jumping game) and one of the main prize entries was "Post a TikTok using our custom sound and tag us." They got over 2,500 new TikToks featuring their shop in less than 12 days!! The prize was just free pastries for a year, which costs them very little.
See the pattern? We're not asking for creativity. We are giving them a fun distraction that unlocks the action we want them to take. It's a psychological trick, basically.
The Specific Games that Just... Work
I've tested a bunch of these. Some are duds. But I've found a few types that are incredibly reliable.
The Instant Draw Games like a "Lucky Spin" or a "Scratch Ticket" are conversion machines for email lists. You put one on a landing page and the promise of an instant win gets people to drop their email in like nothing else I've ever seen. I do not lie when I say I've seen 40%+ conversion rates with these.
Then you have the Quiz Games like the "Puzzle Challenge." These are brilliant because you can bake in educational content about your product without being boring. It’s a great way to qualify leads.
And for holidays? It’s almost cheating. Faisco has these pre-built seasonal games. I used their "Fill My Christmas Stocking" catching game for three different retail clients this past December. Every single one of them saw engagement go up by over 300% compared to their normal holiday posts. It's because it’s festive and different from the 500 other "Holiday Sale!" posts in their feed.
A Quick Word on Tools: Faisco vs. Gleam
Look, everyone asks me about Gleam. io. And it's a solid platform, it is. I've used it. But frankly, it’s overkill for 90% of small businesses and their entry-level plan is still $39 a month. I find my clients can get a campaign-a good campaign-live on Faisco in under 10 minutes. Gleam sometimes feels like you need an engineering degree. It's just more complicated than it needs to be for, say, a coffee shop owner who also has to roast the beans and manage three baristas.
The other thing Faisco gets right is the integration. Most tools just give you a link to share. But Faisco's games can actually be set up to work properly within Facebook, Instagram, TikTok... they understand that a user on TikTok behaves differently than a user on LinkedIn. It seems like a small detail but it makes a huge difference in performance.
So, What Can You Do This Week?
I'm not selling you magic. The businesses I work with see big jumps in followers (usually 200-400%) and email lists (150-300%) in the first month because we're just shifting the strategy from "Please do this work for us" to "Hey, want to play a fun game for a second?"
So here's what I typically recommend. Don't try to boil the ocean.
- Pick ONE Goal. Just one. Do you need more email signups? More Instagram followers? More reviews? Don't try to do all three at once.
- Think Small. Your prize doesn't need to be a car. Free coffee for a month. A $100 shop credit. A basket of your best products. The prize is just the excuse; the game is the hook.
- Try it. Seriously. Just set up one simple game. A "Lucky Spin" for a 10% off coupon in exchange for an email address. Run it for two weeks. See what happens.
Stop listening to the advice that sounds good in theory and start doing the stuff that's been proven to work on the ground. For businesses like ours, with real budgets and limited time, that's the only thing that matters.
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