# Complete Guide to Social Media for Raffles and Lotteries

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2017/09/01/complete-guide-to-social-media-for-raffles-and-lotteries/
- Published: 2017-09-01T06:33:29+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**Promoting your raffle or lottery does not need to be time consuming. Social media
is a great start for charities looking to reach new audiences online, target brand
new donors and engage with an already booming online community. Below is everything
you need to get started promoting your raffle or lottery on social media.**

Contents

 1.  Introduction to social media
 2.  Social media overview
 3.  Facebook
 4.  Twitter
 5.  Instagram
 6.  Hashtags
 7.  Building an audience
 8.  Content overview
 9.  Social Media Campaigns

**1. Introduction to social media for raffles and lotteries**

## Advertisement

Congratulations for starting your digital fundraising journey using raffle and lotteries!
It’s now time to start preparing your promotional methods and one of the main ways
to raise funds, build an engaged audience and reach new players, is through social
media. There are over 80 Million social media users* in the UK alone today, so it
is an extremely powerful method of promotion.

*Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Linkedin combined.** **

Social media is a new and exciting arena, but it is competitive and standing out
from the crowd can seem like an impossible task. Prize led fundraising is an opportunity
for your charity to not only raise funds, but reward your supporters with the chance
to win the amazing prizes. There are two messages you will need to think about when
promoting your raffle or lottery on social media;

1. Your cause and why your cause relies on public generosity.

2. The chance to win the amazing prize(s) and be rewarded.

[Download our free social media checklist](http://info.zaffo.com/social-media-checklist?hsCtaTracking=d349914e-8577-4b6a-aaee-1b552ebb1cbb%7C67dbd128-5e20-4b92-8175-75842510890b)
to help you keep track of your campaign(s) and its progress.

**2. Social Media Overview**

There are hundreds of social media platforms available online, however, the most
popular are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube. In this guide we will go through
each of these platforms in more details and how to tailor your message to suit both
your organisations voice and each individual platform. Each platform has different
objectives for example, Instagram is an image sharing platform whereas Twitter heavily
focuses on short and quick updates. It is important to understand the role of each
platform and how they relate or don’t relate to your organisations brand and voice.

Before you begin your journey into social media, it is important that you have a
clear understanding of your objectives and goals. What do you want to achieve by
promoting your raffle or lottery on social media? Some common objectives can be:

 1. I want to reach a new and younger audience
 2. I want to re-engage a lapsed social media audience
 3. I want to test the engagement rate of a specific demographic
 4. I want to increase my current conversion rate

Once you have a list of your objectives it is then a good idea to create a list 
or action plan with simple goals that you can complete in order to achieve your 
overall objectives. Your goals could be:

 1. I will schedule at least 2 Facebook posts per week promoting our page
 2. In one month, I will review our Facebook posts in Insights and create a plan of
    action on content
 3. I will ask one influencer in our organisation to Tweet about our campaign every
    week
 4. I will incorporate our campaign Hashtag into our marketing materials

**3. Facebook**

Facebook is one of the largest social networking sites boasting 1.5 Billion active
monthly users. Facebook is typically used to share photographs, stories & videos
with friends & family, however as it grows so does the potential for charities and
organisations to promote material on Facebook.

Facebook can be used as an effective tool for promoting material to a dedicated 
and loyal online community. Building this community largely depends on what type
of content you are creating – *remember the 80/20 rule. Building an engaged community
on Facebook takes time and nurturing. It is important to keep your audience up to
date with your latest news and information. However if you are starting from scratch,
try liking other Facebook pages that relate to your organisation and seeing what
it is working for them. Tailor this to your personal strategy and keep amending 
your content according to your analytics.

There is no 140-character limit on Facebook but this doesn’t mean that you should
start posting essays. Jeff Bullas found that 40 was the magic number & that a 40
character post has a 86% higher engagement rate. So keep it short & sweet! Use engaging
images & videos where possible. As we reach a more advanced mobile age, people are
viewing your posts on the go, so a beautiful image or short video will keep your
audience engaged. **87% of posts with images get shared.** It is also important 
to remember to track, track, track! Use Link Tracking sites like Bit.Ly to see who
is sharing, engaging and what content is working best.

![Social Media for Raffles and Lotteries](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.cloud/2017/
09/pexels-photo-267355.jpeg)

Here are some general Facebook rules:

1. The 80/20 rule: Your content strategy should be based around the 80/20 rule. 
You should post 80% non-promotional material that helps your audience plus 20% promotional
material marketing your products or cause.

2. Facebook Tools:

Canva: to create quick social media posts with free stock images.

Page Insights: for quick, on screen analytics to help you see what is working and
what isn’t.

*Keep in mind the 80/20 rule: 80% non-promotional, 20% promotional material.

Scheduling Facebook posts not only helps drive engagement rates but also saves you
time to create more effective content. You can schedule posts directly through Facebook
by clicking on ‘Schedule’ on the drop down menu for ‘Publish’. If you’d prefer to
schedule posts through a third party app you can use apps like Hootsuite or Buffer.

[Download our full Facebook Guide here.](http://info.zaffo.com/facebook-guide?hsCtaTracking=0081068c-0bf1-4901-bdce-e098d5a50f3d%7Cf19f0986-ce27-43a2-b6da-836ef90eadf0)

**Optimal Times**

Studies have shown that generally Facebook’s optimal posting times are at 1pm, 3pm
and 8pm. Buffer argues that 3pm posts get more clicks and 1pm posts get more shares.
Remember to listen to your own audience with analytics and see at what times you
are getting the most engagement and tailor.

**Optimal Days**

Studies have shown that Facebook posts work best on Saturday’s & Sundays with a 
32% higher engagement rate. Thursday’s & Friday’s have an 18% higher engagement 
rate with people mainly sharing funny, lighthearted content on a Friday.

**Facebook Tips & Tricks**

– Images of humans (especially when smiling & making eye contact) drives conversion
rates better than images of inanimate objects.

– Ask questions to increase engagement rates and get conversations going.

– Questions at the end of a post has a 15% higher engagement rate.

– Remember the 80/20 rule and keep to it for all social media strategies. 80% non-
promotional, 20% promotional.

– You don’t need to post more than twice daily on Facebook, remember content is 
king. Quality over quantity wins on Facebook.

– Facebook peak times are 1pm, 3pm and 8pm. Post between the three and see when 
you are getting more engagement and tailor your strategy to how your community is
responding.

– There are 8 Billion DAILY video views on Facebook alone – share your videos and
reach higher engagement rates.

– Like & Comment on Facebook Pages similar to yours either in industry or opinion.
It is a good way to building a new audience.

**4. Twitter**

Twitter is a social networking site designed for quick, live updates with a character
limit of 140. Twitter is used by charities, brands & individuals all over the globe
with 320 monthly active users and 14.8 Million active monthly users just in the 
UK.

Building an online community can be difficult and will take time, however an engaged
community will help your marketing efforts. Imagine you are searching for a way 
to help a cause close to your heart and stumble upon a Twitter page dedicated to
that specific cause, posting relevant information and ways you can help make a difference
and engage with your community. It is important to regularly engage with your community
by replying, commenting, retweeting and mentioning what is relevant and interesting.
Twitter is used to start conversations so what better way to do that then to engage
with your own community. Through this you will build a dedicated and loyal following
ready to take action when your next campaign launches.

If you are short of time and resource it is a good idea to start scheduling Tweets.
There are many benefits to scheduling tweets as you are able to tweet during your
optimal times and post even when you are away. Unfortunately, there is no way of
scheduling tweets through Twitter itself. There are third party apps that will help
you do this such as Buffer and Tweetdeck which help you post content on a weekend,
for example, when you are out and about.

Content is key when creating an engaged and loyal community especially when fundraising.
Create content that will resonate with your audience whether it is inspirational
case studies or a sneezing panda. A fully developed content strategy will help outline
your objectives and how you will tackle the use of social media to fundraise.

Below is a list of content statistics on Twitter to consider when creating a content
strategy.

Tweets with images get 2x more engagement than tweets without. Tweets that are less
than 100 characters has a 17% higher engagement rate.

Tweets containing Hashtags receive 2x more engagement, however tweets with MORE 
than two hashtags receive a 17% drop in engagement.

[Download our full Twitter Guide here.](http://info.zaffo.com/twitter-guide-download?hsCtaTracking=57219e71-f6fe-47c9-874d-e2b7afb000eb%7Ce0400ab5-aa52-46ce-8f67-f1aa34e5824c)

**Social media influencers**

Influencers are people using Social Media that have a significant following and 
audience. Many influencers include celebrities like Russell Brand, however influencers
can be anyone from Thought Leaders to Bloggers. Tools like Klout can be used to 
find and target the right influencers for your charity or cause. Once you have a
list of social influencers you’d like to work with it is important to make sure 
that your influencer stays on brand and has the tools needed to promote your campaign
correctly and effectively.

**Twitter tips and insights**

– Consistently use your campaign Hashtag

– Remember the 80/20 rule! 80% of social posts should be non-promotional and help
your community by providing advice or insight, 20% should be promotional material.

– Don’t forget to @mention others to increase engagement with your community and
other brands or charities

– Use sites like Bit.Ly or Owl.ly to shorten & track URL links and keep to the 140-
character limit.

– General optimal times to Tweet are between 12pm and 3pm when people are usually
on their lunch breaks.

– Use Twitter Lists to track competitors, influencers and promoters so you can regularly
engage and comment.

– Questions at the end of a Tweet has a 15% higher engagement rate.

– Listen and track specific Hashtags (#CharityLottery) or Keywords to see what conversations
are happening on Twitter and engage accordingly.

**5. Instagram**

There are 500 Million active Instagram users with 300 Million users using the platform
on a daily basis. Instagram is the fastest growing social media platform; far surpassing
Facebook and Twitter, with over 10 Million new users every month. It is clear that
Instagram is definitely a place where your organisation should consider having a
presence.

Promoting your raffle or lottery on Instagram is quick and simple especially with
online graphics tools like Canva. You can get creative with your imagery by adding
text or graphics, or keep it simple by taking photographs of your organisation in
action.

[⌊Social Media for Raffles and Lotteries⌉⌊Social Media for Raffles and Lotteries⌉[

Hashtags

Instagram is big on Hashtags! It helps people find your content and engage with 
hashtags. For example, if you used #CharityRaffle and asked your followers to post
in photos using the hashtag #CharityRaffle, you could essentially use these images
to creative a conversation on Instagram and even regram* the images to your organisations
Instagram feed.

*You can regram or repost images to your own social feeds using tools like the ‘
Repost It!’ App.

 * Consider using more than one Hashtag that relates to your image or your cause
   to reach more people on Instagram.
 * Consider doing ‘Instagram Takeovers’ where you hand off your account to social
   media influencers, supporters or even other organisations.

**6. Hashtags**

Hashtags are used to separate conversations and posts into specific categories. 
Using a hashtag helps get content discovered, segment your messages and lets users
focus on each particular conversation at any one time. For example; #NoMakeUpSelfie
which raised over £8m for Cancer Research UK. By using a Hashtag that is short, 
simple and easy to understand will enable your audience to chime into the conversation
and throw in their own ideas. It also helps you keep track of what is being said
online simply by tracking that hashtag.** **

**7. Building an Audience**

Social Media can be used as an effective tool for promoting material to a dedicated
and loyal online community. Building this community largely depends on what type
of content you are creating – remember the 80/20 rule.

The 80/20 rule: Your content strategy should be based around the 80/20 rule. You
should post 80% non-promotional material that helps your audience plus 20% promotional
material marketing your products or cause.

Building an engaged community on social media takes time and nurturing. It is important
to keep your audience up to date with your latest news and information. However 
if you are starting from scratch, take a look at other social media accounts and
seeing what it is working for them. Tailor this to your personal strategy and keep
amending.

It is essential that you consistently engage with your online community by replying
to questions ideally within 30 minutes. Like and Comment on other accounts, status
updates and posts that relate to your cause or campaign.

Everyone loves being rewarded!

Social media is the perfect place to reward your loyal audience with a simple competition.
Create a simple campaign aimed at rewarding your current audience (as well as adding
to your community). You can try a photo caption competition or ‘Guess the number
of hearts in the jar’ for a special Valentine’s day treat. Winners could get a free
entry into your raffle or lottery!

In the initial stages of your campaign, you will be able to see what is responding
better. Tailor your content to what your community is saying, or even reuse content
that received the most engagement. Remember, your social media accounts should be
relatable and informative. Keep in mind your target audience and continue to engage
with your supporters online.

**8. Content Overview**

Content marketing refers to the creation and distribution of relevant, engaging 
and relevant content. Marketers must create content that will attract their target
audience to their websites and landing pages. Begin Content Creation with ‘Why?’.
Why are you creating this content? What value will it have for your target audiences?
We believe that content should be personalised to suit each ‘persona’ (a subtype
of your target audience). As we live in a digital age, it is becoming even harder
to capture the attention of an online audience, so be creative, unique and take 
strategic risks. Your content marketing strategy will adapt and change frequently,
so don’t be scared to test material and gather results.

Distribution of content is equally as important as you have done all of the hard
work of creating amazing content; now you need people to see it, comment on it, 
engage with it, share it… Be proud of your content by sharing it on your social 
media channels, email marketing campaigns, newsletters and go that extra mile by
investing in a social media advertising budget.

[Download Free Images](http://info.zaffo.com/download-free-images-for-online-raffle?hsCtaTracking=8e3c97f6-10a8-4ea6-b87f-088023219792%7Ce5752f9a-98a1-43fb-9076-06cca5551047)
that you can use to get started with your Marketing content.

**9. Social Media Campaigns**

Running a social media campaign to promote your lottery or raffle is a great way
to reach your target audience and engage with your supporters. A social media campaign
differs from your everyday social media management as it is tailored to one or two
particular goals and objectives. To begin, you will need a clear, measurable and
specific goal. What do you want to achieve with this social media campaign? Below
are some examples of goals:

 1. We need to increase our ticket sales by (x) amount, before (x) date.
 2. We need to reach (x) amount of people on (x) social media platform.
 3. We want to test out (x) videos on (x) platforms for analytics.

Once you have a clear goal in mind you can begin creating your social media campaign.
Like any solid campaign, you will need to be able to answer the following questions
before you begin:

 1. What is your budget?
 2. Who is your target audience for this campaign?
 3. Which social media methods will you be using? (Advertising, Social Influencers).
 4. Who are your social media influencers? Are they willing to promote this campaign?
 5. Which social media platforms will you be using for this campaign?
 6. How long will the campaign run?
 7. What content will you have for this campaign?

Once you have your answers, you can begin creating a detailed social media campaign
strategy outlining key dates, content, key tasks and how you will record and analyse
the campaign.** **

[Download this content calendar template](http://info.zaffo.com/download-free-content-calendar-template?hsCtaTracking=0d04932f-9848-489d-9570-33a950fe16f7%7C2f6c422f-82b2-47e3-bb39-929455e7d0a8)
to help you plan your social media campaign for your raffle or lottery campaign.

 * **[Data Protection (oh yes)](https://fundraising.co.uk/2017/09/06/data-protection-oh-yes/)**(
   6 September 2017)
 * **[Data Protection (and legacies)](https://fundraising.co.uk/2018/09/04/data-protection-legacies/)**(
   4 September 2018)
 * **[Another one bites the dust …](https://fundraising.co.uk/2019/01/02/another-one-bites-dust/)**(
   2 January 2019)

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