In a world where loyalty is hard to come by, more and more companies are turning to social media outlets to encourage customers and potential customers to show an interest in their brand.  Competitions to win tickets, goodies and products are popping up on Facebook and Twitter almost daily – and the followers seem to lap it up.  If you want to create a little hype for your business, it would certainly seem that social media is the way to go.  Twitter especially has been creating some waves in brand awareness of late, with its ease of finding and contacting potential new patrons.

If you’re a new startup looking to get your brand noticed, a great way to get yourself on the map is to run a “RT to win” competition.  RT means re-tweet on Twitter – a public equivalent of forwarding an email.  If someone sees a tweet they like they can re-tweet (or RT) it to their followers so that they can read it too.  Asking a follower to follow you and re-tweet a specific tweet in order to be eligible for a competition is a great way of increasing your reach and awareness of your product.

Whilst your follower numbers might shoot up, don’t be disappointed if they drop off once the competition has ended – it’s not uncommon for people to follow purely to get a chance to win.  The trick is to try and create loyalty and interest in your brand by being engaging whilst the competition is running.  Also make sure your social media links such as your website and Facebook page are up to, to enable people to find as much information as possible.

If you’ve got a specific product that you’re marketing, another great way of getting noticed is to provide free samples for review.  There are thousands of blogs (and therefore bloggers) these days so there are bound to be some that fit your product niche.  You can either organize it yourself or get in touch with a PR company and ask them to do it on your behalf – they will probably already have contacts in place but they’ll also expect you to pay for their services, something to bear in mind if you’re just starting up.

Sending a blogger a ‘sample copy’ of your product and asking them to review it will increase the profile of your brand and hopefully also create some readymade loyal followers.  Just make sure your product is up to scratch – bloggers aren’t obligated to review in a positive light, especially as they’re not normally paid for their work.

If you’re still unsure of social media or haven’t got around to setting up your accounts yet – do it soon.  Better to have a holding page ready whilst you figure it all out than risk someone taking your username (and thus your brand) because you weren’t quick enough to grab it.  With thousands of new users signing up every day, it’s really worth starting your account, just in case.