Campaigns that attract high user activity and entry rates are not the types that inspire users to share with friends. Campaigns like contests and sweepstakes generate higher entry and participation rates, while quizzes, trivia contests and pick-your-favorite campaigns are more likely to be shared via a news feed post or an invite to the app.

To illustrate, coupons, giveaways and sweepstakes get the highest number of entries per social campaign—3,037 on average for coupons versus just 1,070 for sharing-oriented pick-your-favorites campaigns, according to [PDF] a study called “Five Best Practices For Increasing Earned Media,” conducted by Wildfire, the social marketing platform provider. But pick-your-favorites leads among shared campaigns, at 39%, versus just 19% for coupons.

Still, earned media through shares and reposts is worth chasing. The earned media generated by users sharing to their networks resulted in a significant conversion of new users. For example, 82% of the users that clicked on a friend’s news feed post about a quiz they’d taken went on to take the quiz themselves.

Some other findings from the study:

• While quizzes lead among earned media click-to-conversion rate (82%), the quizzes must be engaging and entertaining (e.g., “Which Sex and the City Character are You?”)
• Coupons, giveaways, and sweepstakes get the highest amount of entries on average, at 3,037, 1,888 and 1,630 respectively
• “Pick-your-favorites,” quizzes and trivia garner the most shares by users at 39%, 32% and 29%, thus creating more earned media for a brand
• Video contests and essay contests have the lowest earned media click rate at just 2% and 1%. This is because they are the most work, but, they draw a highly engaged and motivated entrant.
• People are equally as likely to enter contests and sweepstakes whether they heard about them directly from a brand or from a friend’s post. In other words, where a user learns about a contest or sweepstakes within Facebook does not impact the likelihood they will enter it.

About The Data: Wildfire conducted a study of 10,000 marketing campaigns conducted on its platform over the past nine months. The promotion types included sweepstakes, coupons, video, photo, and essay contests, giveaways, trivia, quizzes, and “pick-your-favorites.”

via Marketing Charts