Social media is a powerful, multi-functional platform that allows businesses to create stronger brand awareness, attract new customers, develop professional relationships with other like-minded business owners, and engage with their target audience. If you’re a business owner who’s struggling with a social media marketing campaign, you should consider using promotional gifts to boost its effectiveness.

What Are Promotional Gifts?

A promotional gift is exactly what it sounds like: a product or service given away to prospective clients and customers for the sole purpose of promoting a business. A company may give away t-shirts with its name and logo to clients, for instance. The client is happy is because he or she gets a free t-shirt, and the business owner is happy because they receive additional exposure.

How Promotional Gifts Can Improve Your Social Media Campaigns

Promotional gifts can improve a business’s social media campaigns in several different ways, one of which is by attracting more followers. A survey conducted by AsicCentral found that 41.8% of consumers said they would “like” a company’s page on Facebook after receiving a promotional gift. While the initial gift may cost the company a small amount upfront, it will almost certainly pay off in the long run in the form of increased exposure and more social media followers.

Another way promotional gifts can enhance your social media campaigns is by encouraging prospective clients and customers to talk about your business on their own social accounts. If a client receives a crystal award, for instance, he or she may post it on their Facebook account, thanking you for the gift. In turn, this attracts more people to your business and your business’s social media accounts.

Here are some other tips to improve your social media campaigns:

• The adage, a picture is worth a thousand words, holds true when marketing on social media. A recent study conducted by the marketing firm SocialBakers found that photos make up 93% of the most engaging social media posts.
• Use #hashtags to curate your social media content and make it more accessible to your target audience.
• Respond to visitor questions, comments and concerns in a timely manner.
• Try to get into the habit of posting new updates to your social media accounts on a regular basis.
• Don’t limit yourself to only using Facebook for your business’s social media marketing campaigns. Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, and Instagram are all powerful social media platforms.