I get around a dozen emails, tweets and FB messages every day all with the same general message.
“Hey Friend/Business Acquaintance/Person Who Signed Up on An Email List
As you know, my blog/non-profit/site/lucious booty is nominated for <previously unheard of award>. We’re in the home stretch, but there’s still time to help me out.
All you have to do is go to this site <insert site>, and perform an increasingly byzantine set of instructions, click the vote button, and write a blog post about the contest. If we win, we’ll get $10,000/a badge we can put on our site/invited to open for the Black Crows at the BFE County Fair.
YOU CAN VOTE EVERY DAY SO PLEASE GO BACK EVERY 24 HOURS AND REPEAT THIS LABORIOUS PROCESS!”
Or something to that effect.
Everything from grant applications, to artistic awards, to fun little social media contests. I’ll admit to being guilty of sending this kind of email out on more than one occasion. (Did you vote for SGAOJ in the Streamys by chance?) but we’ve hit the tipping point of exhaustion for these kinds of competitions, and it’s for one simple reason:
The people that start them don’t make them fun to participate in.
Sure, if you’ve got a worthy charity there is definitely some incentive to be had in helping out a worthy cause. Charity Water, Chase Community Giving….even the Pepsi Refresh grants provided a warm little nugget of Do-Goodery. Unfortunately, these worthy causes are starting to be drowned out in noise of contests whose winner should essentially be crowned “Person Who Drove The Most Traffic to My Site”.
These contests are one tool for social media engagement, but they desperately need to evolve. I was speaking with a choreographer about these contests (many of which are aimed at not-for-profits in lieu of grant money) who declared they were a waste of time for arts organizations…”Because we’re essentially telling people to vote for us instead of hungry children.”
And pitting two worthy causes against one another is no way to build an audience. The next generation of this type of online competition must include the voters and give them a reason to participate. Make it fun for the voters, and the “I Need Your Help” email can come out of the Spam Filter, and back into the conversation.
