Fun Ways to Incorporate Swag Into Your Social Media Strategy

Social media has changed how companies develop their brand. The ability to start conversations, offer discounts, and engage with customers online gives you daily opportunities to increase brand awareness and finetune your brand identity. 

To be really effective, a social media strategy has to keep followers engaged and excited about your brand, products, and services. Rewarding your social media followers with custom swag is a cost-effective way to maintain and increase online buzz about your brand. Here are a few fun ways to incorporate custom swag with your social media strategy.

Branded Giveaways

Rewarding your followers for engaging with your brand is one of the simplest ways to use custom swag in your social media strategy, and can generate buzz for upcoming events, product launches, and sales. For instance, you might offer custom swag to the first hundred followers to share your post offering a limited-time discount. Include a compelling hashtag for followers to use — not only does a creative hashtag generate buzz, it also provides a means of gathering data on the success of your promotional giveaway campaign. 

As for the type of swag used during a social media giveaway event, it needs to be brand relevant and something people can post pictures of online. Depending on your brand personality, it can be either impractical, fun, or even goofy. The Cinnamon Toast Crunch “selfie spoon” campaign is a great example of a branded giveaway. The cereal company offered free selfi spoons —  selfie sticks with spoons at one end —  so people could take photos of themselves eating breakfast. The campaign was designed to tempt people into taking pictures and videos with their breakfast selfies while eating, generating large amounts of buzz for the company. 

There’s no need to break the bank for a social media giveaway campaign. Popular swag includes custom embroidered beanies, branded T-shirts, water bottles, stress toys, and flyers. 

Custom Swag Contests

Contests are another way to keep your followers engaged. For instance, you might ask followers to submit inventive ways to use your product, challenge them to take photos of themselves using your products, or ask them to come up with a hashtag for an upcoming conference. Pick a high-end first prize, two or three second prizes, and fifty to a hundred runner-up prizes. A sample prize pack for a construction company might look like this:

• First Prize: A rugged Carhartt jacket customized with the company’s brand logo. 
• Second Prizes: Two customized Carharrt hooded sweatshirts.
• Runner-Up Prizes: 50-100 Carhartt embroidered beanies.

Generate Buzz for Upcoming Events

Whether you’re hosting a trade show or planning the launch of a new product, you can use social media to generate buzz about the event. Offer custom swag to followers on the condition they post pictures or videos of themselves using their swag in a way that relates to your event. For instance, a grocery store conference might offer custom printed tote bags for shopping, while a sporting trade show might ask for pictures of followers working out in promotional athletic t-shirts. As with other promotional giveaways, be sure to include a hashtag followers can use. 

Influencing Your Influencers

Social media has led to the rise of influencers — individuals whose opinions and product choices have a significant impact on how your target audience chooses and uses products and services. Wooing such influencers to your side is important, and often that means putting together an intriguing and well-presented PR package. 

In addition to PR packages, you may want to send custom swag to influencers as special surprises, or as a thank-you for their help with a particular marketing campaign. As influencers will almost always make an unboxing video of any swag they receive, your single gift will be seen by hundreds or thousands of the influencer’s own followers. Add in a hashtag and special coupon or discount for those who watch the unboxing, and you’ve created a marketing campaign for very little effort. 

Custom Swag Surveys

Used correctly, your social media followers comprise a ready-made focus group. If you’re unsure of which custom swag to offer your followers, why not ask them? Put together a survey asking about the types of swag they want, the colors they prefer, and desired clothing styles and brands. Not only does this provide you with a clear picture of what your target audience wants out of custom swag, you also engage your followers in the decision-making process, building your relationship and increasing the likelihood they’ll act as brand ambassadors.