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Search Engine Optimization and the use of User Generated Content (UGC) have a unique relationship. UGC aids search engines by giving them more content and information to work with while improving the overall relationship your brand has with your audience. User Generated Content and SEO: What’s the Connection? User Generated Content is any content created by your audience and other online users. Most UGC consists of what we see across social media, including text posts, videos, photos, reviews, and more. It’s authoritative, as it impacts consumers decisions and works as a form of word-of-mouth marketing. In addition to those benefits, many marketers don’t realize that User Generated Content can be leveraged for Search Engine Optimization. Many of the nation's largest brands employ a user generated content strategy, as it serves a purpose to help rank the content of websites as relevant or useful to the searcher. By including UGC into your SEO strategy, you create an effective method for boosting your search rankings, generating awareness, and curating content for your brand. Visual Marketing Content Boosts Top-of-Funnel Shoppers Search engine optimization becomes a critical component for brands as users begin the discovery stage of their consumer journey. Nearly ⅓ of shoppers begin their experience within a search engine, rather than going directly to a brand’s website. In addition, they’re researching their purchases before buying, seeking content that is trustworthy and useful. As search engines often prioritize fresh and relevant content, having a stream of user generated content can help improve your search rankings. Not only is this improvement great from a technical perspective, but featuring user-generated content on your website can increase the likelihood of conversion. Driving sales online rely on having a strong mix of paid and organic search to draw quality traffic. Things can become more complicated as your users come in from many different sources - such as social media referrals. However, roughly one-third of product searches and discoveries begin with search. UGC Gives Search Engines Fresh Content Search engines prioritize content that is new (or “fresher”) and relevant. Therefore, it is beneficial to have a steady flow of user-generated content that helps attribute to your search rankings. Not only does UGC benefit search, but it also benefits on-page. Using UGC as a part of visual content marketing can increase the chances of conversions. Many consumers claim their purchases are influenced by the reviews and images posted by their friends and family. Many brands have taken advantage of creating content in-house to boost many marketing goals, including SEO. However, branded content has created a lot of clutter, lacks authenticity, and can sometimes become fatigued with consumers. Content strategies are most effective with a healthy balance of UGC and branded content. Not only does content from your audience deliver more authenticity, but it cuts down the resources needed for brands to create content and boosts your SEO efforts. UGC Supports Basic SEO Factors Naturally  Keywords, titles, and links are many of the basic attributes that help optimize sites for search engines. When consumers are encouraged to share reviews with rich details and images, they help shape SEO with relevant keywords and contextual links. For example, let’s pretend a consumer is writing a review about a new smartphone they purchased from you. In their review, they include phrases such as “best smartphone”, “durable smartphone”, and “affordable smartphone”. These phrases help with SEO by understanding search intent.  Now, when other users search for similar phrases, your brand will have more authority over others for that phrase. In addition, internal links and backlinks shared in this consumers review can also strengthen your SEO. Blogs that write about your products or services provide rich longform content search engines prefer. Generating User Generated Content Using Digital Promotions As noted in our blog about crafting a User Generated Content Strategy, a great overview to building a UGC campaign includes: Managing your UGC effectively right from the start. Monitoring the performance of your UGC campaigns. Plan the work of your teams involved in UGC campaigns. Minimize the risk of low participation in UGC campaigns. Digital Promotions are a great starting point to generating User Generated content. Sweepstakes and contests are great tactics to engage with your users and reward them for creating content on your businesses behalf. All of this content meshes well with search engines, improving your visibility. With our UGC promotions, we handle all of the nuances with launching a UGC promotion. This includes rights management and other legal steps that need to be secured before launching a promotion. We operate as a full-service sweepstakes management and administration company, so we handle every step from promotion development, to legal administration and prize fulfillment. Explore more of the benefits of UGC promotions within your marketing strategy. Get a free quote today.

Prize promotions require delicate management within the legal space of the United States. When preparing to run a contest, sweepstakes, or consumer rewards program, it’s important to comply with the many federal sweepstakes laws and regulations that exist to protect consumers. In addition, many social media platforms have their own social media guidelines in place to protect their users and businesses. To help you navigate this space, we’ve pieced together an overview of all of these parameters that are required to run a legally sound and compliant promotion. Please note that this guide is not a substitute for legal advice, however, our team offers legal administration services to ensure full compliance in running a legal contest or sweepstakes.  Giveaways, Sweepstakes, and Contest: Understanding Terminology Typically, businesses can choose between running two types of promotions in the United States; Sweepstakes and Contests. It’s important to understand the distinction before diving into sweepstakes laws and contest laws. Sweepstakes vs Contests - What’s the Difference?  The major difference between these two types of promotions is that sweepstakes are games of chance (based on luck) where prize winners are chosen randomly. Contests are skill-based games, meaning winners are usually selected on merit. Contest winners can be selected based on performance, judges, voting, or any fulfillment of criteria. What is a Giveaway?  Giveaways (or Instant Win games) technically operate as sweepstakes but usually have a deeper prize strategy that rewards a larger pool of entrants with smaller prizes. The FTC and FCC: An Overview The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are two governing bodies within the United States that regulate digital promotions. These two agencies will investigate any claims of malpractice within promotions such as sweepstakes and contests to protect American consumers. This includes advertising that may be misleading about a promotion. Most FTC and FCC investigations regarding digital promotions deal with illegal lotteries. Illegal lotteries are any promotion that violates No Purchase Necessary laws. What does “No Purchase Necessary” mean? No Purchase Necessary is one of the most important laws to take into account when running sweepstakes or contest. Typically, this usually applies to scenarios where winners are selected randomly - such as running sweepstakes. This rule serves to protect the consumer from for-profit businesses, forbidding them from requiring consideration (defined below) to enter a promotion. What is Consideration?  Consideration consists of two categories: Monetary and Non-monetary efforts. Monetary involves requiring any payment/entry fee (including purchases) for entry to a promotion. Non-monetary is the requirement of any activity that may take substantial time or effort that benefits the business or sponsor in a direct way. Contests and Consideration  There are exceptions to the No Purchase Necessary law. For example, if you run a contest where winners are selected on skill and/or merit of entry, you are free to ask for purchases and other forms of consideration. This example is why running Contests provide an excellent opportunity to generate User Generated Content (UGC). With a contest, you are open to ask users to take actions that require effort, such as photos or videos that can be used in your brand story-telling. In addition, you can run contests that require a purchase, however, there are a small number of states that prohibit it.  Alternative Means of Entry (AMOE Definition) Another way to permit promotions that require consideration or purchase is to include an Alternative Means of Entry (AMOE) or a free means of entry. An AMOE entry can include mail-in entries, phone calls, or email entries that provide information relevant to the official rules of the promotion. In any promotion, an AMOE should be disclosed clearly so that entrants are well-informed that there is a free method of entering. In addition, entrants that opt for AMOE should have the same, equal chances of winning that paying entrants do. State Laws Depending on what states you plan to run your sweepstakes in, there are sometimes state-level laws that forbid certain promotion practices within their respective state. We've written a detailed guide on state by state promotions laws that have a brief overview of state-level practices. As always, we recommend consulting a promotions legal administrator. Social Media Guidelines Twitter Instagram Facebook Summary In summary, when running a digital promotion such as a sweepstakes, contest, instant win game, or consumer rewards program, there are a lot of legal details to keep in mind. At Realtime Media we simplify the legal administration process so you can focus on your KPIs.  With in-house legal and a team of administration experts, we can take care of writing your official rules, Bonding & Registering, and handling your Alternate (Free) Means of Entry (AMOE). Take a few minutes to build your free quote today and learn how Realtime Media can help.

Today, most marketers rely on data collection to understand their consumers and reach the right target audience. Consumers are more likely to interact with a brand they feel a personal connection with. In order to give customers the personalized experience needed to encourage brand loyalty, brands rely on consumer data. Consumer data gives you a deeper understanding of who your audience is, what they’re shopping for, and what their preferences are.  However, data security is extremely important to protect consumer privacy. It is important for brands to remain CCPR and GDPR compliant in order to keep consumer data protected and secure. Consumers are now hyper-aware of the protection and safety of their data. They want to ensure that the information they are volunteering is protected and contains some sort of benefit, such as a personalized brand experience. Ensuring that consumer information entered into a promotion is kept secure should be a top priority for all digital marketers.  Types of Data Collection First-Party & Third-Party Data Collection is data that is collected through observation or input of a consumer’s online behavior. This includes everything from search history and transaction history to birthdays. By analyzing these consumer actions, brands are able to understand and segment their potential customers. Taking data collection a step further, Zero-party data refers to consumer data that is intentionally and proactively shared with brands. This includes any information the consumer deliberately shares with the brand, such as purchase intentions, rather than information that is inferred. Brands are able to collect data through their relationships with customers that go beyond observation of the consumer.  In efforts to acquire zero-party data, it is imperative to establish a direct relationship with consumers. In order to build a relationship, brands need to give consumers a reason to interact with the brand, such as sweepstakes and other digital promotions. This boosts consumer acquisition and brand interaction, allowing companies to develop a personal connection to their customers.  CCPA & GDPR An important part of protecting consumer data is remaining compliant with the CCPA and GDPR.  The California Consumer Privacy Act is a bill passed by California to enhance the privacy rights and consumer protection of California residents. The CCPA applies to any business that collects data from California consumers. This act provides those consumers with the right to know what data is being collected about them and have control over their personal data.  An article on data security from CyberSaint Security establishes that “we can expect to see calls for mandated standards emerge in order to protect end users’ privacy and security. Two outcomes will start to take shape in the coming months and years. State governments will follow California’s lead.” As data security becomes increasingly important to consumers, states will begin to follow in California’s footsteps and establish legislation to protect private data. The General Data Protection Regulation sets guidelines for the collection and processing of personal information from residents of the European Union. This law mandates that EU visitors must be given a number of data disclosures when entering any personal information. At Realtime Media, we build our infrastructure to remain compliant with the CCPA and GDPR to protect the personal data of your consumers. Learn more about our data security. Conclusion It is important for brands to establish trust with users over their data and privacy in order to to get the most out of their consumers’ data.. When it comes to data collection, Realtime Media integrates with the tools you already use to to easily collect and analyze consumer data and insights.  Privacy matters to us and to your customers. We go beyond the industry standard for security and protection of digital promotions to ensure the privacy of your consumers’ data.  CCPA & GDPR compliant infrastructure and processes are built directly into our promotional backend and promotions process. Fraud mitigation and bot protection is at the core of our PromoPickTM codebase. Through the use of industry leading site structures, tools, and protocols, we ensure that winners are valid and fair participants. With flexible support options and in-house teams for development, project management, consumer support, and fulfillment, Realtime Media is here to help launch your next digital promotion.

Running a social sweepstakes is a great way to reach your customer on the platforms they engage the most with. Promoting sweepstakes on social media is a great way to give your target audience an incentive to interact with your brand. As brands look for new ways to engage customers online, many are turning toward the social sweepstakes category. In a previous blog, -insert blog title here-, we explain how sweepstakes can incentivize your customer and drive brand loyalty and interaction. Now, it’s important to take a simple social sweepstakes a step further in order to stand out. Looking for recommendations to spruce up your #SummerBummer? Here are some helpful tips to make your summer sweeps campaign stand out. Deliver Relevant Prizes While people spend more time at home this summer rather than traveling, social sweepstakes are a vital part of engaging consumers at home. By delivering prizes such as grills, lawn chairs, or corn hole, social sweepstakes can help make consumers’ summer at home better and provide further incentive for consumer engagement. Products that are related to the summer months are more likely to receive high engagement during a seasonal promotion. At Realtime Media, we’re ready to help you construct the best prize winner experience. From the timeline of procurement to trip coordination, we have every service to support your promotion. Learn more about our fulfillment services here. Engage Users Outside of Social Media Take your promotion a step further by having a microsite to bring social promotions outside of social media. Using UGC content hubs (for promotions like hosting a recipe contest) draws in users and allows your social activation to become even more interactive for the consumer. By taking the users somewhere outside of social media, it allows your social sweepstakes to stand out and engage the target audience. One promotion idea to reach customers outside of social media could be a contest where users compete to have the best backyard set up. Invite your customers to send photos of their backyard for a chance to win a prize. At Realtime Media, we offer contest moderation and judging services to help you manage your promotion. RTM can screen contest entries or select your winners based on the guidelines you set. Alternatively, you can have the public vote on entries to drive extra engagement to your promotion. Learn more about our UGC + Contest Services here. Utilize Receipt Validation & Buy-Get Promotions Receipt validation and buy-get promotions are great ways to interact with your customers in-store and drive purchases. With receipt validation, consumers can make a purchase in-store or online and submit their receipt to be entered into a sweepstakes to win a prize. This drives consumers to buy a product in order to get an entry. By keeping the product relevant to the summer season, like a box of popsicles, consumers are motivated to make the purchase and participate in the promotion. With our validation engine, Realtime Media can capture and process receipts from any retailer to ensure your receipt validation social sweepstakes is handled from start to finish. Learn how Realtime Media helped General Mills and Walmart utilize in store activation to reward consumers who bought a box of cheerios. Conclusion When it comes to creating an engaging summer sweeps event, it’s important to take your promotion to the next level. By creating an engaging digital promotion that captures consumers both on and outside of social platforms, brands can make their social sweepstakes stand out in a saturated category. Implementing unique digital promotion techniques is a great way to elevate the results of your summer sweeps campaign. With the flexibility and scale to run social sweepstakes and contests of any size, Realtime Media is the leading full-service promotions partner. Learn more about how we can help you launch your summer promotion!

As mentioned time and time again, there is no doubt that the chance to win, and the prizes up for grabs, are one of the leading reasons that consumers enter digital promotions. There are several factors that all must come together in order to create a successful promotion. Often times prize strategy and fulfillment is often overlooked. Taking a closer look at how prize fulfillment services fit into your overall marketing strategy brands begin to uncover just how vital fulfillment is.

In the ever-changing online landscape, digital marketing has become increasingly more important to driving brand awareness. Tactics often center around getting repeat engagement with the brand to facilitate consumer loyalty and bring back customers back for more. Instant win games and gamification promotions bring a user back time and again while delivering a unique customer experience.