Online Marketing for Dance Studios: Facebook Contest Ideas

As we’ve discussed previously, each form of engagement with your social media accounts will increase their visibility. And visual content is key to encouraging that engagement. But it doesn’t hurt to occasionally dangle a little more of a carrot out there in front of your social media followers. Since online marketing and especially organic social media engagement can be more beneficial than any other marketing you can do, you would do well to spend more of your marketing dollars in order to create and motivate rather than to just print fancy flyers.

Get Your Dance Studio Family Creating for You

One contest type is based on providing a creative outlet for your dancers — an outlet in addition to dance, that is. The basic idea is to submit the file or link to you (or whoever posts to your studio’s Facebook page) for you to post. Then contestants share the post, and ask their friends to share it, vying for the most Facebook “Likes.”

If you have your page settings set up correctly, you could require anyone to “Like” your dance studio’s page before they’re able to engage with any post on it, so you benefit by not only the initial visibility (and positive energy) during the contest but also by getting more fans for your page for marketing to in the future. You could take it several directions, but we recommend only one at a time.

Here are a few artistic venues to consider:
• create your own dance-related instructional video
• create your own dance-related infographic or meme
• create your own dance-related poem or story

Let Others Have a Say in Your Studio

A little less chaotic way to run a creative-content-related contest is to simply promote a contest on your website and social media pages. You could limit it to current dancers or expand it to include the public. Either way, it can offer others a chance to influence your studio’s image, and everyone loves the opportunity to have their ideas seen and heard. Instead of relying on popular vote, you could have either your instructors or a predetermined panel of parents and/or dancers vote on the winner.

Here are some ideas:
• submit a new logo or slogan for thestudio
• design the studio’s next water bottle (or another personalized item)
• choose a theme for this year’s classes or recital

Maximize Your Contest’s Publicity

Just because your contest started in cyber space doesn’t mean it has to stay there. Not only can physical products or signs result — along with physical prizes — but so can a good, old-fashioned newspaper clipping. (Who doesn’t like to see their name and photo in print?!) So be sure to submit a press release to your local media outlets, complete with a photo of the winner, their submission, and their prize (in front of your dance studio, of course). And then don’t forget to post that clipping on your studio’s bulletin board, too!

JackrabbitDance

JackrabbitDance.com is the leading dance studio software for more than a decade. More than 11,000 studios use Jackrabbit because the system saves them so much time, keeps them organized and simplifies communication with their customers. The beauty of Jackrabbit is the ability to grow and scale your business without outgrowing your software.