Giveaways to start-off a forum

[vans]

Hello.
I am currently working in a new website-forum about Esports but not limited to it (all gaming-focusing, but can talk about anything if you want).
I understand that starting off a forum nowadays in 2018 is kind of hard (harder than years back), and that's in part because there are TONS of websites of every typical thematic, so big forums of certain thematic controls that market (in my opinion, at least).

I have been thinking about social media to advertise the forum. And, of course, people get their interest in an interesting site, but also if it has real giveaways.
As we are talking about "Esports", I was thinking about spending some of my income in giving away, every x time, some things.

Maybe steam games, or like a promotional code of $xx to spend in steam.
In a more specific advertisement (CSGO, other games), maybe some skins, or even a monthly subscription in third party sites where you can play more smoothly.

Of course those giveaways would be promoted in the social media, but you have to redeem them by registering and by posting content (well, only posts), in the forum.
My forum will have the cash points system where you earn them by posting. I was thinking that by doing a RT/like/posting in forum and then when you reach xx posts (which would lead to xx coins) you get to redeem the gift.

Do you think this would work?
What else do you think it can be valid to promote in social media to incentive users to register, to post, and to get to know the site? (Of course, quality content will be posted, so they get engaged with it)

Thank you, and feel free to post your opinion so we can start off sone conversation!

 

[GrrasSolutions]

You can do social media campaigning for your website to bring more relevant traffic and conversion. Every business takes time to establish, so firstly you should focus on SEO and Google Algorithms which help you to get rank your website on search engines.

 

[cornnfedd]

hmmm competitions can be hit and miss, problem is that people will register and post to win the comp and when they do will leave and never come back, or if they dont win they will also leave and never come back, so it needs to be done properly..

 

[mysiteguy]

You can do social media campaigning for your website to bring more relevant traffic and conversion. Every business takes time to establish, so firstly you should focus on SEO and Google Algorithms which help you to get rank your website on search engines.

Your answer has nothing to do with his question (whether giveaways help grow a forum) and it only serves to bump a long abandoned thread.

 

[LeadCrow]

Esport is actually not that hard to run communities around. Many might have succeeded but tons more are or have failed - an opportunity worth researching.
The easiest way to create a discussion group is by making it either cover specific games, or the prime meeting point of a clan, preferably local then expanded. Venues like reddit and discord are too limited and hard to coherently organize information on.

A competition? IDK, it would make sense doing an actual tournament with a pot rather than a direct promotion for an empty forum. A tournament can fund itself and more between player contributions and sponsorships, whereas promoting a forum might result in a temporary activity boost and the loss of your investment.

Nowadays kids play mostly online so organizing a realworld meetup could go a long way, maybe even net you some press coverage if you play your cards well.

 

[overcast]

I know few forums who are trying this and they are getting pretty good amount of leads in their forums and also activity keeping views on their forums and videos.

 

[Bengie]

Bringing this up again.
I tried giving away a nice shiny new tablet for the new member who posted the most.

Six months later not a single new person had posted so I ended up giving it to the grandkids.

 

[Nous]

Yeah, doing giveaways doesn't seem to work for me too. I was planning on doing a game giveaway on my forum but decided against it after having a chat with a few colleagues on their failed giveaway experiences.

 

[LeadCrow]

Competitive giveaways like posting challenges have the negative of encouraging the people who know about the contest to not share awareness of it. Offering an ocasional freebie to your staffers or random active member you feel very friendly towards would gain you more lasting goodwill that can materialize in deeper involvement with your (other?) ventures.

As for devices, its preferable to use the review copies you obtained and sharing them this way either after youre done reviewing them (this ensures you have a review online and can sneak in promotional links), or if you dont feel like doing reviews yourself or prefer gifting it unopened, ask the chosen recipient to do their own review (and then its up to you wether they can keep it). Its actually commonplace but struggling folks would probably resell them afterwards.

 

[zappaDPJ]

Offering an ocasional freebie to your staffers or random active member you feel very friendly towards would gain you more lasting goodwill that can materialize in deeper involvement with your (other?) ventures.

This is exactly what I've done for nearly 20 years with great results and by that I mean loyal members posting quality content.

There's really no way of using giveaways to attract new members because you are preaching to the converted. In fact I'd go as far as say even if you gave away a new car you probably wouldn't attract a single genuine new member... although I won't be putting that to the test on any of my forums

 

[cornnfedd]

Also people always say the competitions are rigged, or get more upset for not winning anything also.

 

[Fait]

It’s a great idea, But even these days it’s hard to promote anything especially with Facebook new spam policy now.