by Mandie Mutchie
Hopefully, it’s been a long time since you’ve heard someone say Charlie Sheen’s catch phrase before bed (“WINNING!”), but even though the phrase is tired and overused, that doesn’t mean that you have to stop winning!
A couple months ago, I was tweeting about how much I wanted a FitBit to track my activity (it’s basically a fancy pedometer that you can also use to track your sleep), when a gentleman named Jason Urgo (@Urgo) started following me, and I noticed that he was doing a fitbit giveaway from his YouTube page. To win a fitbit, you had to make a video, and he gave us categories of how to do so. I entered, and I won! It was so exciting! So, I decided to try one of my own!
As someone who makes the majority of her income via the internet and social media, I spend a reasonable amount of time researching different ways to reach more people and connect more on social media. Through this, one recommendation to get more people to your page was to do some giveaways, so I did an experiment with that, and it went GREAT! My initial video (where I gave away cosmetic products I purchased myself in an effort to increase my following on twitter and facebook) got me a MUCH larger youtube following, as well as more “likes” on facebook and “followers” on twitter. The first video was added mid-march and has nearly five-hundred views, some of which happened after the contest had ended.
Since then, I have been asked by a local business to do a video giveaway for them. I will be announcing the winner and seeing the final difference in their number of “likes” on facebook and “follows” on twitter after the article has been submitted, but the video itself has a couple hundred views after only two weeks of it being up. This means that their brand has reached AT LEAST (since I am only able to track it with YouTube views and eventually likes, it is hard to tell how many people saw my statuses/tweets and checked out their page without doing any actions, such as “liking” the page) a couple hundred people that they wouldn’t normally reach.
People want to bring a positive experience and association with their brand, and what better way to do it than by allowing someone the opportunity to win something!? Not only will that person be excited at the chance to try your product, but they will also spend time looking at your other offerings and potentially make a purchase. I know that I have bought from Rebel Green since doing their giveaway! Also, imagine the excitement they will have and how much they will talk about how wonderful your brand is since they won something! And back to that whole Charlie Sheen WINNING thing… Part of why we love it is physiological – we get endorphins when we win something (ever wonder why some people are addicted to gambling?), and there are few better ways to reach a stranger than by this giveaway.
I’ve had so much fun doing this that I am now offering my services to other companies, so if you’d like me to promote your company with a giveaway, just let me know & we’ll start setting it up! Yes, you can do one on your own, but if you add me to the equation, you’re adding a minimum of 5,000 different people who are in my network, but not necessarily yours!
Have a great day, and Happy May! 

Amanda Mutchie began her professional modeling career nearly ten years ago, and has appeared in many national and international publications, and commercials. Over the course of her modeling career, she worked with many acclaimed makeup artists, learning from them along the way. She eventually became a makeup artist herself and started FaceScape Artistry. Now she works with incredible photographers, models, brides, and other clients to create glamorous as well as natural makeup looks. She also channels her passion for fitness and nutrition and desire to help others into her work as a beachbody coach, and is pursuing her Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction.
For more information on Mandie go towww.MandieM.com, www.facescapeartistry.com, email Mandie at mandelicious@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @mandelicious.  Don’t forget to “like” her pages on facebook, too!  www.facebook.com/MandieLM &www.facebook.com/FaceScapeArtistry www.lipglossnlace.com 
*Photo by Rafal Krolik of Seville Media 

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