When it comes to social media and contests - they BLOW UP. What do I mean by this? Log on to Facebook and search around for a little while. You are bound to find a few contests on some of your favorite brands' pages. The best way to get the news out about a contest online is to use social media. Facebook and Twitter are the main platforms to find contests on. With Twitter you can use a hashtag to track the submissions and Facebook you can use a specific page.
Recently, Dunkin Donuts used Twitter and Vine to promote their contest. Vine is the newest video app released by Twitter. Contestants are to post a 6 second video of how Dunkin Donuts Iced Coffee puts a spring in your step and use the hashtag #IceDD when they post their video to Twitter. The contest ran from May 13th through May 19th. The winner gets free iced coffee for a year.
If you log onto Twitter and type in the hashtag #IceDD, you will see all the submissions from Dunkin Donuts fans participating in the contest. There are a few tweets that you will have to scroll down through in order to see the submissions - some of the videos are very clever. 
Why is Vine suddenly so popular? Scott Hudler, Vice President of Global Consumer Engagement at Dunkin' Brands said it best, “We see Vine as an untapped resource that is in the beginning stages of its popularity.” We are going to see a lot of brands begin to participate in the use of Vine and more contests will pop up. Early adopters such as Taco Bell and Comedy Central have already dipped their toes into the Vine realm, posting several videos and sparking some interest.
Vine has gotten some major action since it's release in January 2013. Now we are seeing major brand names participating with the Vine community and introducing contest ideas. Taco Bell used Vine to announce the release of their Cool Ranch Doritos Taco.
Dunkin' Donuts has recently started to use visual campaigns as their main strategy to connect with fans. They launched a photo and video campaign on Facebook last month and another one on Twitter. It seems that more and more brands are using visual campaigns for their contests and connecting with their fans. Isn't that what marketers have been pushing for all along? And they finally listened! Now let's see what creative campaigns these major players can come up with....
Have you looked into or tried Vine? What are some of the best videos you've seen?
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