Social media contests are a great way to increase engagement, boost your following, and share your products or services. These social media tips and contest ideas for your apartment can help take you to the next level in your social media strategy.

24 social media contest ideas for apartments:

1. Attend our resident event and post a picture with a custom hashtag to be entered to win
2. Answer a trivia question about your community or city 
3. We’re raising a glass to favorite, local restaurants. Fill in the blank to be entered to win. My favorite local restaurant is: 
4. Follow us and tag your future roommate below
5. Balcony/ patio decorating contest
6. Pet of the month
7. Caption this! Best comment wins
8. Spot the difference between 2 photos
9. Comment with how many of something you can find in 1 photo
10. This or that: vote for your favorite.
11. Baking/ cooking contests – show us your Gordon Ramsay skills
12. Photo scavenger hunt

Holiday & seasonal social media contests:

1. Show us your pet for National Puppy Day to win a gift basket from the local pet shop
2. Use an emoji below to tell us your favorite springtime activity to be entered to win
3. Spread some festive cheer and show us your holiday home décor
4. Super Bowl Sunday: comment with your predicted winning score
5. Pumpkin carving contest
6. A pot of gold and all of the green beer your hands can hold. Use an Irish name generator and share your name below to be entered to win a 6-pack of green beer. (21+)
7. New year, new you: share your new year’s resolutions
8. Ugly sweater contest: Post a photo of your ugly holiday sweater
9. Thankful Thursday: share something or someone you’re thankful for
10. Costume contest: for both humans and pets
11. Red, white, and YOU. Share about your favorite 4th of July tradition
12. Love is in the air – tell us about the funniest date you ever had

Popular Social Media Giveaways for Apartments

If you’re looking for popular giveaway gift ideas for your apartment residents…

• Google Home/ Amazon Echo/ smart home device
• Amazon gift card
• Gift basket filled with goodies from local businesses that are near your apartment community
• Food/ dinner/ drinks from a local restaurant
• Tickets to a sporting event or concert (pre-COVID-19)
• Date night: dinner, dessert, and an activity for two
• Free oil change
• Cash
• Haircut to salon of choice
• Shopping spree with local boutique (up to certain amount)
• BarkBox

BTW, here are some tips on what doesn’t work for social media contests:

• Barriers to entry– are you asking your users to share the post, tag friends, share to their stories, comment, like, and DM you? Next. Keep it short, sweet, and focused.
• Keep your contest dates tight. No one wants to find out if they’re a winner of something three weeks after they forgot what contest they entered.
• Too many cooks in the kitchen. ????‍???? If your contest includes more than one participating business, put a limit on how many you include. People may lose interest if they have to follow 10+ accounts to just be entered.
• Failing to communicate. Share that the winner has been announced after the contest closes, share a congratulatory post, and don’t leave your users questioning if the won.

*Free content alert! Feel free to snag the graphic below to be used in your next social media contest or giveaway.

We hope these sparked some of your own ideas and inspiration. In the end, have fun with your social media and keep your residents engaged and a reason to follow you!