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artsy-hobbitses · 2 years ago

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Hi! I would like to ask how Strongarm ( Pre-War) gained Sideswipe trust/ When Sideswipe decided that despite her being a cop Strongarm is worthy his trust what ultimately led to him helping to save her life

Because her Gotta Do Right instinct is more overpowering than her allegiance to the thin blue line, and it’s something that happens often enough that she’s made enemies on the force who don’t like that she’s a Legacy Prick Pick who’s messing up their quotas (She and OP can brofist on this one) and won’t back them up when they have to explain their fuckups in court.

There is no arrest without a warrant, ALL infractions are recorded—even that of fellow officers—and if you turn off your camera, she has hers on. She comes equipped with de-escalation training, PRIORITISES it and has no compunctions about stepping in if fellow cops step outta line.

Part of it IS because she’s a Legacy Pick—to an extent, she WAS Teflon when it came to this sort of thing, the higher ups coveted her after all, she didn’t come to them. Complaints would be filed over how difficult she was to work with, but for a while, like Prowl, she was still seen as more an asset than she was a liability, so she wielded that privilege to the best of her ability.

Sideswipe saw it on the streets when she forced the shutdown of a ‘bait truck’ operation in an impoverished neighborhood and made calls to NGOs and aid centers instead of arrests when dealing with desperation-driven shoplifting.

He saw it when she was off-duty because when she wasn’t in uniform, she was doing an Olivia Benson and checking in on victims of the cases she helped handle.

He saw it in lockup personally a couple of times when her colleagues wanted to hold him beyond the remand period for whatever minor infractions they would bring him in for (vandalism, public disturbance, misdemeanor obstruction) and would try to bait him into violence so they could tag him with the felony of assaulting a police officer. He’s a hothead, not an idiot, but more surprising to him is that SHE knows exactly what they were trying to do, calls them up for it and makes sure he’s released on the dot at the end of his remand period.

So it really wasn’t hard to trust her.

Basically, she’s a straight arrow, an honest cop (by which I mean she’s a buff Judy Hopps) who genuinely cares, which has Sideswipe bemused and mildly concerned (Him? Give a shit? Dream on, Shortstack, but you best keep an eye out yaknow—the real dark stuff ain’t in front of your ranks, it’s behind ‘em).

Because good cops don’t last out here.

At some point, she’s investigating Sideswipe’s claims that the murders of several prominent union activists in Hell’s Kitchen have gone under the radar, and she decided to pick it up despite her colleagues telling her that it’s just gang-related activity—you know how they are, you know what that place is like.

She gives Sideswipe a burner cell so they can keep in contact over the case and trade info, after which she discovers:

The entire thing is part of a particularly bloody union-busting effort funded by a local pro-Functionist politician and carried out by cops on his payroll.

There is paperwork filed on Sideswipe, approving the detainment and use of ‘behavioral conditioning’ via Mnemosurgery on him (similar to what had been planned for a young!Jazz) after the local three-strike law was amended to also include public disturbance-type misdemeanors.

She immediately passes the intel and warning to Sideswipe and heads out to what she believes is a sting operation on a drug cartel. Which it IS, except the plan was for her to be ‘a hero killed in the line of duty’ and oops literally no one told her until she’s trying to remember how to breath and can feel some of her insides on her outside somewhere down the back of her waist.

No one has a chance to monologue though! All she needs to hear is “couldn’t let you warn him” and she’s firing off salvos in a fight for her life. Takes down one dirty cop, the others scatter to wait for backup, and she escapes out the back.

She doesn’t make it far though. Crumpled in a filthy alley somewhere, she makes the call to Sideswipe and does something she’s never done in her life; ask for help.

Because she doesn’t know who else to call (she can’t call her family and put them at risk, she can’t call her colleagues because she clearly can’t trust a lot of them, can’t go to a local GH because there will be a BOLO out for her—you’re all she has right now).

And Sideswipe drops everything and answers.

Because good cops don’t last out here, he fuckin’ told you, but like hell he’ll let you die out on the streets. Shut up, don’t tell him all the things you wanted tell your old man that you never said before this—you tell your old man that in person, because whatever it takes, he’s making sure you get out of this alive.

#Inbox #Save for later

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twitchesandstitches · 6 years ago

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“And then,” the lawyer continued. “There is the matter of your descendents.”

In the Crockercorp offices, Meenah Peixes the First, or the Condesce to use her adult title, blinked slowly. “What descendants?!”

The lawyer clicked a picture, and a photo appeared. The Condesce recognized the ramshackle ‘our ship houses are garbage and we LIKE it’ design aesthetic of the Endowed Nomad Fleet, and there appeared to be a lab of some variety. It was filled with people, mostly tending towards a ridiculously curvaceous framework; androids, robots, gynoids. Salarians and viera, tiny shortstacked Galvans and enormous Autobots and trolls of all blood colors. From the cranial cybernetics, it seemed that brain enchancement was common. The biggest of them all was an absolutely massive and ludicrously curvy troll woman, her breasts and hips broader than a good portion of the rest of her body, the remainder slabbed with beefy muscle where she hadn’t shoved in cybernetics.

As this particular troll loomed over a surgical table with a disturbingly eager expression, her claws extended like knives, the video stopped. “I’m sure you’ve heard of Feferi Peixes, the star bio-modding super genius of the Nomad Fleet.”

The Condesce stared. Her horns were the same shape. Her eyes had that little tilt around the slit pupils. Her snout was the same. Her creast-fins had the same flippy, floppy serrated edges. Even the color of their biolumisencent freckles was the same...! “What the hell, she looks like me... wait, no. She’s not... she’s my...”

“Descendant, yes. We have confirmed it. But she is not the only one.”

The lawyer clicked and another photo, of the same fleet, appeared. This time was of an absolutely massive kitchen, aboard one of their home ships. Through the teeming masses, past a massive and very softly built half-Gem man with a pink diamond gleaming in his navel, there was a woman built on roughly the same broad scale as the Condesce herself, as Feferi. She was human, at least apparently. Her skin was a deep and lustrously dark brown, her ancestors perhaps Polynesian. Her hair short and elaborately curled.

Standing several times the height of even the largest human-sized figures, she had a classic big beautiful woman build; not fat, exactly, very wide and broad and plump, a big belly firm beneath breasts so enormous as to provide a full half of her entire body weight. Cybernetics glowing pale blue in grid-wire designs throughout her body.

She overall had the look of the ancient Egbert gene-line of ancient human nobility, but here and there... oh yes, there were signs. Small hints of a Peixes legacy. The curve of her lips, the shape of her jawline. A faint cast to her features, or the suggestion of unformed gills, a hint of not-quite-human origins.

“What the hell,” the Condesce said softly.

“Your experiments into syngergizing troll genetics with other species had at least one success... the one with your own gene seed,” the lawyer continued. “Jane Egbert. Or perhaps... Jane Crocker.”

“I have descendents,” the Condesce said numbly. “Holy shit. I have daughters?”

The lawyer paused. “I am not sure if they know of you or not. Would you care to set up a meeting?”

The Condesce tapped a claw against her desk. “...No,” she said quietly. “Not now. Not yet.”

In the back of her mind, she saw Yellow Diamond’s eyes narrowing; that she would be proclaimed losing spirit.

She saw Javik, lurking behind her, his gaze cold and merciless and utterly without any pity, asking her if she had lost her conviction. There was no room in their quest for someone like her, now...

She would not be the weak link.

#/#//#///#////#/////#queued #crossthicc AU #the condesce #homestuck #jane crocker #feferi #my writing #fics

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smh0217 · 7 years ago

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Ruby: And I’m the girl who killed RWBY and JN_R. I saw it. I didn’t tell the others, how could I? I saw them all dead, Qrow. I felt it. The whole world, too. It’s because of me. I wasn’t ready. I didn’t do all I could.

Qrow: That Emerald girl, she’s working you, shortstack. Playing on your fear.

Ruby: I wasn’t tricked, I was shown. It wasn’t a nightmare, it was my legacy. The end of the path I started us on.

Qrow: You’ve come up with some pretty impressive inventions, Ruby. War isn’t one of them.

Ruby: I watched my friends die. You’d think that’d be as bad as it gets, right? Nope. Wasn’t the worst part.

Qrow: The worst part is that you didn’t.

#RWBY #Ruby Rose #Qrow Branwen #source: Avengers Age of Ultron #incorrect rwby quotes

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you-call-it-a-dude · 8 years ago

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Baby Love

In case y’all ever wanted a story where Beca and Chloe have a very exciting gender reveal party, here it is. You can find this story and a bunch of my other Bechloe family stories right here

Beca was a bundle of nerves today. Today they would be finding out the gender of their baby and she honestly could not be more excited. Because Beca and Chloe both have best friends with a penchant to do things dramatically, they were coerced into having a gender reveal party (albeit it took more convincing on Beca’s part than Chloe’s). Aubrey being the amazing planner she is, somehow managed to find a day that fit everyone’s schedule. Now they have all of the Bellas, a few Trebles here and Chloe’s family in New York to celebrate this day with them. Beca’s mom was unable to make it, but they agreed to FaceTime her during the reveal.

As per request of General Posen, all of the guests must wear an article of clothing that corresponds with the gender they think the baby is and moms-to-be must wear a color for the gender they hope for. In order to avoid blowing the secret because they were the only two that actually knew the gender, Aubrey and Stacie were each told to wear a blue. Beca and Chloe haven’t actually discussed what gender they each had hoped for. Whenever the topic came up, both of them always just said they were happy as long as it were healthy. They decided to get dressed in separate rooms, each curious to see what the other had hoped for and both of them hoping they wanted the same. So once it was time to get ready, Beca tucked the pink flannel she bought just for this occasion into the pair of jeans she was going to wear, proceeded to hide that under her shirt and then made her way to the guest room.

Beca sat in the family room, patiently waiting for Chloe to finished getting dressed. She heard the door to their bedroom close and the sound of Chloe’s shoes against the stairs. She turned her head and smiled brightly at her wife. She was wearing a light blue dress that hugged the baby bump she was now sporting (and that Beca absolutely adored so so much). She stood up and held her hand out for Chloe and guided her down the last few steps, pulling her in for a kiss once she was within reach.

“So, you want a boy huh?” Beca questioned, cocking her eyebrow.

“I do!” Chloe tried to contain the smile on her face as she messed with the material of her wife’s flannel shirt. “And I see you want a girl. I honestly would have thought that you would’ve wanted a boy.” Beca shrugged her shoulders and put her hands on the baby bump, rubbing it softly with her thumbs.

“I just keep picturing a cute, giggly little girl running around our house.” Beca said shyly. Chloe grabbed her by her cheeks and pulled her in for a kiss.

“You’re so damn cute. Are you ready to go?” Beca nodded, grabbing her coat and car keys.

“You know one of us is going to be wrong though.” She said as she followed Chloe into the garage.

“It’s totes going to be you, babe.”

//////////

Beca and Chloe finally pulled into Aubrey's driveway. They were apparently told the party started later than it actually did because judging by the amount of cars in their driveway and on the street everyone has arrived. They opened the front door and gasped when they stepped in. Aubrey and Stacie had seriously outdone themselves. There was pink and blue everything; balloons, drinks, desserts, streamers, you name it. Once their coats where off and they stepped into where everyone else was, Beca frowned at the underwhelming amount of pink shirts. In fact, there were only three people wearing pink and that was including herself. Amy and Jesse were the other two people wearing pink shirts. The two girls made their way around to greet all of their friends. This was the first time they were seeing majority of them since before they were even thinking about having a baby and for a couple of them they wouldn’t see them until sometime after the baby was born (most of them would be coming to the baby shower in a few months because they were all the best friends that they could ask for). Beca was swept up in a big, bone-crushing hug when she went to greet Jesse and his wife.

“I can’t believe my Becaw is going to have a baby! I knew you wanted a girl! Do I know you or do I know you?” Jesse then proceeded to greet Chloe, complimenting her on how beautiful she looks and Beca could do nothing more than agree. She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to see Amy and Bumper. Beca immediately jumped into Amy’s outstretched arms and gladly accepted the hug.

“Hey, shortstack.” Amy squeezed her tightly one more time before pulling away from the hug and pulling Chloe in for a less aggressive one. “Look at you, little red!” Amy put her hands on Chloe’s baby bump. “Absolutely glowing!” As the conversation between Chloe and Amy continued, Beca sort of tuned it out. She looked around the large living room, admiring the decorations, before she got a glimpse of someone tall and lanky waiting patiently behind Chloe.

“Legacy!” Beca shouted, making Emily jump. Emily smiled and made her way to Beca, who hugged her tightly. When she pulled away from the hug, Beca gave the taller girl a confused look. “You know you’re only supposed to pick one color, right?” She asked, referring to the pink and blue tie-dye shirt the girl was wearing.

“I know. I just couldn’t decide!” Emily said throwing her hands in the air, clearly stressed out by the situation. Beca patted her shoulder and stifled a laugh.

“That’s such an Emily Junk thing to do. I honestly can’t even talk shit about it.” Beca was pulled from the conversation with Emily when she felt Chloe tug on her shirt. The redhead nodded toward Aubrey who was frantically motioning for Beca.

“I guess I’m being summoned. Go sit down, baby. I’ll go see what she needs and then I’ll bring you some snacks and something to drink.”

“Thank you, Becs.” Beca pressed a kiss to Chloe’s forehead and began to make her way to Aubrey.

“What can I do for ya, Aubs?”

“I set up the computer and speaker for you so you can put on the playlist I know you made.” Beca rolled her eyes and scoffed before slyly pulling out a flash drive full of songs she made for today. Aubrey threw her head back and laughed before taking the flash drive. “I’ll get this set up. You go mingle and stuff.” Beca just nodded and walked to the table where all the snacks where.

Beca grabbed one of the big plates that were actually to be used for dinner. She figured putting all their snacks on one large plate would be way easier than making two trips. She stocked the plate some veggies from the veggie tray, some cheese, chips and dip, and some pigs in a blanket. She pulled a can a Dr. Pepper out of the cooler for herself and filled up a cup with this blue lemonade concoction that she knows Stacie made. She carefully made her way over to the table where Chloe was sitting and chatting with her mom, Stacie, Ashley, Amy and CR. She set everything down and took the empty seat next to Chloe. The redhead gave her thigh a quick squeeze and continued on with the conversation. They were talking about old wives’ tales. Ashley and CR were convinced it was a boy because Chloe was apparently carrying low and her hair looked very thick and shiny. Amy on the other hand countered that by saying something about Chloe having soft skin and her left breast being bigger than her right. She even suggested that Chloe eat a clove of garlic, but Beca vetoed that idea for both of their sakes.

Dinner was finally ready to be served and Beca got up to scout what was being served. There was pasta, salad, chicken and Italian beef sandwiches. Knowing her wife was somewhat picky nowadays, she reported back what the options where. Chloe requested just pasta and salad so the brunette made her a plate straight away, bringing her a bottle of water as well. Beca went back and gave herself a very good portion of everything being served. She jokingly told Stacie she wanted to eat for two as well and be supportive, but in all honesty she might need to quit doing that because she already gained more weight than planned on. Chloe didn’t really touch her food. Beca always gets worried when Chloe doesn’t eat. Beca watched Chloe pick at her food while engaging in a conversation. Eventually Beca scooted her chair as close to Chloe as possible, wrapped her left arm around her shoulders and placed her hand on her belly. She rubbed circles on Chloe’s stomach with her thumb and the redhead leaned in to her embrace and sighed contently.

“Are you okay, my love?” Beca asked softly. Chloe nodded her head and put her hand over Beca’s, holding it still against her stomach. “Do you not feel well?”

“No, I feel fine. I promise.” Beca sighed in relief at the words ‘I promise’. “I’m just really nervous. I feel like finding out the gender makes all of this real.”

“So this little tummy you’re sporting and those flutters you felt didn’t make it real, huh?” Beca said with a smirk on her face. Chloe teasingly smacked Beca’s bicep and buried her face in Beca’s neck.

“That isn’t what I meannnnn.” Chloe whined.

“Tell me what you mean, babygirl.”

“Just like, once we find out we get to start decorating and buying clothes, getting everything we need. It’s seriously happening, Bec. There’s a tiny human in there and they aren’t going to be there much longer. Doesn’t that scare you?”

“Of course. It scares the shit out of me, Chlo. But I’m so damn excited to meet this cutie that’s been taking up residency in there. You know, if you think about it, giving birth to them is sort of like evicting them from their first apartment.” Chloe giggled into Beca’s neck before giving it a soft bite.

“You’re such a dork.”

“Yeah, but ya love me for it don’t you?”

“Oh totes. Probably more than you’ll ever know.”

//////////

Once dinner was over and done with, Stacie and Aubrey announced that it was time to do the reveal. Aubrey led Jesse and Benji upstairs while Stacie led Beca, Chloe and everyone else over to their staircase. Everyone waited patiently as Jess and Benji tied a colorful blue and pink box onto the banister above their heads. The pink and blue strings they were meant to pull cascaded down in front of them and Beca was itching to pull them. Aubrey got everyone organized and made sure to call Beca’s mom on FaceTime. The girls both waved at her before grabbing their own separate set of strings. The brunette held her hand out for her wife and she grabbed it immediately, giving it a tight squeeze.

“You ready, Becs?”

“Fuck yeah I am!” She shouted, making the room burst out into laughter.

“Alright, ladies!” Aubrey said. “Pull the strings on the count of three.”

“Wait! On three or after three?” Beca interrupted with a smirk. Aubrey just rolled her eyes at the brunette.

“Okay! One…two…three!”

Beca and Chloe tugged on their strings and the box opened, a wave of pink balloons came floating down and Beca squealed –literally squealed- in excitement. She let go of the strings and jumped around before wrapping a happily crying Chloe up in her arms, lifting her off the ground and twirling her. She grabbed her wife’s face and wiped the tears away before planting a wet kiss on her lips.

“IT’S A GIRL! It’s a mother fucking girl. It’s a mother fucking girl!” She screamed, punctuating each word with a jump, practically hopping around the room. Chloe was enveloped in a hug by her parents and siblings so Beca grabbed the iPad from Emily and held it up so her mom could see her face. “I’m having a daughter, mama!” Beca said tearfully.

“I saw, sweetheart!” Beca’s mom, Kim, said as she wiped away her own tears. “I love you darling, but go be with your wife!”

“I love you, too, mom. Bye!” She quickly handed they iPad back and ran back to Chloe, who had just gotten released from a hug with her own family. Before Beca could get back to Chloe, she was pulled in to a Beale group hug. Beca cut their hug short and politely weaseled her way out of it and made her way to her wife. Chloe through herself at Beca and wrapped her arms tightly around her neck. Beca wrapped her arms around her waist and held her back just as tight.

“I’m so happy, Becs.” Chloe whispered into Beca’s ear.

“You’re not even a little disappointed that it’s not a boy?”

“Not one bit.” Chloe gave Beca a tight squeeze and kissed her head. The brunette pulled away and looked lovingly into Chloe’s eyes.

“I freaking told you so, dude.”

//////////

After a few hours the party ended and everyone went their separate ways. They all agreed to meet for lunch the next day. Beca and Chloe thank Aubrey and Stacie profusely and attempted to stay and help clean up. This led to a little tiff between Chloe and Aubrey, who insisted that they go home and celebrate on their own. Beca finally pulled an angry and defeated Chloe out of the house, along with a bag full of food and dessert that Beca was way too excited to dig into. When they arrived home, Beca set the bag of food on the kitchen counter and held her hands out Chloe. She immediately took them and let Beca pull her in.

“So, how are my girls doing?” Beca asked with a huge smile on her face. “God, I love the sound of that.”

“Your girls are doing amazing, but we are also a little tired. I would totally be down for lying in bed, watching Netflix and eating some of that food. Does that sound like a good plan?”

“It sounds so perfect. I’ll meet you upstairs?” Chloe nodded and stretched as she headed upstairs. Beca unpacked the food and began putting plates together for each of them.

//////////

By the Beca made it upstairs with their food, Chloe was already stripped of her make up and dress and was sitting on the bed in her pajamas. Beca set their many plates on the nightstand and bolted out of the room, leaving Chloe very confused. When she came back up (she was out of breath) she held up two big glasses of water. She set those down and began undressing. Chloe crawled to the edge of the bed and helped undo the bottom half of Beca’s buttons. She slid her hands into the shirt and under her tank top, rubbing the warm skin of Beca’s back softly. She looked up at Beca with a pout on her face and Beca smiled knowingly and gave Chloe a loving kiss. When she pulled away, Chloe scooted back and rested against their pillows and waited patiently for Beca to finished getting comfy. When Beca emerged from their attached bathroom five minutes later with her make up off and her hair up, she couldn’t help but laugh at Chloe who was already digging in to a beef sandwich.

“You couldn’t wait for me?” She asked as she slid into bed with her own plate.

“Nope!” Chloe said with a mouthful of food. Beca laughed and dug in to her pasta.

“Start the movie you weirdo.”

///////////

Forty-five minutes into Shutter Island and most of the food was eaten, except for a cupcake that Chloe wanted to save for when she didn’t feel so full and could sufficiently enjoy. Chloe was lying on her side, angled in a weird direction so she could comfortably watch the movie. Beca was scooted down so her face was level with Chloe’s stomach. She hadn’t been paying attention to the movie since she got into that position. She lifted up Chloe’s t-shirt up above her belly and softly ran her fingertips over the smooth skin, drawing patterns around her belly button. The brunette couldn’t hold back her smile whenever Chloe’s stomach muscles would twitch whenever she ran her fingertips softly over the area under her tummy and just above her hipbones.

“Does that tickle?” Beca asked knowingly, softly raking her fingertips over the sensitive area again, making her muscles jump once more.

“Yes, but it feels nice.” Chloe whispered sleepily.

“Someone is getting tired.” Chloe nodded her head and shut her eyes. Beca leaned forward and began to place soft kisses all around Chloe’s stomach. The redhead sighed and laced her fingers through Beca’s hair. “Hi my little princess.” Beca whispered softly against her belly. Chloe kept her eyes shut and listened to Beca talking to their daughter, telling her how she can’t wait to meet her. There has been plenty of tummy talk conversations between Beca and the baby, but something feels totally different now that Beca knows what she is talking to.

“She likes when you talk to her.” Chloe said, interrupting whatever conversation her girls where having.

“Yeah? How can you be sure?”

“I feel her fluttering whenever you start talking.” Beca’s eyes widened in excitement.

“Really? Let me talk to her again.” Beca adjusted herself and rested her forehead against Chloe’s tummy. “Hello again, my baby. Mommy says you flutter when I talk to you. I’m sure you’re both getting sleepy now, but I just wanted to say one more thing before bed, okay?” She paused, as if she were waiting for a response. “I love you, sweet pea.” Beca pulled away and smiled up at Chloe. “Did she do it?”

“She did it like crazy, Becs. And I know for a fact that she most definitely loves you too.”

#bechloe #beca mitchell #chloe beale #baby bechloe #fic

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mariasolemarionqi · 7 years ago

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13 Ingredients in the Perfect Social Media Contest

With the competition for attention online at an all-time high, the struggle to keep followers engaged with your company’s social channels is real, and ongoing. In addition to the smart use of visuals, businesses often turn to social media contests and promotions to stir excitement and drive activity from their audience.

It’s not as easy as tweeting “Who wants to win an iPad!?”, even though we’ve all clicked on that at one time or another. Excellent social media contests require substantial planning and nimble execution. They have many moving parts and potential points of failure.

Here’s a checklist of 13 ingredients you’ll need before launching the perfect social media contest:

1. Venue

Where will this contest take place? Facebook? Instagram? Twitter? Or will it be present in multiple venues, like a photo contest where participants can enter on Facebook or Instagram? Remember that each time you add a venue for participation, your oversight responsibilities grow geometrically.

2. Entry Mechanism

How do people qualify to enter your social media contest? There are hundreds of variations, but there are six main categories of participation mechanism. They are: Sweepstakes (nothing required—most common on Twitter); Connect (like/follow the company’s social account to enter); Like (like a particular piece of content to enter); Share (share a piece of content to enter); Vote (state preference from among multiple pieces of content to enter); Create (develop user-generated content and upload to enter).

Remember: The more you ask your audience to do, the fewer will do it. Remember too that the younger your audience, the more comfortable they will be creating content for your contest.

The more you ask your audience to do in a social media contest, the fewer will do it. Click To Tweet 3. Theme and Name

Is this contest seasonal? Does it tie into a particular product or service? Remember, the theme/name will guide the rest of the creative. Take some time to come up with something that resonates. Try to keep your contest name short, as long names eat up valuable characters in tweets and ad headlines.

4. Timeline

This is where you coordinate the major elements of the social media contest. The best approach here is to work backward from the date that you want to announce winners. From there, figure out when judging starts/ends (if applicable), when entries close, when entries open, when promotion starts, and other key milestones. Be sure to account for time to develop the creative, get approval for the contest rules, and any other internal hurdles that you need to cover before launch.

5. Visual Identity

In today’s social media landscape of visual billboards, you’ll need strong graphics and video to support your contest. Graphic needs may include cover and profile images, logos, headers, landing pages, emails, promoted posts, carousel images, or ad images (to name a few). Videos explaining and promoting the contest should be in both vertical (Snapchat, Instagram) and horizontal (YouTube, Facebook) formats, and likely various other lengths to maximize impact across different social channels. To make sure your design team doesn’t mutiny, use your timeline from step four and give them a single list of everything you need, including specific pixel dimensions and required language or copy. For Facebook, remember the 20 percent rule when creating graphics for promoted posts and ad images.

6. Prizes

What will winners receive? This is a place for you to be creative, and most social media contests are far too obvious here. (See “win an iPad” above.)

Remember, the prize itself can be the theme for the contest, as with the legendary “best job in the world” campaign from Tourism Queensland. The best contests have prizes that tie directly back to the company itself. This becomes particularly important when you consider the downstream results of this effort. You want to activate and attract people who are genuinely interested in your business, not just “contest hunters” who enter everything they can find. If you sell fishing gear, give away fishing gear as a prize, not an iPad.

7. Editorial Calendar

Here’s where you map out (via Excel, a custom Google calendar, and/or your social media management software) all the social media posts, email messages, advertising support, and other communications about your promotion. You don’t necessarily have to write all of the messages in advance—although it’s not a bad idea, and your legal team may require it. Remember that your social media contest (and corresponding communications) has five phases: pre-launch, launch, last chance, completion, and winners. You need to plan multiple messages across multiple platforms for each phase.

8. Seeding Strategy

This applies to the pre-launch and launch phases of your social media contest. This is where you figure out how to give your promotion the best chance of lift-off in the critical early days of the promotion. What you’re trying to do here is make sure that the people who already love you, and the people who have a disproportionate number of social connections, are fully aware of the contest and are ready to participate and spread the word the minute the promotion begins. This could include special “Shh, Coming Soon” emails to key customers and social influencers, making sure all employees are aware of the event and other opportunities.

Remember: You do not want to “soft launch” a contest. This is especially true on Facebook, where the algorithm dictates that slow starters get buried.

9. Amplification Strategy

With the exception of simple Twitter contests and basic Facebook contests that are managed within your timeline, you will probably need some sort of amplification to ensure that your contest has the reach (and garners the attention) you desire. This may include Facebook and Instagram ads (think about custom audiences ads shown only to your email subscribers), Facebook promoted posts, Twitter promoted tweets, ad opportunities on Pinterest, amplification networks like Outbrain, Taboola, and Stumble, and other options. Remember that even if your contest takes place on one platform, you can use multiple platforms to amplify it.

10. Rules

I purposefully put rules and legal advice tenth on this list because I have found it is much easier to have legal weigh in on the entirety of the program (including seeding, editorial, amplification) all at once, instead of having them look at the mechanism and prizes first, and then going back to them later with a second round of inquiries about the other elements. As with the design team, make legal’s job easier by giving them the total picture up-front. Be proactive by doing your research first on what each venue allows for contests, and have the links ready to share with legal. (Here’s Facebook’s Pages Terms.) It’ll make them happy, and you absolutely want to keep them on your side.

11. Community Management

Participants and prospective entrants will have questions and comments about your contest. Some will be easy to address. Others may not be so simple. It is absolutely critical (even for simple contests) that you have a defined plan for who is moderating and overseeing your social outposts. This doesn’t just mean the channels where the contest is located and normal business hours. What is your plan for coverage on nights and weekends? Your day-to-day community management realities will likely be modest compared to what you need to accomplish during a contest. Plan for this.

12. Crisis Plan

You should already have a social media crisis plan. If you’ve never created one, the launch of your new contest provides excellent leverage for getting it finished. Will something go massively awry with your contest, causing you to activate your crisis plan? Probably not. But if it does, and you don’t have that crisis plan to turn to in that critical moment, the chances you’ll ever get to do another contest are just about zero. Consider this to be the “I’m not about to get fired because of a contest” ingredient of this recipe. (See my popular “8 steps to manage a social media crisis” post and slides here.)

13. Software (Sometimes)

As with amplification, you may not need software if your social media contest is very straightforward. But for any sort of contest that requires data collection as part of the entry mechanism, you’ll need software to help build and manage the affair. There are literally dozens of software packages that help you do this, either as their sole function or as part of a larger suite of social media management capabilities. Here at Convince & Convert, we’re familiar with most of them but haven’t used them all first-hand.

Software I can personally recommend (please feel free to nominate others in the comments) includes:

Wyng: For mid-sized companies on Facebook and beyond, this software packs tons of campaign and content templates and ideas.

Shortstack: For small businesses up to large agencies, this is one of the legacy providers for contests on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Strutta: For medium/large companies hosting contests on Facebook, Instagram, or their own microsite, their DIY and custom packages make this software accessible for most.

Woobox: This software is designed for mid-sized companies and large brands that make Facebook a top priority.

Wishpond: This tool works best for medium/large companies connecting contests to lead generation.

Rafflecopter: This is one of the best options for bloggers and solopreneurs looking to run a simple giveaway with multiple entry points.

Those are the 13 ingredients of the perfect social media contest. What did I miss?

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#13 Ingredients in the Perfect Social Media Contest

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maryhare96 · 7 years ago