How to Run a Successful Local Best of Contest

Running a local Best of Contest can significantly boost community engagement, encourage local business support, and enhance neighborhood pride. Whether it’s for business chambers, tourism boards, or neighborhood groups, a well-organized Best of Contest can make a lasting impact in your area. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to successfully organize and execute such a contest, ways to maximize engagement, and why using Proxi’s Best of Election Kit can make the entire process seamless and effective.

How to Organize and Execute a Best of Contest

Organizing a Best of Contest doesn’t have to be complicated. By following clear steps and using a reliable voting platform, you can set the stage for an engaging community event. Whether you’re hosting the contest for local businesses, parks, tourist spots, or arts and culture venues, the process of organizing and running the contest is similar. Below, we outline the key steps to ensure your Best of Contest runs smoothly.

1. Select Voting Categories

The first step in organizing a Best of Contest is deciding on categories that will resonate with your community. Depending on your goals, these categories could range from celebrating local businesses to highlighting popular tourist attractions or encouraging community pride through neighborhood landmarks.

For example, if you're organizing the contest on behalf of a chamber of commerce, you could focus on local business categories like *Best Coffee Shop*, *Best Hair Salon*, and *Best Bookstore*. These categories not only help local businesses gain recognition but also encourage residents to actively support them.

If your contest is more tourism-focused, categories like *Best Tourist Attraction* and *Best Hidden Gem* can help drive interest in local landmarks, parks, or cultural events. These types of contests can also boost tourism, as participants are encouraged to explore new places within their community.

The key to selecting successful categories is knowing your community well. Understanding what matters most to your audience will make the contest more engaging and meaningful. Keep in mind that you want a good mix of categories, including both well-known staples and opportunities for under-the-radar businesses or locations to shine.

If you use Proxi’s tool to run your election, you’ll set up categories in the “Categories and Tags” settings in the menu. Check out this documentation on Categories. 

2. Nomination Phase: Involving the Community from the Start

Once you’ve selected the categories, it’s time to input your nominations by category. You can either input your own nominations or open the nomination phase to the community. During this phase, your community will have the chance to suggest their favorite businesses, parks, tourist spots, or any other place, by category. This phase is crucial for generating initial excitement and involvement.

Using a nomination and voting platform like Proxi’s Best of Election Kit makes this phase straightforward. The platform allows you to create a form where community members can nominate their favorite places. Here’s where a good strategy can make all the difference:

• Open Nominations to Everyone: By making the nomination process easy and open to all, you maximize participation. Using Proxi's platform, users don’t need to create accounts or sign up for newsletters, making the process seamless and encouraging a larger pool of participants. They simply click “Add a nomination” and fill out the form you’ve designed.
• Promote the Nomination Phase: Make sure your audience knows the nomination phase is open by promoting it through various channels. Use social media, community newsletters, and local business partnerships to spread the word. You can even ask local influencers or business owners to encourage their customers to nominate them.
• Set a Deadline: It’s important to create a sense of urgency during the nomination phase. Set a clear deadline for when nominations will close, and keep your audience informed with regular updates and reminders.

Here’s how to create a custom nomination form in Proxi.

3. Voting Period: Using Proxi’s Best of Election Kit for Seamless Voting

Once you’ve gathered the nominations, it’s time to move into the voting phase. This is the most critical part of the contest, where the community votes for their top picks in each category. Using an efficient online voting system is essential to make this phase easy, transparent, and secure.

Proxi’s Best of Election Kit is designed for exactly this kind of event. The platform simplifies the voting process and allows you to create a full election in as little as 30 minutes. Here’s how to make the most of the voting phase:

• Customize Your Voting Process: Proxi allows you to fully customize the voting experience. You can design your voting form to reflect your categories, include business descriptions, and even add images to make the contest visually appealing. By tailoring the voting experience, you make it more engaging for participants.
• Monitor Real-Time Voting: One of the best features of Proxi’s platform is real-time vote tracking. You can monitor votes as they come in, ensuring transparency and preventing any voting irregularities. This also allows you to keep the excitement alive by sharing voting updates with your audience.
• Maximize Accessibility: Proxi’s voting app is mobile-friendly, so participants can vote from their phones, tablets, or computers. This accessibility ensures that as many people as possible can participate, no matter where they are. Additionally, the platform doesn’t require participants to create accounts or share personal information, which removes any potential barriers to entry.
• Set Voting Guidelines: To maintain fairness, set clear guidelines for voting. For instance, you might limit voting to one vote per category per person, or use geo-fencing to ensure that only community members are voting. Proxi’s platform gives you the flexibility to set these parameters easily.

If you choose Proxi to set up your election, you will either publish a map that contains the ballot (and a visualization of the nominated places) OR a standalone ballot.

4. Promoting the Contest: Driving Participation and Engagement

Promotion is key to the success of your Best of Contest. Without a strong promotional strategy, you risk low participation and reduced community engagement. To maximize the number of voters, you need to create buzz around your contest from the start.

Here are some effective ways to promote your contest and keep engagement high throughout the voting process:

Social Media Campaigns: Share Regular Updates

Social media is one of the most powerful tools at your disposal for promoting your contest. From the nomination phase to the announcement of winners, social media should be your go-to platform for sharing updates.

• Create a Contest Hashtag: Encourage participants to share their votes and nominations using a dedicated contest hashtag. This helps spread the word organically, as users' friends and followers will see the posts and be inspired to participate.
• Regularly Post Voting Reminders: Make sure you’re consistently reminding your audience to vote. Use creative posts, videos, or even live streams to keep the momentum going. Social media stories can be a particularly effective tool for reminding your followers without overwhelming them with constant posts.
• Highlight Nominations: During the voting phase, highlight different nominees to give them a chance in the spotlight. This helps businesses and other nominated places gain exposure while encouraging voters to participate.

Partner with Local Influencers and Businesses

Collaborating with local influencers or popular businesses can drive even more participation. Influencers or business owners can promote the contest to their followers and encourage them to vote. You could even offer prizes or incentives for influencers who drive the most engagement.

Engage Your Audience with Incentives and Prizes

Adding incentives can make your contest even more appealing. You might offer small rewards, such as gift cards to winning businesses, for those who participate in the voting. Alternatively, you can enter all voters into a grand prize raffle, which gives them extra motivation to get involved.

Prizes can also include recognition for the winning businesses themselves. Feature the winners prominently on your website or social media channels, and consider organizing a small awards ceremony to celebrate their achievements.

Why Proxi's Best of Election Kit is the Perfect Solution for Your Contest

If you’re looking for the most efficient and user-friendly way to run your Best of Contest, Proxi’s Best of Election Kit is the perfect solution. Designed with ease of use in mind, this software offers everything you need to organize, run, and monitor a successful local voting contest.

1. Affordable and Self-Serve - One of the standout features of Proxi’s platform is its affordability. Unlike other voting systems that may require extensive setup or costly fees, Proxi’s solution is self-serve and cost-effective. You can set up an entire contest in less than 30 minutes, making it a great option for smaller communities or organizations with limited resources.
2. Transparent and Real-Time Voting - Proxi’s platform provides real-time voting transparency, allowing you to track votes as they come in. This is crucial for maintaining the integrity of the contest and ensuring that participants feel confident their votes are being counted. It also enables you to provide your audience with live updates, which helps maintain excitement throughout the contest.
3. Customizable for Any Community Event - Whether you’re running a contest for local businesses, parks, tourist spots, or holiday decorations, Proxi’s platform allows for full customization. You can tailor every aspect of your contest to fit your community’s unique needs, from the categories you select to the branding of the voting app. This flexibility makes Proxi’s software the ideal solution for any type of community event.

Running a Best of Contest can be a highly rewarding way to engage your community, support local businesses, and foster neighborhood pride. By following the right steps, using effective promotion strategies, and leveraging the power of Proxi’s Best of Election Kit, you can create a seamless, enjoyable experience for your community.