Great Social Media Idea: Scavenger Hunt!

Apologies for the gripe, but seriously... I've been sick long enough. Time for this little blogger to get on the mend. Until then, I'm going to keep mailing in half-hearted posts between sleep, coughs, sniffles, saltines, 7-up, and Veronica Mars marathon.

Which is a shame, really, because a really great idea popped up in my suggestion box recently (hint hint - it's located on the right hand column... I love it when people make my job easier!). To wit: this fun scavenger hunt from George Mason University!

I'll let my intrepid tipster explain how the scavenger hunt, open to current students, worked:

George Mason University ran a contest last week where we hid mini basketballs around campus to promote our first year in the A-10 Championship game in NYC. Our winner received two all-session tickets along with a Mason Athletics prize pack.

Ten mini-balls hidden around campus, and GMU posted a "clue collage" at the top of every hour on the day of the contest. Students had to find the ball, take a selfie with it, and bring it in to a particular office to be entered to win the prizes.

It's always fun to get students involved with your social media accounts beyond just clicking like and share, and using Instagram as the home for it is a particularly good way to promote your presence on that platform, since it's not always easy to promote your presence there. I don't know this for sure, but I suspect George Mason got a decent bump in Instagram followers through this contest... a lovely little ancillary benefit to doing contests like this.

Scavenger hunts are a tried-and-true tactic to get people excited and engaged that well pre-date the social media age, and it's always great to see examples of ways to implement them in the 21st century.

Well done, George Mason!