Creating a local “Best Of” promotion is a great way to engage your listeners and spotlight favorite businesses in your community, such as restaurants, coffee shops, and bookstores. Below are step-by-step instructions on how to set up this type of promotion using SoCast tools.
Start by creating a form to collect nominations from your audience. Use the SoCast Forms system to allow listeners to submit their favorite local businesses for each category.
To add fields, use the +Insert Field option for each category and include reCAPTCHA for security.
For detailed instructions on creating a form, visit: How Do I Create a Contact Form.
Next, create a dedicated page for your promotion. This page can include sponsor images, descriptive text, and any other widgets you’d like to add.
As submissions come in, monitor and organize the entries internally. To do this:
For more information on managing form submissions, visit: How Do I Find Contact Form Submissions.
Now, use the SoCast Polls tool to create a poll for each category. For example, create a poll titled “Favorite Coffee Shop” and add your top nominees as voting options. Repeat this process for each category (e.g., bookstores, restaurants, etc.).
Once your polls are created and published, return to your promotion page from Step 2.
For detailed instructions on creating a poll, visit: How Do I Create a Poll.
Replace the form widget on your promotion page with the polls you’ve created. Here’s how:
Update your page to publish the polls. To view the final results, go to the Polls tab in your dashboard and review the vote tallies for each option.
Once voting is complete, display the final results on your promotion page:
Don’t forget to create a graphic for your homepage’s feature rotator and link it to your promotion page. This makes it easy for listeners to find and participate in your promotion.