Getting Social
- Insights Online
- Jun 17
- 4 min read
Updated: Jun 20
Social media in all its glory is a cost-effective way to communicate with players and build the engagement that people – and companies – crave.
By Patricia McQueen
Published June 17, 2025
The sheer nature of social media allows an almost endless form of communication, conversation, and engagement. Importantly for lotteries, social media provides opportunities to promote their games and promotions, using different platforms for different desired audiences.
Virtually every lottery relies primarily on both Facebook and Instagram. As you’ll read in the accompanying roundups, sometimes the content is the same – especially if the Facebook content is video. More often, though, content is changed slightly to match each platform’s “voice.”
X (still often with the footnote “formerly known as Twitter”) is falling out of favor to some degree – it’s no longer a good fit for some of the more detailed engagement strategies lotteries are developing. Yet it is still often used for information such as winning numbers, and at least half of the responding lotteries use it on a regular basis. A few others still monitor their accounts on the platform, but no longer actively post content there. And some lotteries noted that their local media outlets often rely on X for lottery news.
Threads is yet another platform from Meta, and perhaps is picking up where X leaves off with a more conversational style. It was mentioned by 11 of our responding lotteries, with others looking into it.
The Virginia Lottery and Ontario Lottery and Gaming have new accounts with Bluesky, but are not yet using it.
Snapchat and Reddit were mentioned by a handful of lotteries, primarily for paid advertising. Lotteries also use LinkedIn, but it typically serves as a place to share corporate goals, beneficiary awareness and human resource needs.
The most controversial platform is TikTok; as entities of government, most lotteries are not allowed to use it. Yet it attracts a demographic that lotteries are trying to reach, and several lotteries are present on TikTok if possible. Others mention borrowing “TikTok style” for their videos on other platforms, recognizing its attractiveness.
And of course, YouTube is the dominant home for videos, used by the vast majority of lotteries. This platform was not always mentioned by respondents even if they use it, as it’s often not considered “social media” in the same way as the others.
Getting Creative in Montana
Generally speaking, lotteries don’t restrict comments on social media, or respond to every criticism, but sometimes it’s necessary. The Montana Lottery had a creative solution for negative comments about its popular Montana Millionaire raffle game. They were seeing the same frustrations surface repeatedly across social media channels, emails and messages. “Ignoring them didn’t feel right, as it can give the impression that we don’t care about player feedback,” explains Content Manager Celina Clift. “However, simply issuing the same statement to all of our players didn’t seem to be getting the point across.”
So, the Lottery created a video starring Instant Product Manager Jay Boughn, using Jimmy Kimmel’s “Mean Tweets” video style. Clift outlined the benefits of this approach:
Acknowledge the feedback: It showed our players that we see and hear their comments, validating their concerns.
Humanize the Lottery: By having an employee read the comments, it put a face to the organization and demonstrated that we’re real people who understand their frustrations.
Educate in a Lighthearted Way: The format allowed us to briefly explain why the raffle operates the way it does (e.g., the nature of a raffle with a fixed number of entries for specific prizes) without sounding preachy or defensive.
Inject Humor: The “Mean Tweets” style inherently brings a humorous element, which diffused tension and made the content more engaging and shareable.
“The goal wasn’t to silence the criticism but to acknowledge it, provide context, and do so in a way that resonated with our audience. We wanted to show that we’re listening and that there are legitimate reasons for our operational choices, even if those reasons sometimes lead to player frustration.” The overwhelmingly positive response confirmed that this light-hearted, transparent approach was effective.
Click on image to view video
And Away We Go!
Forty-three lotteries answered our call for details about their social media strategies, and we couldn’t be happier with their responses.
You’ll find all the details they provided about their use of social media in the accompanying articles. As always, there are considerable variations in the level of responses provided by each participating lottery. Sometimes deadlines are tight, or the timing isn't optimal because a lottery’s resources are otherwise occupied. We appreciate all the efforts of these lotteries in providing responses of any kind, and hope our readers find value in these compilations. Your colleagues will be happy to go into further detail!
We divided the content into three sections for ease of reading. The first looks at the basics of each lottery’s social presence – the people who handle social posts and the type of content used for each of the various platforms. The next includes the various strategies lotteries use, including their primary goals and how they measure success; whether they use influencers and/or user-generated content; and what exciting projects might be on the horizon. Finally, lotteries share the general social media trends they are watching with interest.
As you’ll see, lotteries have a lot going on with social – maybe you’ll find some great ideas for your own lottery!
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