Facebook contests are a great way to increase exposure of your page and doing them right can bring huge numbers of Likes and shares. Facebook contests can also help build fan loyalty and create ambassadors for your brand. However, do a contest the wrong way, and you risk losing fans or attracting the wrong type of fans.
So to make sure your contest goes off without a hitch, here are 4 tips you must follow to make your Facebook contest is a success.
1. Give Away Your Products and Other Relevent Prizes
Your contest prizes should be from your business or industry. Although prizes need to entice potential contestants, that doesn’t mean you have to give away an iPhone or an iPad. Those kind of prizes attract contestants who are interested ONLY in your gifts — not in engaging with your page when the contest is done.
Give away something that a customer might buy from your company. For example, if you sell women’s apparel, make the prize a nice article of clothing. You can also partner with another company in your industry to give some of their products away.
2. Use an App
Use an app to host your contest. Although you can organise a Facebook Timeline contest in minutes, you won’t receive much info from Facebook about the results. You need to collect and track data from your contestants because they’re part of your target market — and this info is key to learning more about them. Facebook also doesn’t offer the same viral elements as many third-party apps. App features may include:
Fan-gating
Incentives to share
Growing an email list
Detailed analytics
3. Encourage Fans to Sign Up NOW
Deadlines are your friend. Businesses often make the mistake of not building enough momentum during their contest — ie. there’s no time to get the contest off the ground because deadlines come too soon. Though deadlines are key, setting them to come too soon is the wrong way to run a contest.
Make sure you provide Facebook users enough time to discover your contest — then remind them that they only have a few days to sign up. This will create momentum with just enough urgency to get people to respond. Urgency is an important trigger for compelling people to take action. And don’t worry about annoying your fans. If you give away the right prizes, chances are they’ll be interested in what you have to say.
4. Promote, Promote, Promote
Some business owners complain that their Facebook contests don’t get enough entries to justify the effort. That’s because they announced their contest ONCE on Facebook and Twitter — and then waited. So do not make this same mistake. Make sure you promote your contest.
Here are some tips:
Get help
Post the contest on your Facebook profile and ask your friends to share. People love contests and they’ll share it if the prize could benefit their family and friends.
Use your cover photo
A powerful way to promote your contest is broadcasting it loudly and proudly with your cover photo. This prime location on your page immediately grabs attention.
Run Facebook ads Use Facebook ads to dramatically increase exposure for your contest. Ads extend your Facebook reach tremendously. They let you target fans, friends of fans and other people outside your social circle who may be interested in your page.
Conclusion
Recapping on how to organise a successful Facebook contest:
Give away the right prizes to attract the right crowd
