5 ways to improve your facebook contests
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5 Ways to Improve YourFacebook ContestsBy Amanda DiSilvestro
Published February 16, 2015
Do you run Facebook contests to promoteyour business?
Want to reach more people and increaseparticipation?
With the right techniques, Facebook contestscan engage your community and grow yourbusiness.
In this article you’ll discover five ways to create effective Facebook contests thatreach more people, entice them to enter and encourage them to share.
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Discover 5 w ays to improve your Facebook contests.
#1: Use an AppFacebook used to require an app to run a contest, which is no longer the case.However, Facebook contest apps are still extremely useful for guiding fans through theentry process.
When you use an app, you create a tab on your fan page that links directly to acontest page with entry information, official rules and more . That page has itsown URL, so you can easily link to it from status updates on any platform or from yourwebsite.
You can name the tab whatever you like , but it’s best to keep it simple—use thename of the contest or a short description. For example, Eggo hosted a contestwhere they asked fans to contribute Eggo recipes, so they named their tab RecipeContest.
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The contest tab makes it easy for fans to see w here to click to enter.
Using apps offers much more functionality than a status update asking for a like. InEggo’s case, their contest entry page included an interactive graphic where fans couldscroll through pictures of food and click through for the recipe; an option to click onother fan entries to see the competition; and an option to click for fun ideas withouthaving to enter the contest.
#2: Promote EffectivelyHow you tell people about your contest has a huge effect on how successful it is. It’skey to let fans know how they can enter and how it benefits them (a prize). Ifapplicable, mention how it benefits you as well, and don’t forget the call to action!
In the status update below Diamond Candles promoted their 1,000 Ring Candlecontest via Facebook updates and included each of those bits of information. But theywent two steps further. They included an extra call to action (to like and share the postin addition to entering) and a hashtag.
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Give fans all of the information they need to decide if they w ant to enter.
Include a hashtag to encourage others to use it and provide an additional wayfor you to track your success. Hashtags can be used across platforms, so you may besurprised how often it’s shared.
Like Eggo, Diamond Candles used an app for their contest. When people clicked the
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link in the status update, they landed on the contest page and only had to share theiremail to enter. Easy!
These combined tactics—great promotion and easy entry—helped Diamond Candlesfar exceed their goals and expectations. Their goal was to reach one million fans—they did that in less than six weeks, earning over 30,000 new fans (they only needed500 to reach their goal).
#3: Ask for Content and VotesWhat better way to promote your business than to have your customers do it for you?Asking for user-generated content is a natural way to encourage people to share withtheir friends.
When a fan submits something (e.g., a picture or recipe), of course they want their
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friends to know. Those shares bring additional attention to your contest (and thereforeyour company).
Voters w ere able to see all the entries and cast their vote.
Rocky Mountain Entertainment Agency is a small business in Montana. They ran acontest asking wannabe models to submit a photo of themselves with little to nomakeup. The company then asked people to vote on the collected pictures todetermine the winner.
Since contestants want to win, they’re very likely to re-share their submission with theirfriends and ask them for a vote. That translates into even more attention andengagement for your company. Take advantage of that reach and provide clearcalls to action for additional interaction (e.g., to like or share your page or sign upfor your newsletter).
#4: Incorporate Current Events
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An easy way to engage your audience and increase entries is to play off of a currentevent. This is such a simple idea, and it’s easy to set up. Any company—large or small—can adapt this type of contest to match its own audience.
Here’s a fun example. Granite Office Supplies ran a contest that was loosely based onthe NCAA basketball tournament. They created their own tournament with 64 officesupply items, all seeded and set up in four regions.
To get maximum traffic, they had contest components for both their website andFacebook. The company created a website page where they had brackets with anofficial scoreboard. All fans had to do was fill out a bracket and submit it on thewebsite.
Come up w ith a fun w ay to bring attention to your products based on current events.
To include Facebook in the mix, the actual game was played on the company’sFacebook page. Updates pitted office supplies against each other and peoplesubmitted their votes by commenting on the updates about which office supply itemsshould win.
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The beauty of the contest was that people made their own luck—if users couldinfluence their friends to come vote on the contest, their “team” would move to the nextlevel.
That influence (bringing new eyes to your Facebook page) has the potential to bringnew fans and much more page interaction.
#5: Create UrgencyNothing spurs action like the feeling that time is running out. Creating a sense ofurgency is one of the oldest tricks in the book and encourages people to participatesooner rather than later. And yet few Facebook contests take advantage of this tactic.
In many of its contests, Linen Works creates a sense of urgency. They include acountdown clock that tells people how long they have before entries close .They combine the urgency factor with easy entry to entice even more participation.
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Combine urgency w ith sharing for increased entries and exposure.
The entry page also provides easy access to secondary calls to action—liking thepage, sharing on Facebook or tweeting—each of which results in that all-importantextended reach.
Conclusion
Combining any of the contest tactics here can lead to increased participation andextended reach.
What do you think? Do you use any of these tactics in your Facebookcontests? Have you seen any cool Facebook contests over the past year? Letus know your thoughts in the comment section below.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR, A manda DiSilves tro
A manda DiSilves tro gives small bus iness and entrepreneurs SEO
adv ice ranging f rom keyw ord dens ity to recover ing f rom algor ithm
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Mindaugas • 18 hours ago
Great post, Amanda.
I really enjoy creating Facebook contest through apps because you can use much more creativity and make reallyunique contests.However, I noticed that many companies have forgotten this option and runs those simple boring contests in theirtimeline.
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• Reply •
Amanda DiSilvestro • 15 hours ago> Mindaugas
Apps are so simple too, but you're right a lot of companies miss it! Hopefully we'll see a bit more in 2015.Thanks for reading!
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• Reply •
Hannah Ruth Gilburt • 17 hours ago
You mentioned that Diamond Candles invited fans to like and share the post for the chance to win. I was alwaysunder the impression that asking fans to share a post as part of a competition contravenes Facebook's guidelines.Has this changed?
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• Reply •
Amanda DiSilvestro • 15 hours ago> Hannah Ruth Gilburt
Hmmm I will have to look into it, but as far as I know that's fair game! If anyone knows the answer toHannah's question let us know, but I'll look it up :) Thanks for reading!
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