Are you planning to run a successful contest on Facebook? Yes, it is an appropriate tool for businesses, especially the start-ups, to create brand awareness and develop their fan base. Depending on your business policies, desirable goals, and other factors, you can start a contest on Facebook. This is one of the best ways these days to drive in a large number of visitors to your business website.
In addition to the start-ups, the major brands too leverage this Facebook contest. The reason is simple. They wish to promote their new products or services, and engage their existing customers like never before. Most of the major brands make use of these contests to capitalize on the events they organize or sponsor. Coca-Cola hosted #CokeGames to popularize the Sochi Olympics. In fact, they created a wide array of games related to the Olympics, such as Coke Curling, Bottle Cap Hockey and so on.
It’s time to learn about the best Facebook tips for developing a fruitful contest.
Choose the Right Prize
Choosing the appropriate prize is vital for any contest. This holds true especially for this popular social networking site, where users are stingy about Facebook likes or choosy about participating in promotional activities. Only if the prize seems to be appealing enough, they will participate in these activities.
Choosing high-value gifts can definitely raise curiosity of the users. However, it is vital that you choose items, which are only related to the business or product you wish to promote. You can research in a vivid manner to get a number of Facebook contest ideas. Anything related to the company boosts your marketing power and seems to be effective for a contest on Facebook.
Select a Proper Entry Method
The next step is to decide an easy entry method for the users. Do they have to submit a photograph? Are they going to insert the email address for entry? According to the recent trends, a few contests ask for the customer details before you can enter the competition.
Contact Details
This technique calls for the people to enter their names, email addresses, telephone numbers, and other details. These data help you generate leads and thus, increase your business significantly.
User Generated Contents
You can use this method to ask the users to give images, videos as well as text to enter. Thus, you can run contests where users vote on the favorite entries to choose the winner.
Contact Details and Friend Referral
Do you want more people to participate in the contest? Request others to refer their friends to take part in the contest. It is a smart way to increase the entries in the contest.
Build Your Contest Page
Make sure that the entry page for contest is simple as well as exciting. In fact, people should be excited about the prize or contest and also find it quite easy to gain entry. Here are a few features of the entry page of a stunning Facebook contest.
Regular contest round ups and updates
Most contest participants wish to get a regular updates of the contests. Yes, as a contest runner, you must give regular updates and offer a complete round-up of the contest. It’s a smart way to keep your customers hooked up to your contest page.
Catchy title
Short title acts as the ‘call to action’ and is a smart way to increase entries. A good example is ‘Enter to Win a Rupees 500 Gift Card from Platinum Candles’. It is both informative as well as easy to read. It also tells the visitors what exactly they need to do on this contest page, who is running the particular contest, and so on. Indeed, it offers all the details that a person requires to get curious and enter the contest quickly.
Nice Image or Graphic of the Contest Prize
A nice image of the prize is the best way to entice people to participate and win the contest. Suppose you are offering a gift card. Then it is vital that you include a beautiful image, along with the value of the gift card in the text. Besides, you may also offer a product that people can buy with gift card.
Information about Entry and Prize
Add a short paragraph, along with information about the contest prize, steps involved to enter, and also about specific rules or restrictions related to the contest. Moreover, you may also insert a single link to an outside page on rules and regulations using HTML text editor to prevent the contest page from getting overcrowded.
Share Buttons as well as Facebook Comments
Allow the entrants to share the contest with their friends by incorporating share buttons on your contest page. You can also add Facebook comments and increase interaction on the contest page.
Promote as well as Share the Contest
Creating a nice Facebook contest is not enough. You need to promote it successfully. You can send emails to your customers, promote it on Pinterest, Google+, and other social networking sites to spread the word. Thus, you can introduce all the users of other social networking sites to the Facebook page and also make them aware about your brand. You can also add a banner on the home page of your website that effectively links to the entry page of your Facebook contest.
Creating Facebook ads is another way to reach out to the new customers outside your existing online community. It is a good way to create brand awareness and increase your business growth. One of the benefits of Facebook advertisements is that it helps you to reach an audience of your specific demographic. You should be aware of the changing scenario of social media advertisements and leverage the Facebook advertisements to run your contest successfully.
Monitor Your Facebook Contests
Find out how well the Facebook contest contributed to achieve your business goals. For example, you can check the Facebook Insights and see how many likes you got during the contest period. You can also set up Google Alerts to track down mentions of your Facebook contest throughout the web. Besides, you can also use special social media monitoring applications and gain update about your contest, while it is running in real time.
Follow up Properly
Even after the contest gets over, you should use it to promote your band. Here are a few important tips that you must consider to get the most out of the Facebook contest. These can also let your entrants get engaged with your business like never before:
- Display the names of the winners on your blog, Facebook page, and other platforms.
- Send follow-up emails to all the contest participants and try to convert them into your clients.
- Share your exciting plan for your future Facebook contests and keep the followers engaged.
To sum up, develop a nice and effective Facebook contest, run it well and let your targeted audience know about it. You can develop popularity of your brand without much hassle.