Have you been thinking of running a Facebook contest for your business? We recently sat down with a client who is ready to develop one for his page in 2016. Before we get started with them however, it is critical that everyone is up to date on Facebook contest best practices to ensure the contest is as successful as possible.
- Set goals for the contest
What do you want your Facebook contest to achieve? Goals give you a way to measure success. Here are some examples of goals:
- Generating brand awareness
- Increasing Facebook likes
- Generating leads
- Increasing website traffic
- Boosting engagement
The goals you pick will also decide what kind of contest you run. The types of contests you can choose from are sweepstakes, photo, video, comment-based, trivia, or challenge.
2. Keep things simple and make it easy to participate
Make sure the contest is easy to enter. Create simple rules which are easy to follow, then make sure that they are visible on your Facebook page.
A Facebook trivia contest may be structured this way:
- Post 10 questions that tests participants on their knowledge of your industry or a particular topic. Participants are then sent to your website for 30 seconds to find answers to the trivia questions.
- Participants who answer all the questions correctly are rewarded with a prize.
This clever tactic will give participants a peak at your website, like a teaser marketing campaign. At the end of the contest, participants are given the option to sign up for an e-newsletter.
- Pick a giveaway that resonates with your audience
What would make someone participate in your contest? Make sure you have a reward that feels like fair compensation for their time and effort. One of the top best practices for Facebook contests is to give away one big or many small prizes to participants. How many prizes should you give away? Here are some options to help you decide:
Option 1: Participants who successfully complete the challenge get a prize.
Option 2: Everyone who successfully completes the challenge is entered into a draw. One lucky person wins a prize.
Option 3: The first participant to successfully complete the challenge wins the big prize. Everyone else gets a consolation prize.
But what makes for a good giveaway? It needs to be something your audience will value. Make sure you pick the right incentives. If it’s tied to your business, even better. A technology content website for example could give away vouchers to a popular online store that sells electronic gadgets, among other things.
- Leverage all your social channels to promote your contest
Most businesses are present on multiple social networks—all of this constitutes a brand’s owned media. Make sure you’re making the most of your existing channels and owned media. This helps promote your contest to fans and followers on social networks outside of Facebook.
But how often should you be promoting your contest? You may post a contest update every 90 minutes on at least one of your social networks. Pre-plan and schedule updates to free up time for direct engagements with participants.
- Use hashtags to increase participation
Hashtags help people to search for and identify your contest, so make sure you create a unique hashtags to promote your contest. Some rules of thumb while creating and using hashtags:
- It should be easy to spell and remember
- Don’t be afraid to use hashtags that are already trending or words to get more impressions on your posts
- Don’t include your brand name unless you’re a big, easily recognized brand
The purpose of these hashtags is twofold—it helps promote the contest and start a conversation, and it also helps target users to broaden audience reach and boost contest participation.
- Measure performance and iterate
Remember the goals you defined in step one? Measure the performance of your contest to check on whether or not you’ve achieved them. Running a Facebook contest shouldn’t be a one-time thing; iterate and fine-tune your tactics. Here are some questions you should ask yourself at the end of a contest:
- Did I choose the right type of contest?
- Did I give my contest enough time?
- Did I target the right audience?
- Did the giveaway provide enough incentive?
- Which marketing channel worked best for me?
- Did I define a clear set of rules? Were they easy to follow?
Set new goals (or performance targets) and run another contest.