Is Facebook right for your brand contest?

Pink background with beauty products creatively placed spaced apart.
Contest/Sweepstakes

You’ve got a great contest idea and you’re looking for the easiest way to get that promotion out to your user base. Facebook contests are an economical way to push out a contest but there are some things you need to consider.

Facebook Contests:

If you already have a large follower base on Facebook, this might be the way to go to grow even more.  But if you don’t, you may not get enough exposure to get the contest shared out to a greater audience organically – you may need to resort to spending money to promote the contest in order to get any results.

A large follower base does not equal a successful contest.  Your followers must be active and eager to participate in your contest and to share it to all their friends.

Facebook also has a lot of rules about running a promotion on their platform. For example: you must link to a full set of legal rules in each post about entering the contest, you must release Facebook from any liability or obligation, etc. Facebook also forbids certain actions like:

  • Requiring someone to share a contest on a personal timeline to enter
  • Requiring someone to tag friends in the post to enter

Before running a contest, you need to review your legal obligations with not only Facebook, but with the laws of the country or countries you are running the contest in and who it is open to .

Timeline Contest Examples:

Example 1:

Facebook post contest with image

The Good:

  • Great vibrant exciting image to capture attention.
  • Thanks to fans for being loyal.
  • Clear instructions on how to enter the contest.

The Bad:

  • Grammar errors 
  • Main text starts with hashtags. Hashtags are not used much on Facebook, so if you’re going to use them, make them the last thing seen!
  • This contest breaks Facebook’s Promotion Policies
    • No legal rules!
    • No Facebook Release!
    • Requiring users to share for Entries/Rewards
  • There are no rules to explain how they are gathering the information to know how many reward dollars to pay out.

Example 2:

facebook contest post with image

The Good:

  • Great engaging “What is this” game
  • Clear link to rules
  • Clear instructions on how to enter and what the prize is

The Bad:

  • Should have the end date/time on the post even though this is identified in the rules, transparency is important.

Before starting a Facebook contest you should carefully consider what your end goals are and what your key performance indicators (KPI’s) are:

  • Product Awareness?
  • Growth of social following?
  • Information collection?
  • New customers?
  • Reinforce loyalty with repeat buyers?
  • Increased Purchases?

Is Facebook really right for your contest?

Depending on your goals, Facebook may not be the best place to host the contest. It is a limiting platform. Many of your potential loyal customers will not have an account, and you can’t expect them to create a Facebook account just to enter your contest. Instead Facebook might be a great place to promote the contest that is then hosted on a more robust contest platform that will allow you a deeper customer connection.

A more robust platform can help you turn these contest entries into loyal customers! For every entry you could:

  • Offer them a coupon for participating
  • Build your email newsletter list
  • You can ask for follows, likes, shares and other loyalty actions.
  • After the winner is announced you can connect with them via mail, email or whatever other contact information you have gathered permission to use.

Remember that any connection you have with your potential customer must provide them with value! Facebook limits your interaction and your ability to give them value. A different platform will cost you more, but in the end, it provides a much higher marketing value.

Are you ready to launch your next Facebook contest? Call us today to find out how we can help you meet your promotional goals. 1 (905) 852-2615

Sources:
https://blog.wishpond.com/post/61518432531/7-facebook-contest-examples-great-and-terrible
https://www.shortstack.com/blog/know-the-most-important-facebook-contest-rules/
https://www.easypromosapp.com/blog/en/2017/02/12-very-frequently-asked-questions-about-facebook-timeline-contests/