Using Facebook to run competitions

Facebook is a great place to run a competition, research shows that they get a good response. But what do you need to think about before running one?

Well the first thing is to understand your overall marketing aims, if you are looking to expand your customer reach and help build your brand then Facebook competitions can certainly help. The first thing I would do is ensure that no one can enter unless they have ‘liked’ your business page, this way any posts you make will appear in their news feed long after the contest has finished

Keep it simple, try and come up with a way that will encourage interaction on the wall of your business page, so for example you could ask people to come up with the strap line of a new product you are launching, or ask people to describe the thing they like the best about your product or service. By doing this you are not only increasing your marketing reach, but you are encouraging people to start talking about your business.

There a lots of apps out there that will help you run a successful competition, I would certainly recommend you use them as they will make things much simpler for you. My favorite is an app called Wildfire, it will take you through the whole process step by step so that even if you haven’t done anything like this before you shouldn’t have any real issues along the way.

Be sure to announce the winner on your Facebook page and ask them to post a photo with the prize at the end of it so that people can follow the story. Once the competition is over make sure that you continue to encourage conversation on your wall so that you don’t lose those people who liked your page so that they could enter.

Also, do make sure you check out the latest Facebook policy guidelines, they do change what you can or can’t do in terms of running competitions using the social media platform and you certainly don’t want to be in breech of the latest policy changes.