How to Run a Facebook Competition for Your Business
By Brooke Symington on October 29th, 2014
Facebook is well and truly a social phenomenon, and businesses have now clued in to the power of this social media platform. However, it’s only in more recent times that businesses have been actively maintaining their presence on Facebook and allocating genuine marketing dollars to the platform.
Facebook is well and truly a social phenomenon, and businesses have now clued in to the power of this social media platform. However, it’s only in more recent times that businesses have been actively maintaining their presence on Facebook and allocating genuine marketing dollars to the platform.
One of the easiest and most popular ways that businesses can use Facebook is to run competitions. However, Facebook has very strict guidelines about running competitions. If you fail to comply with Facebook’s rules, your page could be banned and you may even be fined (whether you intentionally ignored the guidelines or inadvertently broke the rules).
The two main types of competition are a ‘game of chance’ where winners are randomly selected, and a ‘game of skill’ where users are selected based on a submission of a photo or answer.
You may use a ‘like our page to win’ competition, but you are not allowed to use ‘share our page to win’. This is because incentivising people by encouraging them to repost on their own and others’ timelines is considered to be spamming. You may ask them to share the post as a favour, but you cannot make it a condition of entry. There is a subtle but important difference between the two.
Facebook also disallows ‘tag to win’ competitions, as it falsely categorises people in photos even though they are not present in them. This is understandable, as photos lose relevance and the network becomes messy. Another little known fact is that when you’re running Facebook competitions, you are required to indemnify Facebook in your terms and conditions.
To further complicate matters, each government state has their own laws around competitions, often requiring permits. The simplest competition is a game of chance, so asking users to like your page to enter the competition can be the easiest, permit free option. NB: Terms and conditions are also required by law.
Once you understand what you can and cannot do when it comes to Facebook competitions, you can start thinking about the best way to implement and execute them for maximum impact and greater return on your investment. Here are some things to think about:
What’s the purpose?
Determine what you want to get out of the competition. Is it more likes for your page, people talking about your business and sharing it with their network, users submitting content, or simply the collection of email addresses?
Once you know what you want out of it, set a goal and monitor it accordingly so you know how effective the campaign or competitions is.
Type of competition
As mentioned earlier, you may choose to make it a game of chance or a game of skill. A game of chance might simply ask people to like your page and gain an entry into a random draw. A game of skill could ask users to write a witty caption, submit a photograph, or submit a story. The winner is then judged on the merits of their entry.
Kickstarting the competition
Once you have your competition set up, how will you spread the word? Make use of your email distribution lists, use Facebook’s targeted advertising, inform your Facebook followers, and drip feed it through your newsfeed in the lead up to raise awareness.
The reward
What’s in it for me? Think about the prize for the competition winner and whether it is something your audience would value. Is it something that is related to your business? Is it a product that your business sells? Make sure that the prize is relevant and of interest to your customer base, as this will improve your engagement. Also consider whether you can ship the prize interstate or overseas when determining eligibility for the competition.
These are the main points to consider, but remember you should also outline the rules around your competition, the terms and conditions, and also make an effort to measure the success relative to your initial goal or purpose. This way you can tweak future competitions and determine whether they are worth running for your business or if alternative methods of marketing are more appropriate or successful.
Brooke Symington
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- How to Use Contests to Boost Business - March 16, 2015
- How to Run a Facebook Competition for Your Business - October 29, 2014