How to Increase Your Reach With a Facebook Contest

Facebook contest is one of the most underused tools on Facebook. With the ongoing tweaks and changes to Facebook’s algorithm, using Facebook as a marketing tool is becoming increasingly strategic. It’s more difficult to get posts into news feeds and quality content is more important than ever. A focus on engagement with strong calls to action is required. Boost engagement with contests; you’ll extend your reach while creating brand awareness and customer loyalty.

4 Successful Facebook Contests

Don’t just offer something for free without a strong tie to your products, services and brand. For the best results, a company’s Facebook contest should appeal to their target markets and be brand-related. The following Facebook contests were successful for this very reason:

• Kellogg’s Great Eggo Waffle Off asked fans for their best recipes using Eggos waffles and then let them vote on entries for the winner’s $5,000 prize. Kellogg’s got lots of photos for their Facebook page and increased engagement.
• J.G. Wentworth’s Facebook contest, dubbed “Live Your Dreams Now Instant Win Game,” offers weekly prizes and the chance to win bigger prizes like a trip for two to Hawaii, Germany and New York City, a new car, rent or mortgage for a year, $5,000 and more. Entrants supply their email address and can opt to receive emails and calls from J.G. Wentworth reps about products and services. As a result, the company adds to its email list and gains potential new sales leads.
• To reach 100,000 Facebook likes, T-shirt maker Qwertee ran a Facebook sweepstakes asking visitors to like their page and leave their email address for a chance to win T-shirts. The company gave away 1,000 T-shirts a month until it hit its goal.
• Smart Shelters 12-month giveaway promotion gave the company’s product away with an email entry competition supported by Facebook ads, increasing its Facebook fans from 800 to 5,950 in five months. The company also increased revenues by $750,000, according to Wishpond.

How to Run Your Own Facebook Contest

You have a couple options to run a contest on Facebook: You can use a third-party app or run a contest directly on your page’s timeline. Follow these tips for running your own Facebook contest with a timeline promotion:

• Review Facebook’s promotion guidelines to understand what you can and can’t do. For example, you can ask users to answer a question and select the first correct answer to win a prize, but you can’t ask users to share a post.
• Make sure you understand and follow all the rules, including creating official rules for your contest that include releasing Facebook from liability.
• Be careful when planning contests with high-value prizes, as the contests will come under more scrutiny because of the more desirable winnings.

You may prefer to use a third-party app for a Facebook contest. Second Street Affiliate Success Manager Emily Thousand says the advantages of using a third party app include collecting information about your fans, getting likes and growing a social following and building an email list to drive new sales leads.