Would you like a way to increase traffic to your Facebook page? Has your audience number become limited and fairly stagnant? One thing is for sure: People like FREE things. They will almost do anything that does not require a credit card or social security number for a free gift AND you can use it to your advantage.

 

 

A well-placed contest can do the following:

1. Drive Traffic

2. Increase Fan Base thus increasing Reach

3. Increase Engagement

4. Help you maintain followers

But how? Facebook can be such a complicated monster to try to face head-on. If this is your first Facebook contest, start small. We’ll discuss some easy, starter ideas and grow in complication from there. If it is not your first rodeo (and if it is) – read on! We have some creative ideas for you to check out!

The beauty of Facebook can be measured in the amount of people who actively use the website. If Facebook were to be condensed into a real country, it would become the 3rd largest nation in the world. This means there are a lot of people you can potentially reach with your message, it is just a matter of getting it out there and available for them. Contests can work very well for that.

The Ugly of Facebook. It can be very complicated. Contests can be run as intuitively as you like or it can be a difficult step-by-step process.  We’ll go over a few methods and let you evaluate their relevance for your Facebook Timeline Contest.

1. Easy: Liking something. Have your audience/fan base like a specific post, a page or event and select a winner at random from the participants

2. Easy: Posting something. How about photo submissions? Have a contest with specific timeline parameters (Photo submissions accepted through 00:00PM on XX/XX/XX until 00:00PM on XX/XX/XX). Post received photos into an album and allow the photo with the most likes to win (i.e. the submitter). PRO TIP: Make a collage of these images and post it on your Twitter, Pinterest, Youtube, etc and link it all back. Those who participated are more than likely going to go through to your other accounts and like/follow/subscribe in order to be involved with the next contest.

3. Easy: Physical Action Required. Are you out on location somewhere in the city? Post on your social media accounts where you are and what is free! We guarantee that there is SOMEONE in the area who would LOVE a free gift. It makes everyone’s day!

4. Medium: Add a Fan-Gate. With any iFrame application tab, adding a Fan-Gate is just 1 click away. You can count on increasing the likes on your page with anyone drawn to your contest.

5. Difficult: Add a data collection entry/submission form. This has been done in the past as a form created through Dreamweaver and independently hosted online. The entry submissions are then sent to another site that collects the data and puts it into an easily readable form. You can select someone at random, daily for a regular giveaway or, honestly, however you like. This is very adjustable.

6. Difficult: Add an extra social profile into the mix. Remember our random selection of someone liking your post/photo/event? Try this: Create a board on Pinterest. Include information about your contest on your other social media pages and direct fans to your contest Pin-board for further instruction. For example, “Re-Pin an item from this board with a creative caption! A winner will be selected at Random!!” From here, have an item from the board “re-pinned”. You can see how many times it has been re-pinned from your board and then select a winner at random. There are now programs and websites that allow you to see the basics of your influence on Pinterest. We really enjoy using Repinly in addition to PinPuff. Both are free, fun and easy-to-use tools!

Voila! Hopefully some of these ideas were helpful for your next Facebook Contest! They have all been successful executed in the past and have been effective. We understand that increasing fan base for new/small businesses can be difficult and frustrating so let us give your creative juices a push in the right direction!