How to run a successful contest on Facebook

With the arrival of the digital era came new and innovative ways in which companies can promote their brands. One of those ways is through social media, and a popular method that has gained traction in the last couple of years is Facebook contests. Whether you run a small or large business, this is a good way of making your presence known in the market and/or thanking your customers for using your products and services.

So why should you hold Facebook contests and why use Facebook?

The Biggest Social Network as Your Platform

Facebook is the biggest social media platform to date, with about two billion users. Reaching even a fraction of that figure can mean big opportunities for your brokerage. While new social media networks continue to crop up, competing the consumer’s attention, Facebook still makes sense for a lot of companies. Not in vain it currently has 70 million business pages.

Let’s break down the value of Facebook when holding your brokerage’s contests.

It helps build your fan base: It doesn’t matter if you’re starting with 5,000 or 10,000 likes on your Facebook page. If you hold a contest with big prizes at stake, you can expect those numbers to increase in a matter of days or weeks.

It gives you the necessary data: Use your contests to gather more information about your visitors. Through a well-designed trivia questionnaire you can discover more about your audience and how well they know your products or services.

It increases sales and engagement: You can increase awareness for your brand and traffic to your website. This will, of course, depend on the type of contest you organize. Knowledge-based contests can entice your audience to go to your website and get the answers. With a well-designed, optimized website, users may explore and discover more about your business, organically leading to more conversions.

In terms of engagement, when a page attracts fans, they are likely to comment, like, and share its content.

What Makes a Facebook Contest Successful?

Not all contests instantly perform well on the social media platform.

1. You need an enticing pitch to get more people to participate. What are participants getting in return? Make sure you make it worth their while to invest their time.

2. Decide on what type of contest suits your audience best: sweepstakes, trivia, submitting an essay, photo or video are some of the most popular contest types. The type of contest you run matters because each one appeals to a different audience.

3. You also need to target the right audience to achieve conversion. You’ll want to make sure that your target market frequents Facebook.

4. Make sure you’re aware of Facebook’s do’s and dont’s. Facebook has an extensive list of rules for running contests, including making it clear that your business is running the contest and not Facebook, as Facebook is serving merely as a platform.

5. Choose a third party app to help you support the contest and make sure the app supports participation from mobile devices

6. Keep it simple for participants to enter.

7. Let the world know about the contest. Promote it on other social media platforms, on your website, newsletters and consider spending some money on Facebook ads.

8. Measure results.

Social media contests are effective, not only for the exposure your brand will get, but it also works because it’s a good inbound marketing technique. Instead of the traditional codes on bottle caps or the usual raffle draws, you can turn to social media. Facebook’s massive audience and cost-effective appeal could be a great asset to your brokerage.