Everything you need to know about running a successful Facebook contest: ideas, tips and recommendations

It`s not a secret that every successful developer has a huge arsenal of tricks and ideas for improving his social media business, increasing his audience and making his products likable. And today, we will talk about the most attractive way of increasing a social media audience, which is called social media contest, and in our article, we will be talking about Facebook contest. Why? Well, Facebook is the largest social media platform in the world, and people keep creating new accounts and joining their friends. We tell you how to plan a perfect Facebook contest and what things should be avoided while doing this.

Orientate on your sphere of business

A contest always has a winner, and winner always has a prize. However, you should be very careful while working on your contest. You know the sphere that you are working in, so your prize should be applicable for your clients. For example, if your business is a food delivery service, you can run a contest for a huge pack of food.

Choose a budget for your contest

This point is probably the most important in the whole plan. If you want to get real profit from your Facebook contest, you should make a big promoting campaign – tell people about your contest, draw their attention, make them take part in it. However, you should understand how much money you will spend. If you will count it beforehand, you don`t need to panic and find the ways to create an extra promotion. The budget depends on the number of users that you want to interest, the user`s engagement and the number of people who took part in your Facebook contest.

If you have a small business, you should have a lower budget than usual companies have. Of course, if you won`t to throw extra money away.

Don`t encourage people of making extra sharing

It`s good when people share your content in the social media, because there is a higher possibility that you will gain new followers. However, don`t create an extra encouragement for people who share your contest`s posts in Facebook. Yes, it`s good, but you already have your own promoting campaign, which is orientated on a specific number of users. Next time you will be able to make a bigger context for a bigger audience, so don`t get over the limits.

Don`t run a Facebook contest on your personal timeline

You should understand that people couldn`t stay online for the whole day. To get a maximum profit from your Facebook contest, you should create a schedule for the promotional posts that will appear in the news feed. Use Facebook Analysis to help you – look on the common time when your subscribers are online, and add your content right when it`s time. In most cases, people could open visit Facebook during the breakfast before going to work, school or university and in the evening while going back home. Try to post your advertisements on that time and look on the result.

Promote your Facebook contest through all social media channels

If some of your fans are not using Facebook, it is a great variant to remind them about your contest. If you chose the right prize, they will definitely pay attention to your Facebook account. Who knows, maybe the will join you in this social media.

Facebook contest ideas

If it is a contest, the participants should do something to have chances for victory. Here are some easy examples of what you can offer them.

Like or comment to win

Basic scheme for all social media contests. If you want to be a participant, you must leave your mark on the person`s account. How people are doing this? They post a photo with a short description (what is the prize and what you must do to take part in the contest) and all you need to do is to like or leave a comment (put “+” or tag a friend), or complete both circumstances. Popular social media bloggers who are running such contests are getting more than ten thousand comments below their posts. It`s a regular activity for their accounts.

Photo caption contest

The next variant of activity in a social media contest that is less popular then previous. For example, if you want to win a signed short of your favourite football club, you need to visit one of their matches during the time of the contest and take a picture of a specific player. Then you add your photo to a developer`s account and just wait for the results. This is a little bit harder than typing a few words and putting a like, but it makes you to do something.

Knowledge-testing question

We know that such method of making a Facebook contest is less popular today than it was before, but there are some developers, whose activity needs you to have a basic knowledge in a current sphere.

The circumstances are simple: you enter a developer`s Facebook page and give an answer(s) to question(s). If everything is right, you can get your prize. If not, try again next time. Someone can say that this is too hard for social media users, but we can say that such contests will keep their activity on the higher level – they`ll want to know more about this sphere and win every next contest.

User-generated content contest

You probably know the full power of user-generated content, and you know that developers are using it in their business strategies to increase leads. However, user-generated content could be used in Facebook contest as well as any other kind of information.

For example, you need to find a specific post dedicated to the topic, make a screenshot of it and send it to the developer`s account.

Final advice

The last thing that we wanted to say about running a Facebook contest is about time limit. You should always control it. The most optimal time duration is from ten days to two weeks. If it will be longer, people could just forget about the contest or loose their interest in it. You don`t want that happened, so keep an eye on the calendar.

Conclusion

We hope that know you know all important information about Facebook contest and how to make it enjoyable for other users. We wish you good luck and hope you will have a great time while working on your contest.