36% of your entire international inhabitants makes use of Fb month-to-month. And whereas we’re sure every of these 2.91 billion individuals has their very own distinctive character and particular pursuits (pineapple on pizza? Crocs in common or sport mode?), we’re additionally positive that 100% of them have one factor in frequent: they love free stuff.
Internet hosting a Fb contest or giveaway is a superb (and low-cost) technique for selling your corporation—plus, it’s a pleasant technique to give again to your model’s loyal followers. That mentioned, there are additionally a whole lot of methods—from obnoxious to outright unlawful—that Fb contests shouldn’t be run.
Hold studying for a step-by-step information on how one can plan and execute a Fb contest that’ll thrill each your viewers and your analytics.
Bonus: Obtain 4 free, customizable social media contest templates that can assist you get began selling your contests on Instagram, Twitter, and Fb.
What’s a Fb contest?
A Fb contest is a contest that entails Fb customers getting into to win items, providers or different issues of worth (for instance, clout) supplied by the competition organizer. Consider it like a bodily draw you’d enter at a grocery store, however as a substitute of collaborating by writing your title and phone data on a slip of paper, you’re getting into electronically, by liking a submit or writing a remark.
What’s a Fb giveaway?
A Fb giveaway is a well-liked subcategory of Fb contests — the truth is, a lot of the contests you’ll see on the platform could be categorized as a giveaway.
Giveaways all the time contain the gifting of one thing of financial worth to the competition winner. For instance, a photographer may maintain a contest and reward the winner a free photoshoot. Or a candle model may give away a set of their new Fall scents (pumpkin spice, clearly).
However generally, you’ll see Fb contests that aren’t technically giving something away—as an illustration, an animal shelter may maintain a “cute canine” contest and easily share a photograph of the winner as a substitute of getting an precise prize of financial worth. Typically, although, the phrases “contest” and “giveaway” are interchangeable.
Find out how to plan and run a Fb contest
Operating a Fb contest is straightforward sufficient, however there’s a number of issues to know earlier than you embark in your first giveaway — each for the success of your Fb advertising technique and to be sure to’re not breaking any of the platform’s guidelines.
Step 1: Know your targets
Why are you operating a Fb contest within the first place? It’s to enhance your social media recreation, after all—however how?
Guarantee you already know what your aim is. Constructing model consciousness, boosting engagement, getting likes, advertising a brand new product, gaining followers and studying extra about your followers are all frequent targets. When planning your contest, ensure to maintain these targets in thoughts.
Should you’re unsure the place to start out, Hootsuite has a complete on-line coaching session on finest practices for operating social media contests — test it out.
Step 2: Outline your Fb contest guidelines
You’ll wish to set your personal guidelines (for instance, nobody who works in your firm can win — bummer) in your Fb contest, however you additionally must be aware of the social media platform’s official guidelines relating to giveaways.
Fb’s most up-to-date up to date contest guidelines break down into three main components.
You might be liable for operating the competition legally. In different phrases, Fb isn’t going that can assist you keep away from breaking state, provincial or federal legal guidelines by, say, unintentionally operating a lottery as a substitute of a contest.
Trace: a lottery contains any contest the place members are required to spend cash to play, i.e., purchase a product.
You might be liable for acquiring from members “an entire launch of Fb” and an acknowledgement that Fb has nothing to do with the competition. One tried-and-true place to deal with all these laws, notifications, and consents is a giveaway touchdown web page.
Requiring individuals to make use of their private timelines or buddy connections to take part just isn’t allowed. Right here’s the place the outdated guidelines fall by the wayside. Asking individuals to tag a buddy or share a Fb submit on their timeline was a regular contest requirement. No extra!
Right here’s the direct phrase from Meta itself:
“Promotions could also be administered on Pages, Teams, Occasions, or inside apps on Fb. Private Timelines and buddy connections should not be used to manage promotions (ex: “share in your Timeline to enter” or “share in your buddy’s Timeline to get further entries,” and “tag your folks on this submit to enter” will not be permitted).”
That mentioned, the advantages of those newest adjustments outweigh the inconveniences.
These practices have been truly fairly annoying to most individuals. Reducing the general air pollution on Fb means a greater expertise for customers, which implies individuals will proceed to make use of the platform (and enter your contests).
So, to recap what’s allowed versus what‘s not:
Acceptable Fb contest entry necessities:
- Like this submit
- Touch upon this submit
- Like feedback on this submit (i.e., vote by liking)
- Put up on this Web page’s timeline
- Message this Web page
Practises that aren’t allowed (and may end in your contest submit being flagged or deleted):
- Share this submit in your timeline
- Tag your folks
- Share this submit in your associates’ timeline
One gray space is asking individuals to love your Fb Enterprise Web page. Technically, this isn’t towards the principles, but it surely’s not beneficial as a result of there’s no simple technique to observe the parents who’ve finished so.
That mentioned, you may encourage individuals to love your Web page and enter for an opportunity to win through a much less suspect technique.
Step 3: Decide a prize
Decide a prize that aligns along with your model, and is one thing your followers are going to get enthusiastic about. For instance, making a gift of a product from a brand new launch is a good way to advertise the launch (and the non-winners may simply purchase the product anyway).
Additionally, take a second to suppose logistically about your prize and the way you’re going to ship it to the winner—as an illustration, an ice cream enterprise is best off mailing a branded t-shirt than ice cream.
Step 4: Create your belongings
All the small print of your contest could be communicated through plain textual content, positive. However that’s not very participating, and folks aren’t going to enter in the event that they don’t even discover that you just’re holding a giveaway. Whether or not or not you’re a graphic design professional, there are loads of apps on the market that make picture enhancing (and including issues like textual content, stickers and graphics) tremendous simple.
Step 5: Promote your contest prematurely
Let your followers know that you just’re having a contest by sharing it prematurely. You’ll be able to create hype by sharing data about your prize (or, when you’ve got a number of prizes, you may share one per day main as much as your contest launch).
Use a scheduling instrument—like Hootsuite’s calendar, for instance—to plan out the posts and be sure to’re posting at the perfect time of day.
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Should you’ve held contests prior to now and the winners have shared photographs of themselves with the prizes, take into account sharing these photographs to advertise your subsequent contest—simply be sure to ask for permission.
Step 6: Put up your contest
And, liftoff! Publish your contest on Fb and watch these entries flood in. Be certain to reasonable the competition submit and deal with any questions or confusion that may crop up.
Psst: you don’t have to stay to only Fb—you may run the identical (or an identical) contest on Twitter and/or Instagram and/or Youtube, too.
Step 7: Proceed to share your contest main as much as the deadline
Right here’s the place that scheduling instrument is useful once more. To ensure your contest doesn’t get buried in engagement bulletins or minion memes (or no matter else is bogging down your followers’ feeds) by sharing it typically.
As you method the competition deadline, be sure to talk to your followers that point is operating out. A countdown till the entry deadline is a superb motivator for lazy entrants—get it earlier than it’s gone!
Step 8: Decide the winners
Are there any guidelines for selecting winners of Fb contests? Technically, no. There’s nothing stopping you from selecting the individual with the best title or your buddy’s mother to win —besides, clearly, your ethics.
Choosing a winner completely randomly is one of the best ways to go. There’s loads of free apps and web sites you could go to to choose a random winner:
- Remark picker will choose a random remark out of your submit (so, it’s one to make use of if of us enter by commenting).
- Namepicker and Osortoo additionally choose a reputation from the remark part.
- Woobox can choose feedback or “likers.”
Step 9: Notify the winners and shut the competition
Contact your contest winner to allow them to know they’ve received (tip: try to sound as human as potential in your message, so the winner doesn’t suppose it’s pretend!) and “shut” the competition. In different phrases, edit all your contest posts and add a line stating that the competition is closed. This lets latecomers know that the competition is over (and makes positive you’re not getting spammed with feedback weeks after the winner has been picked).
Supply: Fb
Step 10: Share the winners (with their permission)
This can be a bonus step. When you’ve picked your winner, you may publicly share their username (so long as you’ve laid out that chance within the contest guidelines). And even their picture, with permission. Be sure to get the consent of the winner earlier than doing this.
Supply: Fb
Sharing who received isn’t obligatory, but it surely does assist along with your model’s transparency. Proving you did choose a winner in any respect ensures that the live performance is legit, and also you’re not simply doing it for the likes or feedback.
4 Fb contest concepts
1. Collaborate with an influencer (or superstar)
Working with influencers, KOLs or different influential individuals (like celebrities, when you’ve got that sort of entry and price range) is an superior technique to promote your contest. You’re routinely rising the attain of your contest by interesting to each your followers and your collaborator’s followers.
Kaytee’s latest (if bizarre) collab with Rainn Wilson is an efficient instance of that.
When collaborating with an influencer, KOL or superstar for a Fb contest, keep in mind to:
- Select an individual whose model is in an identical trade to yours, or who your viewers can simply relate to.
- Do your analysis on the individual—be sure to’re not associating your model with anybody whose beliefs don’t align with yours.
- Learn Hootsuite’s finest practices for influencer advertising.
2. Make a recreation of it
As a substitute of merely asking followers to love or touch upon a submit to enter your contest, take into account making the entry course of a little bit more difficult (and, in consequence, extra enjoyable).
Trend e-commerce firm Myntra used a easy video graphic for his or her giveaway—members needed to guess what number of wi-fi headphones appeared in a video with a purpose to enter.
When making a recreation out of your contest entry, take into account this:
- Don’t make getting into too laborious—the purpose, in any case, is to have a lot of entries, to not make your contest unique. Getting into a contest shouldn’t take greater than a pair minutes, max.
- Make the sport associated to your model or to the product you’re making a gift of (for instance, “Spot the distinction” between two photographs is perhaps an efficient, easy contest thought for a photographer).
- Ensure the one that wins truly will get the reply right. The simplest means to do that is to make use of a random remark picker, then discover the remark and confirm the reply is true. If it’s not, spin once more.
3. Ask your followers for assist
You won’t consider a Fb contest as supply of name suggestions or inspiration, but it surely completely could be. Take this submit from a San Francisco pizzeria:
Supply: Fb
The corporate is searching for out a brand new title for a product and taking to Fb to ask for ideas. People who remark with new title concepts are entered to win a $500 reward card plus one pizza every week for a 12 months (whoa).
This can be a nice technique to get your group concerned in your corporation and to create a significant connection along with your followers.
For this type of contest, be sure to:
- Hold true to your phrase. Should you’re saying {that a} contest entrant is renaming a product, you’ve received to really choose from the feedback. With that in thoughts…
- Don’t make the competition about one thing tremendous essential. Even when your followers are a group of respectful, affordable and inventive geniuses, you don’t wish to give them an excessive amount of energy over your model (don’t allow them to rename your entire firm, for instance).
- Share the outcomes! In this type of contest, you must undoubtedly share what the successful suggestion is. Sharing a pair runner-ups is an efficient technique to get extra visitors, too—your honorable mentions are more likely to wish to share that honor on their very own feeds.
4. Encourage followers to share with associates
We already went over the truth that “tag a buddy to enter” is technically not allowed—that’s because of Meta’s guidelines for promotions.
(Be aware: many, many companies ignore these guidelines. In reality, it was robust to search out examples of contests that didn’t contain tagging associates for this weblog submit. Nonetheless, these are the principles, and never sticking to them places you—and your social account—in danger.)
Nevertheless, there’s a sneaky means round this, as exemplified on this live performance ticket contest:
Supply: Fb
Technically, this radio station didn’t ask of us to tag their associates—the imprecise language of “tell us who you’d carry” signifies that hopeful members may enter by merely commenting one thing like “my mother.” However individuals tagged their associates anyway, which put the competition on the chums’ radar, as properly.
For this type of contest:
- Be sure to don’t explicitly ask followers to tag their associates.
- Ask them a query that entails naming one other individual—for instance, “inform us who you’d share this romantic dinner for two with!” or “inform us who you’d persuade to come back bungee leaping!”
Bear in mind, it’s additionally towards Meta’s giveaway guidelines to ask followers to share the submit on their very own or a associates’ timeline with a purpose to enter the competition.
Bonus: 3 Fb giveaway concepts
1. Give away a product from an trade companion
Even for those who’re not a model that makes an simply gift-able product, you may nonetheless host an superior giveaway—you simply must collaborate with one other enterprise. Not solely does this imply you may choose a prize that your followers really need, but it surely additionally creates constructive relationships with people in your trade.
For instance, Trendy Cat journal’s most evident giveaway prize can be a subscription to their journal. As a substitute, this giveaway is a partnership with a cat meals model. It’s hosted by the journal and provides away a product that the readers of the journal will discover interesting.
Supply: Fb
When collaborating with one other model for a giveaway, make sure to:
- Companion with a model that aligns with your corporation values, and has an identical audience (Trendy Cat wouldn’t companion with a pet food model).
- Be certain the phrases of the giveaway are clear, and kind out logistics—will the value be delivered to you to move ahead, or straight to the giveaway winner, for instance?
- Take into account together with the opposite model within the giveaway entry technique: a like or touch upon their Fb Web page can rely as a single entry, too, which helps to additional promote your contest and solidify your relationship.
2. Have fun a milestone
You don’t want an event to offer a present, but it surely’s all the time good to root your Fb giveaway to one thing brand-related—for instance, hitting a profession or social media milestone. Widespread milestone examples are gaining a specific amount of followers or the anniversary of founding your corporation. Skilled soccer participant Katriina Talaslahti hosted a giveaway to rejoice hitting 20 thousand followers.
For this type of giveaway, be sure to:
- Body the giveaway as a present to your followers to thank them in your help
- Decide an expert or private milestone… or each. Within the above instance, Katriina launches the giveaway to rejoice hitting 20k followers (skilled) and picks a winner on her birthday (private).
- Should you’re celebrating an everyday milestone (for instance, a enterprise anniversary that comes round, properly, yearly) take into account marking your calendar for upcoming years—you can also make your giveaway a convention.
3. Leap on a trending matter or present occasion
Making your contest relate to a well timed occasion helps to speak urgency. You need individuals to enter now, whereas they will, and tying your marketing campaign to one thing that’s momentary is an efficient technique. Excellent news: this generally is a unfastened tie; it’s all about the way you promote it.
For instance, there’s this vineyard giveaway that’s linked to a soccer recreation:
Supply: Fb
And this pet retailer giveaway that’s linked to “again to high school” season.
The vineyard isn’t actually associated to the soccer recreation, and canines don’t go to high school (or put on backpacks, normally) however each of those manufacturers linked their contests to present occasions in a inventive means.
For this type of contest, maintain this in thoughts:
- Select an occasion that your followers are more likely to care about. For instance,the vineyard above selected a sports activities staff that their group supported, and the pet retailer selected “again to high school” for pet homeowners who consider their pets as kids (so, most of them).
- Plan far sufficient forward of the occasion that you just’re not scrambling to make belongings. Hold stress ranges low by planning weeks earlier than no matter present occasion you’re aligning your contest with (for instance, plan your Valentine’s Day giveaway waaay earlier than February 13).
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