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Why Facebook Contests Really Do Work!

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By John Boudreau

Everyone likes to win prizes and contests, especially through social media. These days, you are most likely communicating with your customer online more than you do in person. Has your business taken advantage of this? Not only are contests a great way to community build, but they also help your business show it cares about your audience. According to industry statistics, over 1 billion people are on Facebook. Knowing this, now more than ever is the time to get on board with Facebook contests. However, understanding what it takes to grow your fan base from zero to 700 takes time and patience, as well as a great marketing strategy.

Proven Results

We have seen contests gain traction on Facebook through creative, innovative ideas, which also involve different partnerships. For proven results, here are some examples you can use for inspiration:

Partee Insurance

This California insurance agency runs a game of Hangman every Wednesday from their Facebook page. How do they do this? Throughout the entire day, the staff promotes the contest, and at the end, the winner receives a stuffed cow named Cee Cee the Cow, who is the mascot of Partee Insurance! By conducting this type of contest, the agency has increased their following to well above 800 likes. However, this didn’t happen overnight or from luck. The team works hard to engage their customers on a weekly basis as well as remain creative with the words they select for the game. The consistency of this contest contributed to its success, in addition to the prize being a brand related item, which helped to further promote awareness throughout the community.

Weimer Group

The Weimer Group created strong local partnerships and incorporated those relationships into a contest. During the holiday season, the team set up a 12-week, 12-gift giveaway program, all involving local prizes. In order to run the contest, the agents used an easy promotion application. The first partner promoted was free and then the rest were $15 per promo. In the first week of the campaign, the Group was able to help one partner gain 70 “likes” in only a few days!

Fans had to enter their name, email, and “like” the page of the “partner of the week” in order to win a prize through a raffle drawing. What took the contest to the next level was how the winner was announced. The Weimer Group made personal videos for each winner, explaining exactly what the prize entailed. The dedication and appreciation the agency shows to their local partners and clients reveals how important consistency, promotion, and engagement are to a quality contest.

Rules and Regulations to Follow

So how did these agencies turn ideas into reality? They first had to follow rules and regulations established by Facebook. Failure to abide by these rules when running a contest could cause it to end before it even begins. Some of the terms and conditions are listed below:

  • If you use Facebook to administer a promotion, you are responsible for the lawful operation of that promotion.
  • If you are not sure if your promotion complies with the laws, seek out help from a professional.
  • Contests must be administered within Apps on Facebook.com, either on a Canvas Page or a Page App.
  • Promotions must include an acknowledgment that the promotion is in no way sponsored by or associated with Facebook and disclosure that the participant is providing information to you and not to Facebook.
  • You must not condition entry upon the user liking a Wall post, commenting, or uploading a photo on a Wall. In addition, do not use the Like button as a voting mechanism.

Helpful Apps to Invest In

With so many rules to follow and not a lot of experience, the stress of organizing an event could be heightened. However, to help you remain calm, you can use approved applications. The following includes apps which vary in price and functionality, but all of them make it easier to run a contest and obey the rules:

  • Easypromos (Free)
  • Wildfire (ranges from $25-$250 and $3-$5 per day)
  • Offerpop (cost of this app goes by the number of fans your page has; less than 100 fans, it is free to use)
  • Static HTML (Free)

Put Yourself Out There

With an understanding of the steps to take to run a viable Facebook contest, now you can work on engagement. Your goal should be to get your audience excited and interested in your contest, as well as your business in the process. Here are some tips to help you promote and execute your contest:

  • Offer a unique, enticing prize.
  • Social media is interactive, so your contest must be fun and entertaining. No one wants to participate in a boring game. Some good ideas to start with are photo or video contests.
  • When it comes to creating the rules, make sure they are clear, concise, and simple to follow.
  • Before, during, and after your contest, always promote it. Use all the resources you have at your disposal, including other social media outlets, your website, and blogs. You can also have your employees and partners spread the word.

Setting specific goals for your contest can help you remain true to your mission and business’ values. No matter what kind of prize you offer your customers, the fact that you were able to keep them engaged and energized is the biggest prize of all! Most importantly, have fun with the whole process, because no idea is too out of the box. Your audience will appreciate your efforts to reach out and understand their needs!

Author’s Bio: John Boudreau, COO and Co-Founder of Astonish, has been in the insurance marketing and technology business for nearly 10 years. He works closely with local insurance agencies across the country to understand what works and what doesn’t in an attempt to increase their share of the digital landscape through online marketing tactics and a robust customer relationship marketing tool. For more information on client results, visit Astonish’s list of business profile reviews. Before Astonish, Boudreau honed his problem-solving abilities while working as an environmental analytical chemist. He also founded Ion Marketing Group, a digital marketing company focused on the real estate industry. An avid musician, John plays the drums, the bass and the guitar.

Your Social Media Deficiency Could Be Costing You Business

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What is your small business doing to set itself apart from the competition?

If one of your answers is using social media, a pat on the back to you. If you’re not using social networks to promote your brand, why are you being so resistant?

Despite a number of reports that indicate more and more companies are getting it when it comes to social media, there is still significant lag time when it comes to small businesses talking about social media and actually employing it.

During a small business summit held earlier this year, Godfrey Phillips, VP of research at The Business Journals, noted the following from a study based on 2,200 interviews of business owners and top executives of companies with less than 500 employees:

* Approximately 80 percent of small business owners and major executives indicated they are now using a social network, yet just 57 percent reported doing so in conjunction with their marketing strategy;

* LinkedIn was singled out as the site most utilized for business functions (50 percent) and the least when it came to personal use by those high up in the company (9 percent);

*  Facebook was rated the least used for business purposes (12 percent) and most utilized when it came to personal functions (30 percent).

As you can see by the numbers, less than 60 percent of company owners and top execs not using social media as part of their marketing strategy means countless businesses are missing the boat. In fact, you could even say they are somewhat adrift when it comes to properly reaching out to current and potential customers.

So, you’re in charge of marketing your small business or doing just that for your boss, and social media still seems like a foreign subject at times, why should this matter be rectified?

The reasons include:

* Your brand needs social media – Given the fact that more and more consumers are using the Internet to browse for and purchase goods and services, you need to be alive and breathing social media. With a presence on the major social media sites, you can not only be promoting your brand, but also engaging with consumers, seeing what is being said about your business and staying up to speed with the competition. Not have a social media presence for your business in 2012 is akin to living in the dark ages;

*  Saving money on advertising – When you actively promote your brand on social media, think of the advertising dollars you can be saving. While there is a good chance you will still be doing some of the standard forms of promoting your company like print, and radio/television ads, social media is in essence free advertising. The time and effort required for social media advertising can prove a great return on investment (ROI) for the wise marketer;

* Customer expectations – While your business still may do a sizable portion of marketing via word-of-mouth, traditional advertising and being active in the community, social media exposes you to an infinite number of people who could be your next customers. The days of the customer waiting for you to come to them via catalogs, flyers, phone calls, etc. is in essence a thing of the past. Now, your goal is to market your business via different forms of digital marketing, including social media.

With all that social media has to offer your business, why would you avoid it in the first place?

Photo credit: blog.socialmaximizer.com

With 23 years of experience as a writer, Dave Thomas covers a wide array of topics from finding the right gutter guard for your home to starting a home business.

Check Out GizaPage! Bring Facebook and Twitter Fans Back Home to YOU

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Yesterday I got a chance to try out a new white label social media hub for brands and bloggers. It took me seconds to click a link and sign in.

givapage_signup

A click through and I was here. In seconds, I could access my social profiles from one page.

liz_strauss_gizapage

But that’s not what makes it cool.

GizaPage lets fans engage across all social media profiles from within the brand’s or blogger’s website.

Direct-To-Profile GizaLinks allow a brand or a blogger to send fans directly into their various social profiles without ever leaving their own website.

For example, consider the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History – An original Facebook link on Smithsonian’s homepage would direct the fans away from Smithsonian’s website to http://www.facebook.com/nmnh.fanpage?ref=ts. However, with a Direct-To-Profile GizaLink, Facebook would open within Smithsonian’s own website, http://social.mnh.si.edu/facebook. The fans can then engage on Facebook, Twitter, or any of the brand’s social profiles in one unified environment.

Click this screenshot to see it live.

smithsoniansocialhub

And did I say that GizaPage comes with analytics?

gizapage_analytics

It’s worth checking out.

And after you try it. I’d like to know how it worked for you.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

I’m a proud affiliate of

What Is Social Networking?

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The LANGUAGE of SOCIAL MEDIA

Words have a deep effect on
how we interpret and interact with the world.
The words we use and how we define them
reveal our interests, concerns, and values.
This series explores the words of social media.

social networking and a social network

Most literally, social networking would be meeting and making connections and relationships — both business and social — online and offline. In the lexicon of social media, social networking involves establishing an online presence and connecting regularly with other people and businesses who have done the same. Connections are made through hyperlinks and references embedded in personal profiles, comment text, audio comments, podcasts, videos.

Social networking sites provide efficient ways for individuals (and individual businesses) to find and connect with friends and colleagues, to establish new relationships and deepen them, and to introduce friends and colleagues to each other. Many social networking sites also offer platforms for discussion of topics that a community or network finds mutually interesting or beneficial.

In the most concise terms, a social network is a group of like-minded individuals connected by a common interest.

@rubybluesox: “we know ‘enough’ about each other that we could ‘hang out’ in person and be friends … but in a ‘linguistic’ way… so it requires a certain depth that most ‘marketers’ aren’t used to”
@thomasclifford: “What is social networking? A means to validate our search for meaning.”
@brendansmith: @pixelfan for me everything i do in social networking is business, for fun, family and friends, I use the phone or meet face to face
@pm_41: @mashable Why would I hire people to tweet for me? The whole idea of social-networking is to express YOURSELF in front of the world.
@brunsvold: I sometimes get the feeling that social networking is like high school. The only way to survive is to pretend to be too cooler than everyone

For more information see:
Social Network
Social Networking in Plain English
Social-networking sites work to turn users into profits
I Saw The Future Of Social Networking The Other Day
Leadership, the Internet and the ‘Tribes’ of the World

SEE ALSO:
What Is Social Media?

Got more to add? C’mon let’s talk.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!