How to Run a Contest on Facebook

The recent Facebook–Cambridge Analytica scandal raised new questions about the future of marketing on one of the buzziest social platforms. Facebook can rightfully be called a behemoth of social media marketing, which means losing this marketing channel would be too painful for both B2C and B2B businesses. The good news is, despite the popularity of the #DeleteFacebook hashtag on Facebook, the number of people who actually acted upon it was very insignificant. There were also no meaningful changes in the promotional use of Facebook pages. The chances are, Facebook marketing is going to survive.

Contests have long been the most beloved tools for capturing new contacts and building a strong fan base. Why is it that people love competitions so much, and how can these benefit your business? Let’s answer these questions.

Reasons to organise a contest on Facebook

Organising a contest on Facebook goes far beyond simply increasing your number of followers. Here are the key benefits you can reap:

• Engagement = better company reputation: It’s important to understand that there’s no point in running contests just for the sake of running contests. Through an online competition, you deliver value to your target audience. Accordingly, if you create a relevant campaign that caters to the interests of the audience, you’ll get engagement in the form of active commenting, sharing, and UGC creation. With a buzzy Facebook contest, your company page will appear more trustworthy.
• Breaking the news: Especially for startups, it might be difficult to attract public attention to new products, services, or projects. Online contests offer an excellent way to reach out to people who might be interested. Think of a contest theme that will capture the attention of your target persona, and weave this theme into your product’s story. This product-oriented approach is actively followed not only by startups but by globally known companies as well:

• Selling more: Obviously, your marketing attempts are focused on bringing in new leads. Contests that boost engagement and resonate with the products and services you sell can be great money-makers.

Facebook pros

“Why not Instagram?” you ask. Well, there are different channels and different advantages you gain by using them. Here are the main reasons why Facebook is a good platform for running online contests:

• You can run contests on your own timeline. Thanks to a “timeline” contest feature introduced last year, it’s now easy to engage with your audience without referring them to third-party apps. Apart from a great user experience, timeline contests also give you the benefit of sponsored post promotion.
• It’s easy to handle visual-focused contests. Facebook Live is a great asset in terms of marketing video content. When it comes to online contests, the chances are videos will bring you the highest engagement.
• Facebook is the most addictive social media platform. According to Forrester’s research, Facebook is the platform with the highest number of logins. On average, people check their Facebook accounts at least eight times a day. The obvious conclusion here is that if you want to get as many eyes on your post as possible, Facebook is where you need to go.

How to run a Facebook contest step by step

Running contests on Facebook seems to be a one-click thing. The reality is, you have to accomplish a range of small tasks first to put the pieces of the puzzle together. To ensure you don’t leave anything important out, follow this step-by-step guide:

1. Follow the rules for running contests on Facebook. To regulate promotional activities, social media platforms develop sets of rules that you should comply with when running any type of marketing activities. Facebook is no exception. Before starting your big, buzzy Facebook contest, make sure you comply with its official promotion policy, which can be found here.
2. Set up the judging/voting processes. Based on the goals and tools you decide to use, determine how the entries will be evaluated. It’s quite typical to choose public voting for Facebook contests because this brings increased community engagement. If, on the other hand, you’re running a professional competition that requires the involvement of specific expertise, go for a judging panel. Once you’ve made your decision, set the rules related to judging to build a transparent contest evaluation process. Focus on communicating such aspects as the use of judging tools, voting periods, the date and time of winner selection, etc.
3. Establish a mechanism for contest promotion. A well-thought-out promotion plan brings you engagement. Here are the basic guidelines:
   • Start building Facebook buzz several days before a contest to prepare the audience for something big.
   • Email your existing clients/community to break the news.
   • Direct your website traffic to social media by adding a contest banner to the home page.
   • Take your announcement to contesting platforms. This will help you attract the attention of new communities.
4. Think about the follow-up activities. Effective marketing doesn’t end with the last bell. There are many goals you can achieve through social media after a contest is finished. Start with your ultimate purpose, and email the contacts that were collected during your contest. This is your chance to convert contest participants into company clients. Apart from this, you can tie in the winner announcement with follow-up offers or excite the audience by partly disclosing some news about your future campaigns.

Why you should use Judgify

Judgify is an awards management system that combines effective tools for managing contest applications, judging processes, public voting, and online event analytics. From flexible upload settings to fully configurable voting, Judgify offers numerous modules that will reduce your workload when running successful Facebook contests.

Conclusion

A common mistake that many businesses make is excluding social media contests from their marketing agenda because such campaigns are believed to be a purely “fan-engagement” thing. In fact, if you know how to run a Facebook contest that is aligned with your business goals, there’s so much more you can achieve with it. From a reputable Facebook page to new sales perspectives, online contests are impactful marketing activities. We hope that this short guide to running Facebook competitions will help you reach new heights.