One of my clients kicked off a Facebook contest today, so I wanted to share five contest tips that will help your next contest achieve its goals:
1. Highlight Customers
In the case of a physician practice, the customers are patients. This contest puts the patients front stage, highlighting their stories while showing how the practice helped each patient get back in the game. I love how they include advice from the athletes as well as photographs and back stories. It helps others see how they could benefit from the services these patients received.
2. Share the Prize
Notice that the winning entry will win a prize not only for the athlete, but also for the athlete’s school. A scholarship prize for the winning athlete attracts friends and family of that athlete. A prize for the school’s Athletic Department attracts the whole school. By awarding prizes to both athlete and school, the contest ensures the highest degree of participation.
3. Make it Social
When you run a contest on Facebook, users can invite their friends to enter the contest as well as vote in the contest. Also, every time someone votes, Facebook publishes an update to that person’s news feed about it. This promotes your contest to friends of both voters and entrants – people who might not know about your organization. If one of your goals is brand awareness, this is a win.
4. Comply with Facebook Guidelines
This means using a third party application for contests. I like Wildfire (not an affiliate link) because it is easy to set up. They offer various price points, but you can run a month long contest for less than $36. Do not use Facebook as a contest platform by asking people to enter the contest by tagging photos or clicking Like. You can’t use Facebook posts or messages to notify winners, either. Any violation could get your Page shut down permanently, so familiarize yourself with the guidelines.
5. Know your Goal
In this case, Commonwealth Orthopaedics is seeking brand awareness. They want people to know about their services through their Facebook Page, so they selected a contest format that had a low barrier to participation: a simple vote. Contests that require more interaction, like uploading a photo or creating a video, set the bar higher and are more suited to goals around engaging customers and strengthening your relationship with them.
Want more information on Facebook Contests?
Check out Engage your People with Facebook or Facebook for Arts Organizations.
