Tag Archives: competition

How to set up a Facebook competition

Facebook competitions are a great way to use the real power of Social Media. They encourage your Fans and customers to spread awareness of your business, products and services across their own social networks, by providing a bit of fun and the chance of winning a prize.

There are two ways to set up a Facebook competition; on your Facebook Page Wall or by using a Facebook App (aka Tab). For some time, many brands have run ‘Like and Share’ competitions but it’s only recently that following the recent relaxation of Facebook’s promotion rules, you can now set up  a competition directly on your Wall. It should be noted that whilst Liking as a means of entry is permitted, Sharing is not - read Liking - Yes, Sharing - No.

Here are three competition ideas that you can use for either approach:

1. Sweepstake/Draw – hold a draw with a prize for a randomly selected winner.
2. Photo competition – Entrants upload or select Facebook Photos to enter. Best photo wins prize.
3. Question/Answer – Ask a question with correct answers going into a draw.

Here are advantages and disadvantages to running competition on a Wall and using an App:

Wall competitions

Pros: Easy to setup, free, works on mobile devices, big potential audience, can ‘Boost’ reach wtih Facebook Ads
Cons: Hard to choose and contact winner/s, amateur look and feel

Facebook App competitions

Pros: Professional look and feel, works on mobile devices*, ‘Like Gate’ option (entrants have to Like your Page), email address captured, easy to select winner, easy to link to for promotion, can ‘Boost’ reach with Facebook Ads.
Cons: Small cost, time to set up.

* Not all Facebook Apps work on mobile devices - go here for an example. My recommended tool for setting up Facebook competitions is Shortstack - great templates, easy to use and works on mobile.

If you need further advice on running a social media competition please get in touch.

Twitter competition falls at final hurdle

A great idea for a social media competition was thought up by Betfred, sponsors of the last Friday’s Cheltenham Gold Cup, but it didn’t quite generate the response that was probably anticipated. The idea was for racegoers to tweet the name of the horse they thought was the ‘best turned out’ before the big race on Friday for a chance to win a £100 free bet. However, using TweetReach it appears that less than 17 people entered as instructed - by  tweeting @BetfredRacing using #BTO.

So perhaps the implementation could have been improved in a number of ways:

1) More publicity - other than the inside of the back page of the race card I didn’t spot any other references to the competition. Promoting on the TV screens around the course would have helped raise awareness.

2) More meaningful hashtag - #BTO isn’t a known expression for ‘best turned out’ so why not #BestTurnedOut?

3) Unique hashtag - On the day of the competition #BTO was used in numerous tweets, with only a small proportion related to the Betfred competition. A unique hashtag is important so that the conversation is focussed around the competition, campaign or event you’re running.

4) Omit reference to Facebook - Given that the competition was a Twitter only competition and there is no mention of it on the Betfred Facebook Page, making a reference to it (see below) doesn’t add anything and perhaps confuses.

5) Use correct Twitter logos - Both the logos used in the advert aren’t permitted under Twitter’s Trademark and Content Display Policy plus the instruction in the policy not to ‘display the Twitter brand or trademarks larger than your own marks’ is also ignored.

What do you think of this competition? Please post your thoughts in the Comments below.

Gü Puds knows the way to heart of its community

I’ve flagged up Gü Puds before - read here and here - as being a brand that really knows how to engage their community on Facebook and Twitter. With their latest Valentine’s competition they combine the two social networks with great effect. Followers on Twitter had a chance to win Gü Puds for a year by tweeting “I want to win a year’s supply of @gupuds for two because #ilovegu” plus a photo of Gü.

I want to win a year’s supply of @gupuds for two because #ilovegu saving these for valentines, #takes effort twitter.com/niamhini/statu…

— Niamh Donlon (@niamhini) February 13, 2013

The Twitter hashtag competition was supported on Gü Puds Facebook Page with posts about the competition raising awareness and creating engagement in their own right.

Competitions that link into national events work well and as people’s awareness of Valentine’s Day would already be heightened and with this social media competition there’s a natural link between the event and Gü desserts.

Twitter hashtag competitions or draws are easy to setup and are cheap (or even free) to run. Paid advertising is not required although it could be used to boost awareness of a campaign even further. This competition was an effective way to raise awareness of Gü Puds and it’s a model that could be followed be pretty much any other business.

To learn more about how you can use Twitter to raise awareness of your business check out my regular Twitter training in Cheltenham, including Advanced Twitter for business workshops.

Example of great Facebook competition

Here’s an example of a simple but great Facebook competition from Stitcher Radio, makers of a podcast app. It’s also an illustration of using a third party service, in this case Woobox, to set up a Facebook competition. Using a service like Woobox makes it easy for you to produce a Facebook app for a competition without hiring a web developer. You can read more about other uses of app and how to make the best use of them in a previous article.

Woobox offer a number of coupons and custom tabs for free, although for competitions and other features you’ll need to subscribe to their Pro plan. However, you can set up your competition  to see what it looks like and how it works before subscribing. To do this, login to Woobox and select the Sweepstakes link on the top left.

The Stitcher Radio competition is nicely tied into their brand as it offers a pair of Monster headphones as a prize which you could use with their podcast app. The competition requires entrants to Like the Stitcher Radio Page to reveal the competition entry form. I’m not too keen on this tactic and would rather make it optional, but you can do this if you wish. It’s then just a question of entrants simply adding their email address to take part.

Encouragement is then given to share the fact they’ve entered on Facebook and Twitter with a bonus entry offered for each friend that enters. This helps Stitcher Radio raise awareness of the competition and their podcast app, help increase the number of fans on their Page and acquire email addresses of prospective customers.

If you would like one-to-one training on how to set up Facebook competitions, make the best use of apps and your Page please let me know.