Get the results you want from your Facebook promotion

Running contests & promotions on your Facebook Page is a great way to reach new potential clients, reward your existing followers, as well as increase your brand awareness. You can use promotions to grow your followers, build your email list, even to drive more traffic to your website.

I don't know about you, but my feed is full of Like & Share contests on a daily basis. People are getting creative and now asking contestants to comment or tag a friend so the post reach goes further. By the time I enter, I'm exhausted from all the hoops I have to jump through. 

How many of you have run one of those contests? Probably a lot of you, I have done it too ... before I knew better.

When I really started to dig into marketing on Facebook I uncovered a lot of things that people do which violate the terms of service on a daily basis.

Facebook is by far the largest social media platform and as a business owner, the last thing you want to do is get in trouble for violating one of their rules and have your account shut down.

When you go to "Facebook Jail" you no longer have access to all those clients that you worked so hard to get and it puts your brand in jeopardy.

In order to run a successful Facebook Contest or Promotion, you need to follow a couple of key steps:

STEP 1

You need to make sure you are adhering to Facebook's Terms of Service

The majority of people do not even read terms of service agreements, they just click ok and keep going forward, but that can occasionally land you in hot water. Facebook has some very specific terms about what can and cannot be done on their platform.

To run a contest you are responsible for the lawful administration in creating:

• The official rules
• Offer Terms & eligibility requirements (age and residency requirements); and,
• Compliance with applicable rules and regulations governing the promotion and all prizes offered (ex: registration and obtaining necessary regulatory approvals)

Promotions on Facebook must include the following:

• A complete release of Facebook by each entrant or participant.
• Acknowledgment that the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.
• Promotions may be administered on Pages or within apps on Facebook. Personal Timelines and friend connections must not be used to administer promotions (ex: “share on your Timeline to enter” or “share on your friend's Timeline to get additional entries”, and "tag your friends in this post to enter" are not permitted).
• Facebook will not assist you in the administration of your promotion, and you agree that if you use their service to administer your promotion, you do so at your own risk

Did you just read those rules and think "Facebook is making it harder and harder to build my business?" I'm sure many of you did, but the good news is it doesn't say you can't encourage your friends to share the contest or to tag their friends,  it just can't be the stipulation to enter the contest. Phew right?

Let's keep moving on

STEP 2

When you are preparing to run a contest you should set some S.M.A.R.T Goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timely)

You need to be specific "I want 500 new likes", "100 new email addresses" whatever you are looking to do. You need to be able to attain it, no sense setting yourself up for failure, and it needs to be measurable. Make sure the contest/promotion is relevant to your followers. Giving away a fast-food gift card to your weight loss group might not be the best idea.

STEP 3

If you are going to use software for your promotion look for one that has built-in email verification. There are apps right on the Facebook platform to help you create the perfect looking contest. They will also ensure that the signup page displays properly on all devices. That way you are representing your brand in a professional way, but you also know you are collecting authentic email addresses for your list.

STEP 4

Create a graphic that will entice followers to enter. If you are not using a third-party app to run this contest and you want to create a custom graphic visit our previous post called "Enhance Your Visual Marketing" to discover a list of sites that provide royalty-free images. or sign up for a Free 14 day trial from BigStock Photo. You want to make sure that you share your post on all your social platforms and spend a lot of time promoting it.

 After you run a contest you need to always go back and study the data.

The great thing about Facebook is they provide you with all the information for free. You can go into your Insights and see who likes your page, their demographics, household income, where they spend their money.

If you ran an ad to promote your contest you can see how many impressions it had, and how many people entered the contest. If the numbers aren't where you want them you can rewrite the ad copy, change your graphic, or target a different niche. 

Stop working to just get in front of more bodies, work to get in front of highly target people.  If you are attracting highly targeted people into your sales funnel you can immediately begin telling them about the unique solutions that you offer to help them with their specific pain point. 

STEP 5

It is important for you to post who the winner of your contest was. This ensures people that you ran a legitimate contest and there was actually a prize to be won as well as a winner.

Be specific in your terms how the draw will be done, when it will be done and how the winner will be announced. Using either ContestCapture or Woobox to choose the winner will allow you to easily capture all the data and pick the winner.

I've known people who have done a paper ballot draw to choose a winner but this will save you a lot of time.

The benefit of providing a great Facebook contest is to get your content in front of your potential clients that they actually like and enjoy.

I see so many businesses who run a contest, get thousand of entries but don't post on their page regularly. You only have a small window of time to connect with those people and turn them into Fans who visit your page on a regular basis.

You can't expect to grow a following when you post days, weeks, or months in between. Try to commit to a minimum of 5 posts per day.

Can you imagine going to a retail store and you only acknowledge people every couple of days? Don't ignore your followers because you have worked hard to get them and you will notice when even one "unlikes" you. 

Remember if you have a page with 10,000 followers but no one is talking to you, then it is absolutely worthless.  Don't run a contest strictly to get more "likes". I see small businesses scrambling to get 500 - 1000 followers and I wonder "what do you they think is going to happen when you hit that mark?"

Yes, they have more potential people to sell to, but if they aren't working that room on a regular basis building relationships and the only thing you are saying to these people is "Buy my product", then they won't sell anything.  

Your number one goal with any Facebook post is to connect with your followers and build a relationship with them. Real relationships are formed on the internet every day and people buy from people they like. 

I hope this information will help you run a more successful contest in the future. If you were previously violating Facebooks Terms of Service you now know the correct way to run a contest.