Have you been thinking of running a Facebook contest for your business? Before you get started, make sure you are up to date on Facebook contest best practices to ensure your contest is as successful as possible.
Amit Misra and his team at Dazeinfo (an India-based business content website) recently ran a Facebook contest that resulted in a 400 percent boost in their e-newsletter subscriptions. We sat down with Amit to learn how his team runs Facebook contests, and now we want to share those best practices with you!
6 Facebook Contest Best Practices
1. Set goals for your contest
What do you want your Facebook contest to achieve?
Goals give you a way to measure success. Here are some examples of goals you could pick for your Facebook contest:
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Generating brand awareness
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Increasing Facebook likes
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Generating leads
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Increasing website traffic
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Boosting engagement
The goals you pick will also decide what kind of contest you run.
The types of contests you can choose from are sweepstakes, photo, video, comment-based, trivia, or challenge.
What Dazeinfo did:
A trivia or challenge-based Facebook contest with the following goals:
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Lead generation—increasing subscriptions to their e-newsletter
- Increasing traffic to their website
2. Keep things simple and make it easy to participate
Make sure your contest is easy to enter. Create simple rules which are easy to follow. Then make sure that they are visible on your Facebook page.
This is how Dazeinfo structured their Facebook trivia contest:
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Posted 10 questions that tested participants on their knowledge of the technology industry in India. Participants were then sent to the Dazeinfo website for 30 seconds to find answers to the trivia questions.
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Participants who answered all the questions correctly were rewarded with a prize
This clever tactic gave participants a peek at the Dazeinfo website, like a teaser marketing campaign. At the end of the contest, participants were given the option to sign up for the e-newsletter.
3. Pick a giveaway that resonates with your audience
What would make someone participate in your contest? Make sure you have a reward that feels like fair compensation for their time and effort.
One of the top best practices for Facebook contests is to give away one big or many small prizes to participants. How many prizes should you give away? Here are some options to help you decide:
Option 1: Participants who successfully complete the challenge get a prize.
Option 2: Everyone who successfully completes the challenge is entered into a draw. One lucky person wins a prize.
Option 3: The first participant to successfully complete the challenge wins the big prize. Everyone else gets a consolation prize.
But what makes for a good giveaway? It needs to be something your audience will value. Make sure you pick the right incentives. If it’s tied to your business, even better.
What did Dazeinfo giveaway as part of their Facebook contest?
Being a technology content website, they gave away vouchers to a popular online store that sells electronic gadgets, among other things.
4. Leverage all your social channels to promote your contest
Most businesses are present on multiple social networks—all of this constitutes a brand’s owned media. Make sure you’re making the most of your existing channels and owned media. This helps promote your contest to fans and followers on social networks outside of Facebook.
But how often should you be promoting your contest?
During their Facebook contest, Dazeinfo posted a contest update every 90 minutes on at least one of their social networks. Using Hootsuite, the team was able to pre-plan and schedule those updates to free up time for direct engagements with participants.
“Startups can’t work 24/7. But by using Hootsuite we’re able to provide helpful content to our audiences around the clock.”
— Amit Misra, Dazeinfo CEO and Founder
5. Use hashtags to increase participation
Hashtags help people to search for and identify your contest, so make sure you create a unique hashtags to promote your contest.
Some rules of thumb while creating and using hashtags:
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It should be easy to spell and remember
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Don’t be afraid to use hashtags that are already trending or words to get more impressions on your posts
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Don’t include your brand name unless you’re a big, easily recognized brand
Dazeinfo regularly uses this best practice for Facebook contests. The purpose of these hashtags is twofold—it helps promote the contest and start a conversation, and it also helps target users to broaden audience reach and boost contest participation.
Dazeinfo monitored their audience’s use of these hashtags using Hootsuite Streams and followed up on every mention with a direct interaction.
6. Measure performance and iterate
Remember the goals you defined in step one? Measure the performance of your contest to check on whether or not you’ve achieved them.
Running a Facebook contest shouldn’t be a one-time thing; iterate and fine-tune your tactics. Here are some questions you should ask yourself at the end of a contest:
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Did I choose the right type of contest?
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Did I give my contest enough time?
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Did I target the right audience?
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Did the giveaway provide enough incentive?
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Which marketing channel worked best for me?
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Did I define a clear set of rules? Were they easy to follow?
Set new goals (or performance targets) and run another contest.
Dazeinfo’s success with the first contest encouraged them to run monthly trivia-based Facebook contests.
These Facebook contest best practices helped Dazeinfo exceed its goal, achieving a 400 percent increase in new e-newsletter subscriptions. To learn more about Dazeinfo’s Facebook contests, read the full case study here.
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