You own a company, a brand, a website and you want to gain notoriety? Then why not organize a contest on Facebook? Facebook is the social network with the most users worldwide: about 1.9 billion. This makes it the ideal network to launch your promotional operation. How to organize a contest on Facebook?

Why organize a contest on Facebook?
To gain visibility
Facebook will only highlight pages that generate a lot of traffic and interactions. It is therefore a good way to promote your own page.

By gaining visibility, you will attract new visitors who will turn into subscribers.

Stand out from other pages
With an impressive number of users, Facebook has millions and millions of pages. Organizing a contest allows you to bring an added value to your page that will make it stand out from the competition. Through this contest, you will develop your notoriety in your theme.

Collect user data
Thanks to the organization of this contest, you will gather users who are interested in your niche and who will leave interesting contact information for your business. You can thus collect hundreds of new email addresses useful for marketing campaigns and turn these prospects into customers or integrate them into your community.

Keep your subscribers loyal
Contests mean rewards. It’s a good way to keep your subscribers loyal, as they will feel that you are investing in them and will therefore feel privileged.

Promote a targeted action or an event related to your site or company
You are about to carry out an action or an event on your site or with your company. Organizing a Facebook contest is a good way to promote this event before it takes place.

How to organize a contest on Facebook?

1 Preparation

A good preparation of your contest will ensure its success.

Be aware of the conditions set by Facebook.
Facebook has rules to respect, you can’t do and organize everything you want. You should therefore be aware of these rules before you start preparing your contest.

To summarize, when organizing your Facebook contest, you are not allowed to ask :

to like your page.
invite friends to like the page
share the link in their journal.
comment on your page.
The prize(s) to be won must be related to your Page and your site that you are trying to promote.

In most contests, there is a “big prize”, the one that makes a lot of people participate with the hope to win it. It can be a recent high tech object, a voucher on a big retail website or on your own website if you have an e-commerce, a travel or relaxation box… Don’t hesitate to communicate on the value of the prize to highlight your generosity and the great opportunity that is offered to the participants.

If you have the means, also put in play small prizes which will generate less disappointed participants at the end of the draw.

1.1 Define your rules and conditions of participation

Write clear and easy to understand terms and conditions of participation for the users.

Start by giving instructions on how to enter the contest.

Give the deadlines to participate (contest open from … to … ) as well as the date of the draw and the time.

You can ask for the opinion of the future participants by comments in order to anticipate possible modifications to be made.

You must write and inform the participants of the rules and conditions of participation in your contest. This is called the rules of the game. The more transparent you are on this side, the more participants will trust you.

Also be transparent about the draw for the winner(s). Participants are interested in winning first and foremost. They will be reassured if you inform them in advance about the selection of the winners. You will thus avoid potential accusations of favoritism from those who have not won anything.

Attention, the “fan gate” is no longer authorized! You cannot ask your participants to “like” your page, tag their friends on the social network or share the link.

However, there is no obligation to file the rules of the contest with a bailiff as it is for classic contests.

1.2 Focus on the visual and the description

Your contest is a promotional campaign, so think like a salesman.

The future participants must want to click on your post before they even know the details.

So you’ll have to create an attractive visual with a few keywords that will arouse the user’s curiosity.

Also choose a short and punchy title. People must understand that they have something to gain by going further.

1.3 Communicate!

Communication is the key to success, especially on the web.

Announce the contest on your page. You can make an announcement full of mystery with a link to your site that will give the description of the contest. You will attract the user’s curiosity and take the opportunity to create traffic on your site.

Otherwise, make a good description with a nice presentation that will have to be repeated several times before the contest opens.

You can also opt for a Facebook advertising campaign. Check the rates and ask yourself if the price is worth the potential benefits.

2 What type of contest?

You have several possibilities for contests on your Facebook page, here are the simplest and fastest to implement:

2.1 Interaction

This principle is simple: ask participants a question or ask for a personal story.

This allows you to reinforce the closeness with your subscribers and also to understand or learn some expectations or needs they have.

2.2 Quizzes

Create a quiz of a few questions with applications like AgoraPulse or SocialShaker. The draw will be made among the participants who answered well.

This quiz will arouse the curiosity of the participants according to the questions you will ask about your page or your company.

2.3 Fill in a questionnaire

Filling out a form with your contact information is no fun, but it’s quick and accessible to everyone.

This allows you to collect email addresses for future marketing campaigns.

Don’t ask for too much personal information, otherwise participants will be scared off.

2.4 Participatory contests

This kind of contest is always very successful because participants feel they have a mission.

You can then propose to the participant to create a logo, a photo, a tagline related to your page in order to validate their participation. You create engagement by allowing an active participation of your subscribers.

The engagement will be reinforced by the fact that at the end there are two gifts to win: the use of the winner’s creation and the contest’s grand prize.

You will not be able to draw the winner(s), you will have to choose either yourself or through a voting system.

3 What to do once the contest is over?

The deadline for participation has arrived, now all participants are waiting impatiently for a sign from you.

3.1 Draw the winner(s) of the contest

You have free web tools available to draw winners in Facebook contests: Random.org or Woobox for example do the job well.

To reinforce trust and proximity, you can even do the draw live.

It can be useful to film it in order to keep a record in case you have any complaints about the draw.