Raise awareness of your business with competitions on Facebook
Facebook competitions are a brilliant strategy if you want exposure, shares and awareness for your business. However, it is important to take into account some prerequisites to create a good and successful competition. For example, you need to comply with the Danish Marketing Act as well as Facebook's competition rules - both for legal reasons but also to maintain a positive image of your business. However, this is not easy as competition rules can be a bit of a jungle to navigate.
To give you the best chance of creating a successful competition on Facebook, we've put together a few tips and tricks on how to best set up the competition - without breaking any guidelines or rules.
Make sure you know Facebook's competition rules
As mentioned, it is quite important that you comply with the Danish Marketing Act and Facebook's competition rules. If you don't do this, you could be fined or have your Facebook page shut down. It does not take more than one complaint from a user for the Consumer Ombudsman to look into the matter.
The Danish Marketing Act on Social Media
According to the Danish Marketing Act, it is important that the terms and conditions of competition are made clear to the participants in the posting. This means that your post must clearly indicate:
- Any age or geographical restrictions.
- Sample value.
- The number of prizes.
- How and when the winner is drawn.
- Where and when the winner is announced.
- Conditions of delivery, collection and limitation of premium.
Read more about the Danish Marketing Act here.
Facebook competition rules
Facebook has also set out a number of rules, which they point out, are there to create a good experience for both you and the participants of the competition. Their own rules highlight what you can and cannot ask of participants.
When running a competition on Facebook, you must not require participants to..:
- Share your page or post on their own page.
- Sharing your post on their friends' wall.
- 'Like' your page to participate.
- Must tag one or more friends.
It is relevant to mention that participants may of course tag, share and like your posts on their own initiative - it just must not be a requirement to participate in the competition.
When you run a competition on Facebook, you may require participants to..:
- 'Like' your listing to participate.
- Commenting on the post.
- Make their own post on your page to participate.
- Sends a direct message to your company page.
You can read more about the official guidelines here.
Tips for a successful Facebook competition
Before you start your competition, it's a good idea to think about what you want to get out of it. First of all, you should set some specific objectives - for example, getting more likes on your Facebook page, more sign-ups to a newsletter or increased reach. However, you should focus on one objective in your competition, rather than going all-in on all.
Once you've decided on the purpose of your competition, it's a good idea to consider your target audience and what prize they might be interested in winning.
The Prize
In order to generate interest among potential participants, it is essential that you select a good prize. However, it's no good giving away the latest iPhone if your company sells key rings or garden services on subscription - the prize needs to be relevant to your business so that participants can learn more about what you offer.
If you have launched a new product or service, a competition is the obvious way to raise awareness. For example, the competition may ask participants to respond to how they perceive the product or how it works. In this way, they have to familiarise themselves with the product before they can participate. Even if they don't win, they now know about the product - and may buy it at a later date.
It's also a good idea to give away something you might be interested in winning. For example, it doesn't matter if you give away a 200,- gift card if your products have an average price of 1000,-.
Sponsored vs. organic content on Facebook
Once you've decided on a target and a prize, it's relevant that you do some thinking about how Facebook ads and organic content work on Facebook.
Organic content on Facebook
If you choose to run your competition organically on Facebook, it's important that you know about their algorithm. After a major update in 2018, Facebook is now trying to present their users with relevant content. It is therefore a good idea that you shape your competition to create signals for Facebook's algorithm. The signals can imply higher interaction and engagement, which can thus create a higher reach. It's a good idea to try and spark a curiosity in your users to 'read more...' as this will increase time spent and most likely engagement on the post, which Facebook will eventually reward with a greater reach.
Facebook advertising
If you don't have a large following on Facebook, you can run your post as a Facebook ad. Targeted Facebook advertising helps your post reach potentially interested users rather than just followers and their friends interacting and sharing the post. To market on Facebook, you can use Facebook Business Manager, a brilliant tool that brings together all your activities including pages, ad accounts, instagram etc.
For example, Facebook Business Manager allows you to create a campaign set up with multiple audiences, so you can split the ad. This way you have the possibility to check where you get the best result, depending on what your purpose of the contest is. However, Facebook Business Manager is not for those without technical savvy, as it requires a little extra time to get to grips with. In the meantime, read our post on using Facebook Business Manager.
Want us to help you with your SoMe strategy?
Does it seem overwhelming to dive into the deep hole that is Facebook Business Manager? Don't worry - there's no need to spend late nights watching 'How To' YouTube videos or reading cumbersome guides. At Webamp , we're experts in Facebook Business Manager and Facebook marketing.
Contact me or one of my colleagues at Webamp on tel. 70 60 50 28 or by email at info@webamp.dk.
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