Facebook Competitions – What’s the point?

Facebook have now started to relax the rules regarding competitions meaning that you no longer need to host competitions on your blog/website or via a 3rd party app. Great – BUT remember running a competition is essentially part of your business marketing strategy. So before you dive straight in gunho asking all in sundry to “like this picture with a chance to win it” etc etc … what do you want to get out of a competition?

1. If you want to increase your Facebook likes (yes we all know numbers are irrelevant it’s the interaction which is the key factor but we are vain we’d rather have 1,000 than 500 likes!) then ensure you have this stated as part of the competition that YOU MUST LIKE THE PAGE …. as anyone can like a picture they don’t have to like the page.  So yes you may have 2000 likes on a  picture as all the serial compers pop up, but if the actual page likes went up by 3 – you have gained diddly squat.
2. Use the competition as part of your market research by asking questions – “what shall we call this product? All answers will form part of an entry into a competition to win one” “should we do this in green?” “what would you pay for this?” … etc etc
3. Use competitions as a way to increase “likes” but diminish old stock.

I still think that using your blog/website and an app like Rafflecopter is the best way to run a competition. You not only drive traffic to your website – but you choose a number of entry forms on Rafflecopter such as “like Charlie Moo’s on Facebook” or “leave a comment on this blog”.  

Have you taken advantage of the new rules for Facebook promotions? Or have you more ideas to share about using Facebook Competitions as a form of marketing? Or maybe you have tried and failed? What ever the reason do leave a comment below …

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