5 Strategies for Creating Facebook Contests that Deliver Real Business Outcomes

Many businesses are getting real business results with Facebook contests?  Does your business uses contests as to increase sales, drive traffic, boost email list signups or to meet other sales and marketing objectives?  Here are 5 tips for using Facebook contests effectively.

Say Goodbye to Like-Gating

Was the focus of your social media contests in the past to increase Facebook fans?  Well, like-gating on Facebook is now a thing of the past.  Our first tip is to make sure all your like-gating features are disabled and to start focusing on using Facebook contests for real business results – not just increasing your fan count numbers.

Value of Customer Engagement

Do you know why – well one of the main reasons – most marketers and businesses should not be too upset about the end of like-gating?  Simply put, the value of fans (many of them fake accounts) who simply like your Facebook page to enter a contest was not very high.  Tip number two is to use an registration form to capture customer data like an email address which can be used to engage directly and for Facebook ad retargeting in the future.

Combine Facebook Contests with Ads

Speaking of retargeting, are you pairing your social marketing contests with Facebook ads?  That’s our third tip for you today.  Effective Facebook ad strategies partnered with a well-planned social network contest can deliver big results no matter if you want to grow your email list or increase sales of a new product or service.

Seasonal Sales Contests

Are you running sales and marketing campaigns based around a seasonal shopping calendar?  Most brands create promotions in their stores (online and offline) based around seasons, holidays and events each month.  For your fourth Facebook contest tip, start using a content calendar to plan your contests in advance and create contest campaigns that are paired with your holiday and seasonal ales and marketing promotions.

Forget Facebook Timeline

Yes, it’s true that Facebook Timeline contests are no longer breaking the social network’s Terms of Use rules.  It is also true that these types of contests can be an effective part of your social media for business strategy.  But if you want real business outcomes like driving traffic to your website and capturing valuable marketing information, then our tip is to focus more energy on creating contests with 3rd-party apps which incorporate your website than on those which keep your fans soley on Facebook.

How do you use Facebook contests to drive real business results?  Please share in the comments below.