Do you want to drive more traffic to your Facebook pages? Do you want more “likes” for your page? Have you considered running a competition to attract more people to engage with you? Do competitions work in the long run?
You have a goal or target in mind; get more people to like your page so that you have more people to talk to. You can measure the outcome, interactions and chatter after the competition, but what kind of fans do competitions bring? Will they add any value to your Social Media presence in the long term?
Likes And Sharing
There are pretty strict guidelines on how to run a competition on Facebook; you can see them in full here. If your sole objective is to get more “likes”; be warned that “liking” a page cannot be the sole entry condition. It can be part of the entry process though.
It is also worth noting that “like” or “share” visibility depends on the users own privacy settings. If I like something as part of a competition it doesn’t mean that you can see that I like it necessarily.
In addition, a like to a competition page does not equate to a like on a fan page itself. If <insert deity here> forbid this is your main Social Media KPI then don’t expect a huge boost in these figures.
Engagement
One of Facebook’s more obvious engagement metrics is the “talking about” metric. Data shows that this can increase during competition time but what about customer loyalty?
If your competition is offering an iPad Mini as a prize, how many are participating only for the iPad and how many are actually interested because of the brand behind the competition?
I myself have been suckered into a few of these. I subsequently un-liked the originator of the competition because no matter what I did they flooded my stream with similar competitions.. and consequently my friends got caught out too.
Do They Work?
It really depends on your objectives. Are the potential fans joining the campaign really the fans you want? You can try it out. And you certainly have the data to get insights whether a competition has been a success or not. Again this may be something that is measurable over a long period of time. Even if the participants aren’t your “core consumer” you might create an affinity with them that may pay off in the long run.
A good example of competitions that engage ones’ existing audience is Clash of Clans. They run competitions regularly and appear to give in-game prizes away often. Their engagement levels are good and they also encourage traffic to their own forums and further participation.
At EzyInsights, we can help you follow up on subsequent user engagement and conversation, adding real-world qualitative metrics to help measure your return.
What’s your experience with competitions or promotions on Facebook? What is the best competition you have seen or participated in? Do they work for you?
If you want to read more on the subject there is an interesting post on the merits of competitions over at VizualJazz that is really worth a read.