One of the fastest ways for a social media agency to increase engagement and awareness of your Facebook page is to run a social media contest.
A few years ago, if you had wanted to run a contest on Facebook, you had to use a third party app. Now, you can just run it on your Facebook timeline, making it much easier to run a social media contest.
1) Question-and-Answer Facebook Timeline Contest
You ask a question, and your audience replies in the comments with the answers. Usually, the answers can be found on the brand’s Facebook page or website. They can be either multiple choice or open-ended. The more complicated the answer, the less contestants you will receive.
Example Facebook Q&A Contest:
Advantages:
This contest requires less effort from participants, so you can expect more responses. However, be wary of running too many ‘easy’ contests too often as you would start attracting ‘professional contestants’.
2) Guess-the-Product Contest
You feature part of or a blurred picture of one of your products and ask your audience to guess which of your products you’re featuring. The options can be in multiple choice to make it easier for them to decide.
Example Facebook Guess-the-Product Contest:
Advantages:
This is a great way to get your audience to be more familiar with your product packaging. It’ll help you stand out more on supermarket shelves when they are shopping.
3) Facebook Timeline Quiz
Quizzes are one of the most popular types of content on Facebook. These are what drove massive amounts of traffic to websites such as Buzzfeed and Upworthy. A quiz is not very easy to create though and it will take some time.
Example Facebook Timeline Quiz:
Advantages:
A Facebook quiz makes your brand appear more fun and has a high viral factor. If you’re looking to drive conversions, you can even place a personalised coupon code at the end of the quiz.
4) Facebook Caption Contest
We’re sure you have seen some of these amusing Facebook caption contests before. Just pick a funny photo and ask your fans to provide a caption for that photo. Ideally, the photo that you pick should be one taken at your location or with your products.
Example Facebook Caption Contest:
Advantages:
It’s a fun contest that highlights the lighter side of your brand. Your page fans would also have a good time reading through all the funny comments. However, your Facebook moderator needs to be vigilant to delete any inappropriate comments that come up.
5) Facebook Fill-in-the-Blank Contest
Ask your fans to complete a sentence or paragraph along a particular theme.
Example Fill-in-the-Blank Contest:
Advantages:
It’s fun to participate and to read, and it makes your fans think of the answer.
6) Facebook Photo Contest
Photo contests are very popular these days, especially for brands that run both Facebook and Instagram accounts. It takes much more effort than a Q&A contest, so you will not get as many entries.
Example Facebook Photo Contest:
Advantages:
Facebook photo contests may not get you as many entries as say, a Q&A contest, but it does show that the fans you have are more engaged. It’s also a great way to generate more user-generated content (UGC).
