If you’ve been convinced that a good social media competition is just what your brands need to build its online presence, this post is going to outline some of the basics of running a Facebook or Twitter competition. If you’re unsure of the main benefits, check out the last post on the subject here. Remember, the main principles can be applied across all the major platforms but these are the two main ones worth covering in some detail.
In the last post we explained that there are two main types of ‘competition’; a ‘raffle’ where entry is very straight forward and a winner is chosen at random, and a ‘competition’ where a task is set and the winner is who you think has done the best job. These differences do not really affect the running of the competition from the business’s point of view until it comes to picking a winner. The difference matters more to the entrants who either face a ‘box ticking’ exercise by retweeting and following, for example, or doing something a little more creative like entering a caption competition or submitting a photo.
Twitter Competitions
The main benefit to running competitions on Twitter is the ability to reach a very wide audience relatively quickly, and this relies on the ability to hashtag effectively. Thousands of people search the hashtag ‘competition’ every day to see if there’s anything they’re interest in so be sure to contain #competition in your relevant tweets. Also, should there be a specific theme to your competitions so people know what to look for, but remember to keep it simple! Make sure your entrants ‘mention’ you in the tweet to ensure you see it but also to generate brand awareness. Make ‘following’ you a necessity allowing you to pick a winner easily and to grow your following!
Enter our super-cool competition by following us on Twitter and sending a tweet mentioning us and your best friend and using the #randomhashtag hashtag in your tweet, then submit a photo of you doing a backflip wearing something orange and then print it out and post it to us. Next find us on Facebook and like, share and comment on our latest photo. Don’t forget to subscribe to our mailing list or your entry won’t be counted. When you’ve done all that give us a call and leave a message stating today’s date and your birth date, including time to the nearest minute. We look forward to receiving your competition entry. The closing deadline is 20 minutes from now, entries submitted after this time will not be counted but may still be charged. Only open to vegetarians of the star sign Taurus with more than one piercing.
Facebook Competitions
Facebook competitions are more effective when based around images; think caption competitions or submitting photos. This is down to the visual nature of the platform and the fact that you’re more likely to attract ‘shares’ of interesting pictures than text. However, things are no longer as simple as they used to be! Facebook now only allows companies to promote and run competitions through the use of its own specialist apps. Once you’ve gotten used to them, they are quite straight forward to use, but they’re miles away from the old “like and share” model used by most companies. There are many very respectable companies who continue to run these competitions, completely unaware of Facebook’s rules and regulations so be sure to check them out – the link is posted below.
Things to know
Now, there are a number of things you need to bear in mind should you look to run a social media competition; most of which follow common sense. Do not underestimate the need to follow correct procedures on social media – there are now countless stories of companies being sued for misrepresentation, false advertising and data protection breaches!
Always be clear from the outset; a) what constitutes an ‘entry’ to the competition and b) how the winner will be selected. You must set out the terms and conditions of the competition on the company website or Facebook page including a definitive start and end date.
Never publicly disclose any information about the winner and do not suggest they provide their contact details or address in the public domain. Always do this in private or direct messages (Facebook and Twitter, respectively) or take the correspondance offline completely.
Facebook now has quite a stringent promotion and competitions policy which you can find here.
There are still major gaps in the legislation that governs social media and hard and fast rules are hard to come by. If in doubt, stick by advertising regulations as set by bodies such as the ASA and other legal best practices.
