Competitions on Social Media

07 Jul Competitions on Social Media

How do you create more buzz around your business brand? Run a competition on social media! It can’t be that difficult can it? Hmmm you might want to think again!

Until late summer 2013, if you wanted to run a competition on Facebook, it had to be administered via a 3rd party app.  However, the rules have changed giving “more freedom” to small businesses to run a competition via their Facebook business page.  However you still have to stay within the rules (otherwise you risk having your Facebook business page being taken down).

What are you allowed to do?

• Ask people to comment on a post
• Ask people to like a post
• Ask people to comment on your page
• Ask people to private message your page
• Use “likes” as a voting mechanism

What aren’t you allowed to do?

• Ask people to tag themselves in content or a picture in exchange for a chance to win a prize
• Ask people to share the competition on their personal timeline
• Ask people to invite others to enter the competition

It’s worth taking a look at these GUIDELINES  for a fuller picture of what you can and can’t do

Argh, it’s still complicated! What can I do?

Why don’t you have a specific post/image made up which specifies exactly what you want your Facebook fans to do? i.e. “like this post and comment to be in with a chance of winning xxxx”. Wording like this will keep you within the guidelines!

What about Twitter?

At Red Desk, we are about to start looking at running a competition on Twitter for a client. Again there are a few rules to abide by which can be read here but we think it might be a little easier!

If you are thinking about running a competition and need some help. Get in touch!