Creating a contest or offering a free giveaway on your Facebook fan page is a terrific way to gain large numbers of page likes, page shares and to build an email list of highly targeted leads.

Contests and giveaways work especially well on Facebook because it’s, by far, the largest media platform with the most active users.

When running a contest or giveaway on Facebook, you must be very mindful of Facebook’s rules. These rules can, and do, change frequently and you must strictly adhere to them.

This post will explain and explore some of the best methods you can use to run your contest or giveaway. It will, however, not be discussing Facebook’s contest rules. To see a current update of the Facebook contest rules you can visit right here: https://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php#promotionsguidelines

You can follow these steps to ensure that your contest or giveaway will be a huge success.

Set Your Goal First

First, make sure you have a clearly defined goal for your project. You must do this before you invest any time or effort into the project.

You can use a contest to gain a huge number of page likes quickly. It can be used to create viral content when you contest entrants share or comment on your posts. And, it can be used as lead generation too; by asking entrants to give their email addresses.

Or, you can use contests and giveaways to accomplish all of the above!

There have been instances where entrepreneurs have been able to acquire hundreds of thousands of likes and email addresses in a very short time through the clever use of these promotions. And, because these visitors voluntarily entered their email information, they are highly targeted for your offers.

Prize Selection

You want your contest entrants to be excited about entering your contest. Your prize must be something that will entice them to enter and to share the news about your contest with others.

It is ALWAYS better to go with a big, exciting prize. You don’t want to skimp here. No one will give up their email address for a $17 ebook, but for the latest laptop computer, you’ll have all the entrants you can handle

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Many marketers are concerned about the upfront cost of an expensive prize, but here is where your metrics play an important role. What is the long term value of the customers and leads you will accumulate? What is the value to you of adding 10,000 names to your email list? It’s all a matter of crunching your numbers and then your decision will become much easier to make.

It’s also important that your prize be relevant to your business and your fan page. Offering a relevant prize will guarantee that your entrants are only people who are highly targeted to your offers.

You would also be well served if you feature an attention grabbing image of your prize. Remember, a picture, in this case, is really worth a thousand words.

Make Your Contest Mobile Friendly

More and more people are now using mobile devices to interact with the internet. In fact, mobile use has already far surpassed desktop use .

It is vitally important that your contest and its related forms can be received easily on mobile devices. If you make this mistake, you can lose up to 75% of your entrants and leads.

Create Your Contest Posts

You’ve got to let the world know about your contest. The best way to accomplish this is with a compelling post on your fan page.

Describe your prize, add an image and state the rules for your contest. (Make sure you comply with Facebook’s latest contest guidelines. Click here to check them out).

If your contest will run over a period of time, you can schedule a series of posts. Each one should build anticipation for your contest and encourage, but not require, people to like, comment and share.

If you already have an email list, make sure to let all your subscribers know about your contest and ask them to enter.

Information about your promotion should be easy to share on all social media platforms, not just Facebook.

If you have a website or blog, make sure to post information and contest updates on a regular basis to keep interest levels high.

Pick The Winner

Depending on the type of contest you’re running, you’ll either pick a random winner or the winner will be the person who best met the contest requirements.

Picking a random inner is most often best because it’s the most impartial method. There are software tools available which will also help you pick your winner.

Once you have picked your winner, be sure to announce I on your Facebook fan page, as well as all your other social media platforms. This lets your entrants know that your contest has ended and that you legitimately awarded your promised prize. If you can get a picture of your winner to post, all the better.

It’s also important to notify all your entrants that you have a winner and to thank them for taking the time to enter your contest. Let them know that there will be future contests.

You can also write a fan page post and a blog post announcing your winner and again providing details about the prize. If your prize was a new product, writing about it in detail can be a great form of advertising and may yield some sales.

Use your Facebook fan page to create more success in your business. To learn more click here.

Check Your Numbers

Was your contest a success? Did you gain massive numbers of page likes? Did your fans share the information freely? How many new leads were added to your mailing list and how much are they worth to you in the long run? Did the contest accomplish the goals you initially set up?

Run another Contest

This is one which is frequently forgotten. People love to enter contests and win exciting prizes.

One successful marketer runs only two contests a year. He says that the results from the second contest are always massively greater than the results from the first contest. And, his email list has hundreds of thousands of addresses on it, all for the small cost of a contest prize.

Facebook contests and giveaways are a great way to gain fan page likes and highly targeted leads, all at a minimal cost.

Make sure you carefully follow Facebook’s latest guideline updates and you can leverage the power of Facebook to quickly build a very successful business.

You can also learn more about how to use your Facebook fan page to create success in your business by clicking here.