3 Rules For Hosting Better Facebook Giveaways

Everybody knows how to host a giveaway on their Facebook page. Right?

Well, of course, you post some kind of a visual. But is it a photo of a product? Or do you share a graphic that has instructions on how to enter the contest? Shouldn't your business' logo be obvious in the post?

And what should they do to enter? To win, they should like your Facebook page, right? But how do you check that? How do you verify that someone has liked your Facebook page? And how long should you give your followers to respond to a giveaway? A giveaway should be urgent, like they get the prize soon, but how soon? Is two days enough, or should you do maybe, like, two weeks? 

But how do you get the prize to the winner?

What if you want to do a video contest? I saw that one Facebook page had a really cool video contest.

Wait -- how do you select a winner?! How do you let them know they won? Does the winner have to sign anything to accept the prize? Do they have to post that they won to receive their prize? Do you create a graphic announcing the winner? How do you announce a winner?!?!

Everyone knows how to host a giveaway on their Facebook page, until a business owner decides they actually want to host a giveaway on their Facebook page. 

In July, Checkmate Consulting created and began building a community of engaged followers for an ongoing client, Ozarks Technical Community College Technical Education Division. One of our first tasks after launching was to build a fan base on engaged users on Facebook. An easy way to do that is to host a giveaway. Our first giveaway went so well, we hosted two. But what defined the success of these giveaways is that we held fast to these 3 Rules for Better Facebook Giveaways.

1. Pick the Right Prize

For OTC Technical Education, we wanted to attract followers to the Facebook page that already like OTC, Missouri's largest community college, and would engage with content. So we chose a that reflected the values of the followers we wanted to attract. With the help of the college's corporate communications office, we were able to get a swag bag full of branded goodies. It was no cost, but it was something tangible that users would want. These weren't just pens and posts, it was a draw string bag, water bottle and more. We arranged it in a flat lay to clearly showcase the content of the swag bag.

2. Ask the Right Ask

One of the primary goals of the OTC Technical Education Facebook page is to attract current and prospective students to engage with its content. Traditional college students, those 18-22 year olds, they communicate differently on the Internets. So we asked that users to comment with an emoji how they felt about back to school season. To enter was simply a tap and a second tap to enter, and we made it clear how to enter in both the post caption and on the giveaway graphic itself. No share, no like, but that engagement would drive it to be in the News Feeds of followers you already have -- and their friends. That drives more and more eyes and easy entries to your contest. Bonus: Comment contests are the easiest to determine the winner. 

3. Activate Your Base

You've launched your contest. Now what? Bang the drum and get the word out there! Giveaways are a great, appropriate ask of your employees to share a contest. A quick email out to the team with a link to the post you'd like them to share instantly gets your contest in front of more eyeballs, and your employees won't mind because one of their friends could win the contest. Plus, contests are great content to reach out to a corporate or business ally to share your content. More than 25 OTC Tech Ed staff members shared the contest on their personal accounts. And a quick note to a communications team at brand's social media manager that is in your page's family can amplify your contest instantly. With Tech Ed's back to school giveaway, we dropped a quick note to the social media manager for the entire college's Facebook page (and its 15,000 likes). The OTC main page shared our contest, and we doubled our page's likes in less than an hour. 

Follow these Three Rules for Better Giveaways, and see the results. And don't forget to comment on the post who won the contest and to have that person private message your Facebook page to determine how to best get the item they won to the winner.

Because without a winner, a giveaway is just a scam. Right?