Contest and Giveaway Marketing on Facebook and Twitter

By Brian Chappell

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Don’t Take My Word For it

• 50% More Fans When You Run Contests and Giveaways

• 82% of consumers are willing to give personal information for 100$ contest and giveaway

Source: Jupiter and Forrester Research

Contests and Giveaways Are Tools

• Facebook and Twitter are the viral mechanisms.

The Prize is very important

• The Prize: Think about the audience– iPad as the prize = cookie cutter

• The hook

• Keep the momentum going

Contests

• Winners are selected by judges and public vote or a mix of both.

• Public vote can go viral.

Voting Mechanisms For Contests

• Facebook Voting Mechanisms• Comments• Likes

• Twitter Voting Mechanisms• Retweets• Hash Tag

Don’t Forget About The Links

• Integrate extendable assets such as voting widgets so users can embed on their blogs.

Other Successful Variables To Implement

• Let users vote once a day

• Setup a clear timeline that creates incentive to enter

• Setup clear calls to actions

Giveaways

• Randomly choose winners

• Entry methods • Facebook Comments• Facebook Status updates• Tweets• Filling out a form hosted on Facebook

Details Are Critical

• Counting entries can be a major hassle

• Leverage Twitter and Facebook API to count entries• Run Cron jobs• Utilize Database integration• Twinbox

Legal Specifications

• Facebook Promotion Guidelines - http://kl.am/btRv

• Government guidelines vary from state to state

• Consult a lawyer

• Rule out states that are problematic• RI, NY, Florida

Facebook FBML Loophole

– Create custom FMBL page that only lets Facebook fans see the giveaway or contest.

Contest and Giveaway Platforms

• Strutta• Wildfire• Votigo• Twideocontest

Wildfire

• Great for small businesses• Starts at 5$ per campaign and goes up to 15$k for white

label

• WYSIWYG editor • Standard plan allows export of user info

Spam Considerations

• Block IP’s• Captchas• Contest platforms take care of the heavy lifting

Namecheap Twitter Example

• Namecheap Twitter Giveaway• First of three @replies with correct answer to questions

• Prize was a one year domain registration

• Consistent giveaways• Follower count grew from 200 to 4000 in the first month

Good Mood Gig Contest Example

• Good Mood Gig Contest• Users begged for votes via Facebook and Twitter• Bounce rate 15% on Facebook and 32% on Twitter• 110,000 visitors over 3 months for Facebook• 30,000 visitors from Twitter

Round Up Your Friends

TJ Maxx Facebook Giveaway

Summary

• Having contests/giveaways increases fans significantly

• Multiple entries and votes creates viral campaigns

• Increase awareness via post contest call to actions

Thank You

IgniteSocialMedia.com/blog

@brianchappell

brian@ignitesocialmedia.com