Facebook and Instagram competitions are a powerful way to grow awareness, engagement and followers for your brand. Here's some tips for Social Competition Best Practice.
1. Follow Meta’s contest rules
Despite being under the umbrella of “Meta”, did you know that Facebook contests do not allow the tag and share competitions that Instagram does? While there’s many big brands still doing these types of competitions, Facebook can suspend your account (and make it very difficult to reactivate) if you break this rule! You CAN ask people to enter your facebook competition by: liking or commenting on a Post, posting on a page, messaging a page or clicking through to an entry form on your website.
2. Ensure your Ts and Cs are clear
Where Meta is consistent is with contest terms & conditions. Every competition must clearly state that Facebook/Instagram do not administer or endorse any competition plus details of prize, deadline date, how the winner will be drawn, announced and when, who can and can’t apply. Make sure your terms and conditions meet their full requirements.
3. Make it difficult for scammers to clone your FB contest
Unfortunately Facebook contests in particular are increasingly getting cloned, especially those displaying high volumes of engagement in platform. In these instances, business accounts are cloned and a ”congratulations, you’ve won” type message (with link to claim prize & give bank details) to your followers appears to be legitimate at first glance. While Meta is quick to remove all comments/and accounts quickly once reported & blocked, the fraudsters can be quick to re-clone accounts too.
Here's a number of steps to mitigate this:
Warn followers on your competition posts that you will never send them a link to click on or ask for money as part of claiming a prize.
Avoid competition related hashtags in competition promotion that scammers can search for eg #competition #win #prizedraw #giveaway #tickets. This also limits the number of new followers who are not authentically engaging with your brand (and reduces the decrease in followers immediately following a competition).
Set up 2 step verification on all social accounts and change passwords frequently to reduce likelihood that fraudsters hack your account as well as clone.
Review competition entries regularly to watch out for any brand impersonators contacting your followers and report/block immediately and let your followers know what steps you are taking.
Consider setting up a web form for entrants to submit their entry instead (with an option to sign up for news too!)
4. Give it enough time.
To get the most engagement from your giveaway and avoid it going stale, run it for between 2 to 4 weeks. This gives plenty of opportunity to cross promote from all relevant channels during the competition’s duration. Don't forget to give it a boost to increase reach if engagement isn't quite what you'd hoped.
5. Make it count!
A contest is a great way to generate authentic user generated content. Maybe you can ask a question to gain customer insight and report back on it, or maybe it’s a photo, caption or video competition that provides lots more potential content assets. And don’t forget to make sure you get a photo or clip of the winner receiving their prize if applicable!
If you would like help running a social media competition or developing content for your social media platforms so you don’t have to - give us a shout.
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