Tips for Running a Facebook Contest: Ideas, Tools, and Guidelines

There are more than 2 billion active monthly users on Facebook—and your next contest could get their attention. Thanks to the tools that Facebook offers, it can be quite affordable to run a contest on the social media platform. But to make it worth the investment, it’s important to keep in mind a few key points.

Once you know the rules and have the right idea, you’ll be all set to run a legal and exciting contest for your radio station. Contests can be a great way to spark interest online, netting you new followers and re-engaging old ones. Apply these tips for running a Facebook contest and watch your stats grow!

How to find the right idea

First, you’ll need to determine the “business” reason behind your contest. Are you looking to connect with a certain demographic? Are you trying to rebrand your radio station or show? Are you trying to grow your email list? Do you need to drive traffic from Facebook over to your website? Once you know the business reason for running the contest, you can design the rest of the campaign.

There are a few different types of campaigns you could run, depending on your goals. The most popular type is a giveaway. You’ll need to research the types of items that would most excite your target market. A virtual meet and greet with an Artist? Lunch with a DJ? Try to find something that supports local businesses at the same time. This is a recipe for contest success. 👍

Multi-day events, or countdowns, are also a great strategy for a contest. These can build excitement and generate engagement over the full term of the contest. This type of event is perfect for generating a ton of impressions. You’ll get more eyes on your organization. Just make sure you have a plan to impress them once they get to your page. 

A photo contest is a great way to invite UGC or user-generated content. Come up with a prompt that’s related to your organization’s mission or focus. Ask your audience to submit their own photos. You could either run this as a closed contest, where you and your team select the best photos to win. The other option is to run it as a popularity contest and invite the public to cast their votes by liking their favorite photos. Make sure you have the right fine print for these contests, so that you can use this UGC for your own marketing purposes after the contest is over.

Finally, a trivia challenge or scavenger hunt might be the right choice for your organization. If you run a show or a program with a very specific focus—like German classical musicians or African dance styles—then you could come up with quiz questions for your followers. Give them an appropriate level of challenge and they’ll feel accomplished. A digital scavenger hunt could also drive traffic to pages of your website you want your audience to learn more about. People who figure out the answers can be entered into the giveaway. 

Adhere to Facebook’s rules

If you need tips for running a Facebook contest, make sure you review Facebook’s official guidelines first. There are a few key rules that can’t be broken. Otherwise, you risk Facebook shutting down your contest. For instance, you can’t ask people to share your content to their timeline to gain entry into your contest, for instance. However, there’s no rule against people sharing your contest organically. 

You can also use paid advertising on Facebook to generate interest in your contest. Just make sure that you’re geotargeting correctly. If you have eligibility requirements related to location, then you need to be very careful about setting the rules for your contest (and your ads). If you don’t, you’ll receive a ton of annoyed messages from ineligible users who were served your ad.

Ultimately, Facebook contests can be a super-smart way to grow your organization. The platform itself offers helpful tools for creating, preparing and managing your contest from start to finish. If you’d like to run a contest but don’t know where to start, then reach out to our team at Killer Bee Marketing. We create and execute digital strategies, and we are experts in social media. Plus, we love designing fun contests that actually convert! Schedule a free 15-minute chat to get started.