7 Creative Ways to Profit From a Facebook Contest

Facebook contests are a great way to get people talking about your brand, and snag some new followers in the process.

Of course, you need to figure out a couple of things first.

Like what's the business goal of the contest? Do you want to build a list? Sell products?

Knowing what you want to get out of the contest is critical.

Also important is deciding on the prize you're going to offer, but you also need to come up with something people can do to earn their chance to win.

Coming up with a great contest idea can be a challenge. But when you find one, you can use it to get people thinking about your brand.

That's important.

The best ideas can sometimes hinge on what kind of service or product you're promoting.

If you can find something that ties into it in a clever way, that's ideal.

Whether you decide to go with a caption contest, a selfie contest, or another cool idea, getting your audience involved with your brand is a big step in the right direction.

In a recent article from Wishpond, you'll find a bunch of creative ideas for fun Facebook contests your audience will love.

Facebook Contest Idea #1: Tell Us How You Would Use [Product] to Win it!

This Facebook contest idea is very simple: Take a product you sell and ask people how they would use it if they owned it. Push people to think about something fun, interesting or unusual they would use it for. You can then give the winner the product and have them send in a picture of them using it in the way they described: Giving you some bonus user-generated content.

It’s my personal favorite. It forces entrants to get highly engaged with your product by thinking of interesting ways to use it. This is great for two reasons:

It gets entrants thinking about reasons to use (and thereby purchase) the product – making them more likely to purchase the product if they don’t win it.

It creates tons of social recommendations (testimonials) for your products.

Best Practices for Facebook Contest Idea #1

In the contest description/details provide some icebreaker examples to get people

In the posts you make on your Facebook Page to promote the contest include user entries (and your own favorites) of how to use the product – photos of the use cases are a bonus

Choose a product that’s easy to think of interesting uses for. The product should be fairly mainstream that most people would have a use for, so everyone can easily think of something. The more niche the product, the less people will know how to use it, and therefore enter.

Facebook Contest Idea #2: Take a Photo of Yourself Using [Product Name] OR At [Location] OR Doing [Activity]

This Facebook contest idea entices your customers to take photos of themselves interacting with your products/services or while they’re at one of your brick-and-mortar locations. It’s similar to #1, in that it creates a personal recommendation/testimonial for your business, but has both a major advantage and disadvantage:

Advantage: A photo provides convincing proof that you recommend a company and its products, as you either need to have purchased a product/service from the company or have visited one of its locations.

Disadvantage: An entrant must have already purchased your product/service or visited one of your locations, which is a high barrier to entry.

For this type of contest to be successful you need to already have a lot of customers and fans on your Facebook Page. Why? Only a moderate percentage of your customers will see or enter your contest. And to enter they need to take the time to take a photo of themselves doing something very specific. This again will decrease the number of willing entrants in your contest.

Best Practices for Facebook Contest Idea #2

Choose a product that a lot of people own, or a highly popular store location, to maximize entries

Do your best to choose products that are not prone to having inappropriate pictures taken with them to avoid unwanted photos

Provide images built into the contest design of people using the products or at your store location to give them ideas on how they can do it themselves

Facebook Contest Idea #3: Caption This to Win [Prize]!

The rise of memes on websites like Reddit have made photo caption contests a popular way to engage fans. The basic premise is that you post a picture of something funny or outrageous and then ask people to write a caption (title) for it.

A great way to utilize this to create buzz for your products is to include one of your products in the photo. Two great ways to create “photo caption contest” worthy photos with your products are to show an animal using it or to show a baby using it. These types of photos immediately make people chuckle and put them inside the mind of the pictured animal or baby to think about what they think the product is/does.

For example, this photo that Walmart recently posted on its Facebook Page just puts me in the mind of the cat thinking “I do not find this amusing human!”:

[image source: Wishpond]
Best Practices for Facebook Contest Idea #3

Use a very simple image that people don’t have to think about or decipher

Do not use religious or political figures or symbols – this can lead to much controversy

Use animals or babies in your photos – these are statistically the most engaging photos on Facebook

Facebook Contest Idea #4: Vote on which [Product/Service] We Should Put on Sale

This is one of the best facebook contest ideas to drive new sales. To run this contest you simply choose 2 – 8 products, display them on a page and allow people to vote on each one (Wishpond’s Vote Contest App provides a complete out-of-the-box solution for this type of contest). Include a title that reads “Whichever product gets the most votes will be 50% off next week”. When the contest ends post on your Facebook Page, and send an email to every person who participated, saying which product won and how customers can redeem the discount on it.

This will get people sharing with friends to help their choice win and even start comment discussions about which product should win, and why. This will create new recommendations/testimonials for your products as everyone clamors to prove that their chosen product is the best one to vote for.

A twist on this type of contest is to ask people to vote on which [Product/Service] you should add to your seasonal line-up

Mountain Dew does this successfully with its annual Dewmocracy Challenge in which people vote for which new flavor Mountain Dew should release that year. Check it out below:

[image source: Wishpond]
Facebook Contest Idea #5: Refer 5 Friends

Amongst all the contests we run here at Wishpond, referral contests are one of our most popular. Not only do people enter the contest with their emails, they receive bonus entries by sharing the contest with their network.

This type of contest leverages your followers and their network to help extend the reach. As long as you're offering a prize that your audience desperately wants to win you should have no trouble getting them to share it.

Mobogenie ran a referral contest just as I described and gave away awesome grand prizes that included cell phones, headphones, backpacks, and more. Entrants were encouraged to share the contest with as many people as they wanted to, to receive bonus entries and more chances to win.

[image source: Wishpond]
Facebook Contest Idea #6: Selfie Contest

If you've had any experience with social media at all you've likely seen your fair share of selfies. Like them or not, lots of brands love leveraging people's selfie addictions. A selfie contest involves having participants enter a selfie under a certain theme for their chance to win.

One of the sillier Facebook contest ideas we've run involved taking and sharing a selfie with your horse. Fun spins on a selfie contest like this can be adapted for any brand.

Take a selfie with our product. Take a selfie at our store. Take a selfie of you doing anything!

You get the point.

Facebook Contest Idea #7: What Type Are You?

You shouldn't be surprised to hear that not all your customers are the same. They all have different reasons and stories for why they chose to do business with you. If you're interested in finding out the “why,” (which you really should be) a Facebook contest can help.

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts used a Facebook contest to find out a little bit more about their customers. They wanted to find out what type of travelers their customers were so as to serve them better in the future. Contests like these that produce valuable data and delight customers in return are our favourite because they're a win for the company and the consumer.

[image source: Wishpond]