How to to Create Facebook Promotion

The same promotional incentives that served marketers before Facebook, such as raffles and drawings, still apply on Facebook. Promotions with high-value prizes tend to be more active. Celebrity appeal and limited edition offerings always help, too. But if you don’t have access to costly prizes, you can still offer an appropriate reward.

Facebook rules for promotions

The Facebook Promotions Guidelines page spells out the rules surrounding the use of promotions within the Facebook Platform. In an effort to eliminate spam from promotions, the guidelines serve to protect the user’s profile data from being used by brands for their own benefit. Facebook also limits the way companies can use the Facebook brand name and logo in association with the promotion.

Also, Facebook must approve all promotions. In other words, to run any promotion on the Facebook Platform (and they all have to be on the Facebook Platform), you must have written approval directly from Facebook.

Setting up a promotion

Facebook offers a compelling environment from which to host a promotion or giveaway on your Page. You can use your Page as a starting point with a link to your website for promotion entry details or have the entire promotion contained within the Facebook community.

Although promotions are as unique as the companies that host them, these tips can improve your chances of success:

Offer an attractive prize. The more attractive the prize, the more response you’ll get. For a prize to be attractive, though, it doesn’t necessarily have to cost a lot. The best prizes tend to be those that money can’t buy, such as a chance to meet a celebrity, to participate in a TV commercial, or to attend a product’s prerelease party.
Use your existing customers and contacts to start the ball rolling. Getting those initial entries is always the toughest part of running a Facebook promotion. Reach out to your mailing list of customers with a friendly invitation. Wherever you have contacts, use whatever social network, e-mail exchange, or instant messenger you have to get them to participate.
Cross-promote via your website. You need to promote your Facebook promotion across all your channels to gain maximum participation. That includes your website. Adding a promotional banner with a link to your Facebook Page is a good start.
Keep the promotion simple. Don’t overcomplicate the rules. The fewer the questions on a form, the higher the rate of completion. Keep first prize a single, valuable item and then have several smaller second-place prizes. And remember, the fewer the clicks to enter the promotion, the better.
Don’t set the bar too high. If you ask the participants for an original creation, keep the requirements to a minimum. For example, don’t place a minimum word count on an essay promotion.
Run promotions for at least one month. The more time you promote the promotion, the more entries you get. The more you build up the excitement by keeping the promotion in front of your fans, the more often they take note of it and look forward to the big day when the winner is announced!
Integrate your promotion with a media campaign. By combining a Facebook ad campaign with a promotion, you maximize the viral effect and amplify the number of engagements.
Make your promotion fun, interesting, and uniquely you. The main thing to keep in mind when planning a Facebook promotion is that members want to be entertained. Promotions should offer an outlet to self-expression, engage members, encourage them to share with friends, and communicate something unique about your brand.

Using third-party promotion apps

Although Facebook doesn’t offer a promotion application, several third-party promotion applications are available. Some are free, and some cost money to power more sophisticated promotions and sweepstakes:

Wildfire Promotion Builder: Available for less than a dollar per day, it provides a direct solution for marketers looking to offer a promotion or giveaway on their Facebook Page. The app provides everything you need to create and host a promotion on your Facebook Page.
Fan Appz: In addition to being able to run promotions, you can also create quizzes and polls that can then be posted on your fan’s Wall so that all her friends can see . . . and possibly take your quiz (or poll), too!
Vitrue: This suite of applications offers options for promotions, but also other apps for fan engagement. It’s like a one-stop shop for all your Facebook marketing needs!