If you create a Facebook page for your business, fans will come…….. That is what many businesses using Facebook hope for but fans do not magically stumble upon you in the dead of the night. People need to be lured to your page and there are some great, fun ways to not only get people to your page and “Like” it, but to get them to reccommend it to their friends.

One way to increase your “Likers”,  comments, or just general interaction, is to offer incentives. Facebook contests can encourage fans to participate in discussions, upload pictures, or “like” posts. Seeing a presence of previous incentives also encourages new fans to join a page, and the  FREE GIFTS and PRIZES encourage fans to remain fans. The most popular facebook contest ideas we have seen are these:

1. Website treasure hunt: Post a question on your facebook page, and then provide hints throughout your website. This encourages fans to both visit your website in depth, but also to engage on your facebook page. Do not make it too difficult, and be sure that there is a decent prize for the winner, or winners.
2.  “Tag”!: Create a folder in your photo gallery on your facebook page, then once a week (or so) add an individual picture of one of your products. Ask your fans to “Tag” their name to that product picture to enter the drawing to win that prize.
3. “Like” Raffle: An incredibly simple campaign to run. Simply ask fans, “’Like’ this comment to enter into the raffle for a free giveaway of “????”. Contest ends tomorrow at 5 pm!”. Once the time runs out, randomly pick your winner(s).
4. Best Suggestion: Get great market research, and free advertising by asking fans to suggest product ideas for your company. Offer a prize for your favorite idea, or to the author of the idea who gets the most “likes”.
5. Submit your picture: Have your fans upload pictures of them with your product. Choose winners based on different categories like most artistic/funny/unique/etc.
6. “_____ is my favorite!” Drawing: Contestents are to leave a comment saying what service of yours they like the best to enter. Winners will be drawn after X amount of participants, or after a certain period of time. This gives you activity on your page, as well as forces your users to tell their friends about your products.
7. Guess The Product: Tell the users that the first 3 people to guess the code word will get a prize. Heres the hint: the code word is on your website, as one of your services. This will encourage users to visit your website, and more importantly, look at the services you provide.
8. RallyTogether: This is more complicated, and would require a larger prize, as well as a larger fan following. The object for the users is to ‘Vote’ for the winner, this is measured by “likes”. You post a comment saying to add your name as a comment to this post, then tell your friends to “like” your comment. Whoever has the most amount of “likes” will win. In the event of a tie, you can choose to give away multiple prizes, or have a tie breaker round. The advantage of this campaign, when successfull, you will get a tremendous amount of viral attention as users will promote your page to their friends for you.
9. I Spy: Take a photo of one of your products, but REALLY, REALLY zoom in on it. The first person who can guess what it is, wins!
10. Best Photo Caption: Post a photo of your new product and have users come up with a great caption for the product. For voting, either make the winner the person who gets the most ‘likes’ or simply pick it yourself.
11. Trivia Tuesday!: Create a special reoccuring day to encourage fans to come back to your page. For example, make a “Trivia Tuesday” and put a list of 20 questions, then ask users to email the list of answers. This can also help you establish a larger newsletter mailing list. The users who get the most right answers, get to be in a drawing for a prize.
12. Why do you deserve _____?: Ask fans to post a short response as to why they deserve the product/prize. This method opens up your fan base to strongly desire your products, and if you get lucky you can get some really interesting posts that can lead to some viral activity.

Running contests can be hugely beneficial to your Facebook Page, if managed correctly. For more info on running a contest for your Facebook Page email our Social Media Manager.