When you think about social media platforms, what’s the first that comes to mind? If you said “Facebook,” you are not alone! With more than 600 million users, Facebook is the largest social network and one of the top-visited websites in the world.

BLAST’s social media team works hard to stay on the cutting-edge of marketing opportunities on this ever-evolving social network. As a result of our diligence, we recently ended a successful Facebook sweepstakes for our client, Dexim, who saw an increase of new fan page “Likes” by nearly 50 percent in just two weeks!

But before you leap at the chance to grow your own fan page, make sure you know your ABCs and 123s of Facebook:

Awareness

To host a successful sweepstakes or contest, you must first know Facebook’s strict rules and regulations, or you’ll risk getting your business fan page shut down. Avoid this by running your sweepstakes or contest through a third-party application. Unsure of the rules about Facebook promotions and/or the different options you have? Facebook clearly outlines these distinctions on its Promotions Guidelines Page.

Tip 1:

Promoting your contest is key to growing the number of “Likes” to your page! To start, build excitement on your page by letting your current fans be the first to know about the upcoming contest. Once you secure participation from existing fans, you’re bound to gain more “Likes” to your page when current fans post the contest to their profile walls and news feeds. Next, don’t forget to cross-promote! Post updates to Twitter and YouTube about your contest, and write an entry on your company blog.

Benchmarking

With Facebook’s strict contest limitations, you might wonder if it’s worth the effort. The truth is, holding a contest on Facebook is a powerful method to generate buzz, boost fan numbers, increase customer engagement, and even help build your email list.

Tip 2:

If you don’t know where you began, how will you know if you’re successful? Before you spend valuable dollars on a Facebook contest or other promotion, check how many fans your page has and spend some time perusing the Facebook administrator insights. When your contest ends, you’ll want that initial data to see if hosting the contest was worth the time, effort, and valuable product or service included in the giveaway.

As you promote the contest via other social media platforms, you may want to use a link-shortening service, such as budURL, so you can capture analytics data, such as top-referring websites to your Facebook page or the number of clicks to the landing page.

Creativity

The latest Facebook buzz is about how iFrames will change the face of company welcome pages and how it could affect Facebook’s promotion guidelines. Transitioning from FBML (a Facebook app) to iFrames (a Facebook feature where page administrators host their own content) is a major shift that occurred on Facebook pages late last week. If you need an overview to get familiar with the differences between FBML and iFrames, especially how they relate to contests, check out this Social Media Examiner blog post by Facebook expert, Mari Smith.

Tip 3:

The beauty—and challenge—of social media is that it’s always changing. And we all know Facebook is no exception! With iFrames, a graphic designer can easily create a custom landing page for Facebook. However, don’t let the creativity stop there. Brainstorm a catchy title that corresponds with your prize or coupon. The right title will not only draw in folks who scour the Internet entering sweepstakes and contests, but it will attract people who are interested in what you have to offer beyond the freebies.

For example, since Dexim is a portable power solutions provider for iDevices and a mobile accessories maker, its audience includes geeks and gamers, as well as business people who travel frequently. In Dexim’s sweepstakes, the contest name, “Win a Spring Break Tech Survival Kit!,” was not only catchy, but included relevant keywords.

Facebook is just one of many platform tools that can help your business’ social media presence. What else is the team at BLASTmedia utilizing to help our clients? Twitter, YouTube, blogging, niche social network and forum participation, LinkedIn, social bookmarking tactics…and the list goes on and on! Talk with our Director of Business Development, Patrick Tarpey, to see how BLASTmedia can help your company with its social media efforts.

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