Facebook CompetitionFacebook contests can drive huge fan growth over a short period of time and can make a massive impact to your Facebook page.

Is this something you are running on a regular basis on your page?  Do you want some ideas/inspiration for what might work for your brand?

We reached out to some of the Facebook Contest providers who provide Facebook competition software and they each gave us one example of what worked really well for a customer that used their app.

Business Objective of this article

If you are thinking of running a Facebook competition for the first time, or are looking for some ideas for your next competition, then this post will certainly give you some food for thought.

1.  Heyo – Lilly Pulitizer rocks Facebook with their Agenda

Client: Lilly Pulitizer  – Fashion retailer Current number of Facebook Fans: 529,000 Competition Objective:  Increase sales of their ‘Agenda’ product

Details of Facebook competition

On a yearly basis Lilly Pulitizer sell really stylish looking ‘Agendas’ (Diaries) which their clients love.  Each year they run a promotion campaign and this year they decided to use Heyo.  They ran a Facebook contest to give away 50 Agenda’s.  To enter the competition you had to register your personal details and e-mail, select your favorite Agenda and share out to your friends. A key part of this promotion was being able to enter it via mobile devices.  Although Facebook Apps are not supported on mobile devices they have a smart solution.  Clients that try to access the competition from a mobile device are automatically redirected to a mobile app where they can enter the competition.

Results

The results of the competition were as follows: 9,000 e-mails captured, 2,000 of those e-mails were collected via a mobile device. 23,000 likes 388,700 unique views 200% return on investment on orders in the first 10 days

Summary

A simple competition that encourages the sharing of something visually appealing works quite well.  And when you see that 22% of all entries were through a mobile device it’s clear that supporting mobile for your competition is essential. Sign up for a free trial of Heyo -> Click here

2. ShortStack – Smart Shelters earn $750,000 more in one year

Client: Smart Shelters – Provide Storm Shelters Current number of Facebook Fans: 19,100 Competition Objective:  Grow sales of their Storm Shelter product using Shortstack.

Details of Facebook competition

Smart Shelters ran a 12 month giveaway, where each month they gave away a storm shelter.  Using a customized version of shortstack they created an e-mail entry competition and supported the campaign with Facebook ads.

Shortstack Competition Apps
The competition was ongoing with monthly prizes
Results

The page started with only 800 fans and within 5 months went to 5,950 (they are over 19k now).  There were 8,551 email submissions and 4,500 Facebook shares.   Since launching the Facebook app they have generated over $750,000 in additional revenue for their products.  Of course some of this growth would have happened organically but they believe the Facebook App had a key part to this growth.

Summary

This competition provided something of real value so it was worthwhile running it on a monthly basis.  As well as significant growth in email subscribers there was a large number of shares which helped build awareness for the products and also drive more email subscribers.

3. SocialAppsHQ – Brush Buddies gets their singer for their singing toothbrushes!

Client: Brush Buddies: Innovative products to make tooth brushing fun! Current Facebook Fans: 100k Competition Objective: Increase awareness of Brush Buddies globally

Details of Facebook Competition

Brush Buddies have a range of singing toothbrushes and they ran a competition to find the best singer that would be put on the singing toothbrushes!   Using SocialAppsHQ  they let people upload a video of themselves singing and the fans could then vote to find the best artist.  Fans were also allowed to comment on the video uploaded and share it out to their social network.

Results

Here are the results of the competition:

SocialAppsHQ Video App
The results of the video competition
Summary

If there is a good enough incentive, your fans will upload videos and through a platform such as SocialAppsHQ you can run a really great video competition.   Video is very engaging and the videos uploaded through the competition would have encouraged people to stay longer on the page which is beneficial to the brand.

4. Agorapulse – Abbé Pierre Foundation gets 75k petitions signed

Client: Abbe Pierre Foundation – Charity to improve housing conditions of the poor Current Facebook Fans: 248k Competition Objective:  Get signatures on a petition app

Details of Facebook Competition

The Agorapulse petition app was used to collect names for a petition against inadequate housing.  Each person that provided their digital signature were able to invite their friends to sign the petition and they also automatically shared the signatures with all their friends using Facebook Open Graph frictionless sharing.  A leaderboard was created showing who got the most friends to sign the petition so this created the competition angle.

Agorapulse
The leaderboard encouraged fans to get more signatures
Results

The Facebook signature application was very successful at leveraging the viral potential of social media. On average, two out of six friends invited by the original signatory ended up signing the petition. Some of the most active fans of the Abbé Pierre Foundation generated more than 150 signatures from their friends.

          • The Facebook campaign succeeded in generating over half of all signatories to the petition – 75,000
          • 220,000 fans on the organization’s Facebook page, from a starting point of zero
          • 40,000 email opt-ins, for future email marketing campaigns
          • Average reach of 50 to 75k fans for every post they publish now, all for free
          • 2,000 potential ‘super-fans’ (fans who have liked at least 50 page posts) identified thanks to the CRM feature
Summary

A leaderboard can be very powerful and does not need to be tied to a prize.  People like climbing the leaderboard and this is a strong incentive to do more sharing.   Consider how you could introduce a leaderboard as part of your competitions. The frictionless sharing feature used within this competition also helped to build awareness of this campaign. Agorapulse has some nice functionality and is worth considering.

5. Voices Heard Media –  Nature Clean, clean up on Facebook!

Client: Nature Clean : Canadian cleaning product brand Current Facebook Fans: 8,548 Competition Objective:  Collect relevant email subscribers, increase fans and gather research

Details of Facebook Competition

A competition based around a survey and sweepstakes app was created which users could enter via their mobile device or through their desktop. They had to complete a survey and provide their details to enter the competition. The survey and sweepstakes were targeted to women but the questions were based around the cleaning behavior of household men, bringing a humor and fun element to the competition ! 

Voices Heard Media
This app was a mix of a quiz app and survey
Result

The campaign ran for a total of 3 months, in which time the  survey/sweepstakes was shared nearly 700 times.  The Facebook tab where the campaign was held had over 50,000 visitors, of which over 40,000 took the survey and entered into the sweepstakes.

Summary

A competition app can be a great way of building up profile information on your target audience. Consider what questions you could ask to survey your audience, but try to have a light-hearted/fun angle to the questions so people don’t mind filling it in and more importantly are inclined to share it with their friends.

6. Tabsite –  Petopia Pet Store get over 80% growth in their fan base

Client: Petopia Pet Store –   Current Facebook Fans: 33,700 Competition Objective:  Collect relevant email subscribers, increase fans and gather research .

Details of Facebook Competition

Petopia’s used a variety of Tabsite applications to grow their fan base. One of the competitions was to find the Star Pooch of the month and this involved the use of Tabsite’s 2 stage voting feature.  Fans voted and then a subset of the top entries were put through another voting round.

Tabsite
Tabsite voting competition was very successful
Results

Petopia increased their fan count by 10,000 fans, going from 13,500 to 23,500 fans in less than 2 months.

Summary

Voting can be a great way of increasing engagement and growing your fans (if you fan gate your content). A second round of voting keeps the momentum going!

7.  Votigo – Promote your competition across a variety of platforms

Client: JBL Electronics : Electronic Goods Current Facebook Fans: 1 Million Competition Objective:  Build awareness of a new set of headphones!

Details of Facebook Competition

A custom sweepstakes app was created using Votigo that allowed users to upload photos, video and text to a variety of media channels that reflected what country music meant to them.  Fans could use either Facebook, a microsite, Twitter or text message to enter the competition.  All entries were put into the app gallery with Instagram and Twitter entries were identified using the campaign hashtag.  The promotion also had a mobile app so entries could be uploaded from mobile devices.

Votigo Contest
The Sweepstakes app worked on a variety of channels including Facebook

  The prize was a VIP concert experience with country singer Tim McGraw and two tickets to the show or a free autographed pair of Tim McGraw Artist Series headphones.

Results
      • 44k Visitors
    • 107k Page views
    • Over 6,000 entries

Summary There are many platforms your customers are on so being able to run the competition across a variety of platforms simultaneously is extremely useful.

8. Strutta – Getting Married with Strutta Apps!

Client: Crate and Barrel – Home furnishing and Houseware suppliers Current Facebook Fans: 347k Competition Objective: Encourage engaged couples to create their gift registry with the store

Details of Facebook Competition

Engaged couples had a chance to win a $100,000 dream wedding.  In order to enter the competition, which used the Strutta platform, they first had to create a gift registry with Crate and Barrel, and then had to submit 3 images and answer 3 questions.   There was a round of voting for the couples and then a judging panel picked the final winners. Using Strutta’s Contest API, Crate and Barrel was able to:Validate each couple’s gift registry for entry

      • Validate each couple’s gift registry for entry
      • Build a completely customized sit
      • Manage and moderate all content

The contest was promoted across all channels: such as Crate and Barrel’s websites, press releases, online advertising, through direct e-mail and blogger outreach, as well as in-store displays. Individual stories generated from the contest also gained coverage in local papers, media and blogs across the country.

Strutta photo contest
When pictures were uploaded there was a separate voting element that created a lot of attention
Results
      • $35 million in gift registry created over 2 campaigns
      • 16,000 couples shared their love story!
      • 3 million pages views over a year
      • 1/2 million votes each year
Summary

Getting your potential clients to upload photo’s and having a voting element can really work.  As soon as they upload they then tell their friends and try to get as many votes as possible.  Having your customers promote the competition for you to their friends and family can be the most cost effective way of promoting a competition.

9.  EasyPromos – 50,000 Fans in 10 Hours!

Client: Vueling – Low Cost Airline Current Facebook Fans: 66k Competition Objective:  Grow fan base and increase sales of tickets

Details of Facebook Competition

On the 24th March Vueling organized the ‘Vueling day’ where they ran a promotion on Facebook using EasyPromos for 100 giveaway flights.  Starting at 9 am for 12 hours there was a new destination announced every hour. A simple sweepstakes was run but as part of the Sweepstakes the more friends you invited the more entries you could make to the competition.  This made the sweepstakes go viral and new fans were converting at 1 per second.

EasyPromos Competition
Easy Promos Sweepstakes Competition App

There were different promotions run within Easypromos for each destination and they kicked off automatically. It took less than 30 seconds to enter the promotion. Vueling had access to the list of participants real-time so they could announce the winners of the last promotion within minutes of it ending.   Any participants entering were asked about their home city so Vueling could learn more about their fans.

Results
            • 50,000 New Fans in 10 Hours!
Summary

Encouraging your fans to share out your content to get more entries to a Sweepstake can have an amazing effect to the results of your competition.  Think about how you would get your fans to share!

10.  Kontest – Win some Bordeaux wine with a quiz!

Client: Millesima-usa.com: Sale of find Wine futures Current Facebook Fans: 3,254 Competition Objective:  Increase fans and get potential leads

Details of Facebook Competition

Millesima sell fine wine futures directly to consumers. They used Kontest quiz app for their promotion. There were 6 questions related to Wine and the quiz went on for 3 weeks. The prize was 120 bottles of 2010 Bordeaux Grands Crus + $2000 of vouchers valid for the purchase of Fine Wine.  When they entered the quiz they opted in to receive further information about Millesima offerings. Facebook Ads were used to promote the quiz.

Kontest Quiz
A Quiz targeting people that may be interested in Wine related products
Results
          • +155% Likes, Exclusively Wine lovers
    • 7,2% engagement rate in May
    • 200 ultra-qualified opt-in
Summary

An interactive quiz based around the product or service you are offering can be a great way of attracting relevant customers.

11.  WishPond – Stitch Collective Crowdsource their product lines

Client: Stitch Collective : Designers sketch, you vote, Stitch designs! Current number of Facebook Fans: 4,500 Competition Objective: Crowdsource their product lines

Details of Facebook Competition run

Designers from around the world submitted their sketches to be reviewed by the Stitch team.  The team selected 12 bag designs and from this then created a mobile optimized voting contest. The contest was embedded onto their website but to vote on the competition you had to log in via Facebook and share out details of the competition to your Facebook friends.   The competition could also have been embedded on a Facebook page. This type of competition is great to get your fans or followers to contribute to your product design which ensures they are more likely to buy and/or share when the design is complete.   The winning designer had the product designed in New York’s Garment District and is now available through the Stitch Collective online store.

Wishpond Voting
You vote on the design and the best designs get made!

Wishpond’s Social Contact Database automatically captured the participants’ demographics, geographical details and contact information making it easy for Stitch to reach target groups of highly engaged potential customers with customized offers.

Results

In less than 4 weeks, the City Bag Challenge received close to 4,000 votes, with the potential to be viewed by 2.5 million customers.

Summary

Think about how you could get your customers/potential customers involved in helping you select new products or services.

12. Antavo – Innovative sharing for the Entertainer!

Client:  The Entertainer – Toy Shop in the UK
Current Facebook Fans: 27,000

Competition Objective:  Grow their fan base on Facebook

Details of Facebook Competition

They decided to run weekly promotions from Friday to Sunday using Antavo promotion apps.  Every week there was a prize of a toy and to enter the competition you were asked a multiple choice question related to the toy (e.g. what is your favorite color for this toy).  You then entered your e-mail address and following this you were offered an incentive for sharing to your friends.   If you share out to your friends and one these friends also enter the competition you get 5 more entries.  This is very smart because you don’t get anything for sharing, you only get benefit if there is action as a result of your sharing.   Also, you are more likely to use all sharing options for a chance to win more entries and increase probability of winning.

Antavo
You had the option of entering the competition again by sharing out details to your friends!
Results

After 7 weeks running the competition there were 8,000 subscribers.  The conversion rate from visitors to subscribers was 75.5%.   The most successful promotion attracted 2,047 subscribers.

Summary

Being innovative about how you encourage sharing is key to success of competitions.  By having an incentive to share that will result in more entries to the competition, strongly encourages people to share.   This worked for this Antavo competition!

Final Comments

If Facebook competitions are run correctly with good applications and are sufficiently promoted,  they can be extremely useful for your Facebook page.   We’d love to hear about what any Facebook competition ideas you have or Facebook competitions you have run?

Free Bonus Download

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