Page managers are jumping for joy now that Facebook no longer requires contests to be run via third-party apps. Businesses can now easily run contests on their page timelines and manage the results themselves.
Many are doing just that. Contests using likes, comments and shares as entry requirements, for example, are up and running on thousands of pages — and generating windfalls of engagement.
If you’re new to creating Facebook contests or need some quick ideas on how to run one, here are four simple contest ideas along with tips on how to get started:
Caption contest
Photos make for engaging posts on Facebook, so why not double the engagement and turn your photo into a contest? Just ask your fans to caption your photo to enter. You can either pick your favorite caption as the winner or, for even more engagement, make the caption comment with the most likes the winner. Even if the prize is simple, this contest can get waves of comments rolling in, often with funny and creative results.
Check out this caption contest that got more than 1,200 comments:
Photo contest
Photos contests were a lot more complicated when you couldn’t conduct them on your page’s Timeline. Now they’re a breeze — you just require entrants to post a photo on your wall. Then you can either let fans pick the winner (most likes, comments or shares) or you do it yourself.
Either way, the result is a ton of user-generated content to share and a ton of engagement and interaction from your fans. Photo contests usually won’t garner thousands of entries, but they’re almost always visually pleasing and exciting for your dedicated fans.
Fill-in-the-blank contest
This is a great contest because it’s so easy to enter and also has the potential to go so viral. The secret is posting an interesting fill-in-the-blank status that both quickly provokes an answer AND piques fans’ curiosity enough to make them want to read what other fans wrote.
If you can pull this off, you’ll have fans commenting like crazy and also asking their friends to comment since it’s quick, easy and potentially rewarding. If you need help coming up with the fill-in-the-blank, you can always tap into the “Contest” or “Fill-in-the-Blank” categories of our Post Planner’s Status Ideas Engine — where you can access hundreds of fill-in-the-blank contests in a few clicks!
Check out this contest for tickets to an event by Las Vegas nightclub Hakkasan. They modeled the question around the guest act and it garnered almost 200 comments in just one day.
Most comments/likes contest: This is the simplest Timeline contest of all — and the one that typically earns the most responses since it’s so easy to enter. While you may not be entertained by the responses, this is still a great way to conduct a weekly or monthly contest that boosts engagement and rewards fans
Tea Forte scored almost 5,000 likes from this contest in just one day.
Try mixing up these contest ideas and seeing which ones get the best response from your fans. Whichever one you choose, chances are it will keep your fans coming back for more.
And if you’re parched for ideas, be sure to check out Post Planner’s content features. You’ll be treated to hundreds of contest ideas that you can easily customize and publish to your pages in just a few clicks.
A wordsmith turned tech junkie, Joshua Parkinson has a passion for conversation and content that led him around the world, and eventually to bootstrap Facebook content manager Post Planner.