The ultimate goal of your social media presence is to take your followers out of there and into your shop, activity or cause. This is part of the process and even though only 10% of our Facebook posts should be promotional, I've seen very successful pages doing 100% promotional posts. They have gorgeous and affordable jewellery or irresistible shoes and handbags. Their crowd just never gets tired of looking at their products, especially when new collections arrive at the beginning of a new season. Ah! And one musn't forget the cake pop ladies, of course.
What if you don't offer jewellery, delicious and beautiful cakes or irresistible shoes? Well, then you have to find other ways. Facebook pages terms and conditions specifies that you are not allowed to use their own 'share, comment or like' actions to enter your fans into any promotions with the exception of the 'liking of the page' itself, so you can use this to reward 'new likes' or new fans/followers by drawing a discount voucher or a gift voucher every week or every month, exclusively for your new fans. Facebook encourages page owners to install applications to enter fans into contests/promotions but usually fans are discouraged to enter as they have to install the app and this takes time and might appear intrusive to some people. I will share with you some other simple ideas that businesses have used without the fans having to install an external application on their Facebook profile.
Invite fans to email (not to post on your wall/timeline) a photo wearing or using your product to enter a draw on regular basis for a period of time
Another possibility is to draw a winner every so many number of likes to your page. This is the only accepted use of a FB feature to enter a draw: to like the page (not a photo posted on its timeline). A variation could be to draw every so often, on weekly or monthly basis, just from the new fans. This encourages new fans but it is not so inviting for your 'old' fans to share the page with their friends. You don't have to state it, but by rewarding ANY fan when reaching a certain number of likes for your page, you are encouraging all of them to share your page with their friends to reach the target number.
What if you don't offer jewellery, delicious and beautiful cakes or irresistible shoes? Well, then you have to find other ways. Facebook pages terms and conditions specifies that you are not allowed to use their own 'share, comment or like' actions to enter your fans into any promotions with the exception of the 'liking of the page' itself, so you can use this to reward 'new likes' or new fans/followers by drawing a discount voucher or a gift voucher every week or every month, exclusively for your new fans. Facebook encourages page owners to install applications to enter fans into contests/promotions but usually fans are discouraged to enter as they have to install the app and this takes time and might appear intrusive to some people. I will share with you some other simple ideas that businesses have used without the fans having to install an external application on their Facebook profile.
Invite fans to email (not to post on your wall/timeline) a photo wearing or using your product to enter a draw on regular basis for a period of time
Another possibility is to draw a winner every so many number of likes to your page. This is the only accepted use of a FB feature to enter a draw: to like the page (not a photo posted on its timeline). A variation could be to draw every so often, on weekly or monthly basis, just from the new fans. This encourages new fans but it is not so inviting for your 'old' fans to share the page with their friends. You don't have to state it, but by rewarding ANY fan when reaching a certain number of likes for your page, you are encouraging all of them to share your page with their friends to reach the target number.
An American company posted a coupon in the past and invited fans to find it so that anyone who did was rewarded. If you have a business that has been around for many years, or you offer a product that has been offered from before, you can have a promotion coupon that anyone can find on your timeline, print it and be able to purchase this product at the price it used to be sold in the past. In this way, everyone who finds the coupon is a winner, so there's no real competition, you just encourage a 'treasure hunt' on your timeline. You can easily past date a post by clicking on the little clock icon on your page's posting window.
Finally, I want to leave you with a link to an article that was written in March this year but it is quite useful for those of you who run your own Facebook page. Very simple ideas that can help you increase your exposure. Click here for the whole article.
Thanks for reading, stay healthy, happy and safe until we 'meet' again,
