As Facebook recent update to their guidelines states, “Facebook no longer requires promotions to be administered through a third-party app” (Facebook, 2014). Consequently, there are now two types of contest that you can legally run on Facebook.

1. Contests using Facebook functionality.

   These are the contests that run directly on a Page’s Timeline, such as a “comment on this post to win” or “Like this photo to win” contest.

   These types of competitions are very useful for improving engagement with your current Facebook fans. If you run a contest through Facebook, there are a few things you cant do.

   – You can’t collect information about your fans
   – You can’t require people to like your page in order to enter

   Therefore, their value for growing your email list and social following is limited. There may be some situations where brands can make good use of a Facebook contest. However, the value of continuing to run contests through a third-party app for your Facebook strategy becomes clear when you consider the importance of building your email database, growing your social following, and ultimately driving new leads.

Here you can find more amazing examples of branded Facebook contest..

2. Contests using a third-party app

These contest are traditionally run by media companies and their advertisers as they allow you to have an entry form to collect email addresses and other information about entrants (Second Street Lab, 2014).

This type of promotion is very useful at the time of  collecting information about your fans, building your social following, and incentivizing shares with referral features.

Below you can see an example of a great branded Facebook Contest, where Qwertee remained true to their brand, and gave away 1,000 t-shirts every week. They achieved their goal, and now have an incredible fan base of over 297,000! Qwertee uses Wishpond’s Facebook Sweepstakes App for their contests.

If your are not sure wether to a Facebook competition using a third-party app, bellow you can find 4 key advantages.

1. You can grow your email database.

   I am sure you want to own your email database and your channels for direct communication. By using a third-party app, you can collect the email addresses of the participants very easyly, just with an email opt-in on the entry form. This will easily convert fans into a database that YOU own and can use at any time for future marketing content.

Bellow an example of how the entry page would look if you do it through Easy Promos App.

2. You can capture even more information about your fans.

Information about clients – and potential clients – gives you the ability to generate HOT, qualified leads for a business (Second Street Lab, 2014).
According to Forbes (2015) running a competition through a third-party app allows you to capture fan data and helps you understand the demographics of who is visiting your page. You can also uncover pertinent customer information, such as someone’s interest level in buying one of your products.

3. Leverage the power of referral features.

Referral features, as well as, having the capacity to share the contest with a friend in order to get more chances to win, also have the power to drastically increase participation in your contests.

These features allows you to grow your reach far beyond your current fan base. Think about it: if you have 100 fans and each of those fans have at minimum 300 friends, that’s 30,000 folks who could be exposed to your contest and potentially become fans of your page.

Bellow you can find an example of how it would look once you’ve registered to the competition and are ready to share!

4. Drive conversions 

With a third-party app, you have the opportunity to offer contest entrants a special “Thank You” offer or coupon in exchange for their entry. This helps drive foot traffic for your client, and gives your fans another benefit to being a part of your contest.

Sephora’s contest appeals to their hip, fashion conscious consumer. The grand prize of a luxurious and exotic trip, coupled with their surf product reinforces both their brand image, and their cosmetics.

In conclusion, when you use a third-party app to run a Facebook contest, you get something substantial in addition to all of the engagement! Give it a try, its simple and cheap!

Here is a list of third-party Apps recommended by Agora Pluse (2014). I’ve used Easy Promo App in the past, its cheap, free and easy!

GOOD LUCK! x

---

Facebook for Business, (2015). Facebook Ads. [Online] Available at: https://www.facebook.com/business/products/ads (Accessed last 9th May 2016)

Forbes. (2015). 10 Reasons Your Brand Needs To Be On Instagram. Available: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2015/07/08/10-reasons-your-brand- needs-to-be-on-instagram/#621f95e32930. Last accessed 20th Feb 2016.

Second Street Lab . (2014). 4 Reasons to Run a Facebook Contest through a Third-Party App – See more at: http://secondstreetlab.com/2013/08/5-reasons-you-want-to-run-a-facebook-contest-with-a-third-party-app/#sthash.xEet8kUM.dpu.Available: http://secondstreetlab.com/2013/08/5-reasons-you-want-to-run-a-facebook-contest-with-a-third-party-app/. Last accessed 9th May 2016.

Wishpond. (2015). 10 Amazing Examples of Branded Facebook Contests Done Right. Available: http://blog.wishpond.com/post/52173284787/10-amazing-examples-of-branded-facebook-contests-done. Last accessed 9th May 2016.