Chances are you’ve seen or been involved in some sort of Facebook contest. They are fun for the participants, but why do businesses host them? Not only are they great for branding, but they can also be an integral part of your social media strategy.  

Step 1: Determine your goals

Before you make any other moves, you will want to figure out what you hope to get from the contest. Are you hoping to get more likes? Make sales? Improve engagement levels? Gather content for future use? Depending on the goals you set for yourself you will want to approach the setup of the contest differently:

More likes:

Ensure contest participants like your page for their entry to be valid. You can also make a play on this by having participants like your page and tag their friends in hopes of them also liking your page.

Make sales:

Generally speaking, just by putting out active and engaging material on Facebook you will be encouraging people to purchase your product. The idea is to drive people to your website to buy your product. A great option for this is to create your contest form using Survey Gizmo. After participants complete the form, you can set it to send these potential customers directly to your website. You’ll be surprised how many people end up purchasing! Alternatively, if they don’t purchase right then, you can use one of Facebook’s pixels in your survey to create an audience of these participants for future retargeting ads.

Improved engagement levels:

Engagement levels improve the more people click and interact with your social content. A contest is the perfect medium to engage with your customers and increase your engagement. Bonus engagement points if your contest involves commenting on your post as part of their entry.

Free content:

Contests are the perfect way to get user-generated content. Think photos of your customers with your product, customer testimonials, and blog posts. A contest is the perfect incentive for customers to send in their content for you to use in the future on your site and social.        

Step 2: Think of a Theme

Try to be as creative as you can. Customers, followers and potential customers will be more likely to interact with your contest if it has a unique and creative theme. Tie the prize into the theme of the contest. For example, our latest HostGator contest was a video game-themed contest. Our creative and copy were video game-themed and our prize was a HostGator branded xBox One. Contests are not only more fun and engaging this way, but they are easier to keep track of.  

Step 3: Choose your prize

When deciding on a prize determine how much work a participant must do to enter. A good rule of thumb is the larger the prize, the more work you should expect them to do. A good place to start is by giving away one of your business’ products or services. This creates a great gateway for new potential customers to fall in love with your business. [bctt tweet="Rule of thumb for contests: the larger the prize, the more work you can expect participants to do." username="hostgator"]  

Step 4: Advertise

Facebook ads are the perfect place to start the advertising for your Facebook contest. If you’re planning on advertising your contest or boosting it in any sort of monetary way, you will want to make sure it’s running for at least two weeks. This gives ample time for the ads to reach their target audience and gives your participants time to participate.  

Step 5: Analyze your results

Facebook has a lot of really great tools in their “Insights” section that can tell you information like post engagement, page clicks, and page likes. You can also see your top posts based on engagement level, date or reach. These are great ways to determine the success of your Facebook contest, but you’re not limited to just these factors. Check your survey to see how many people entered. Was the content they submitted good? Take a look at the Facebook ads you ran in Ads Manager and see how many sales were a result of the contest. Determine if the cost of the prize and the ads is worth the likes, engagement, or sales. If the contest resulted in more revenue than money spent the decision is obvious. Other times you have to put a value on likes and engagement and weigh it against the money you spent on the contest.   There you have it - your five step guide to running a successful Facebook contest. To participate in future HostGator contests, be sure to follow us on Facebook! What are your tips for running a Facebook contest? Please share in the comments!

When we think of the World Wide Web, we often think of buying and selling online. Consider retail and wholesale sites, as well as sales and marketing sites for services. However, not all websites need to have ecommerce as their primary function. In fact, websites can fulfill a number of other functions.  At HostGator, we think everyone has something worth sharing on the world wide web. But starting a website can be intimidating. Maybe you’re not sure what topic you should focus on. Maybe you’re not sure it will be successful. Or maybe you’re not sure you would attract an audience. Our recent Facebook contest winner, Linda, has proven that taking a risk can have a large reward.

Linda's Story

Linda won our Facebook contest where we asked, “How did your HostGator website change your life?” We received over 100 entries from people all over the world in industries ranging from hospitality to seasoned entrepreneurs to novice business owners. Although all of the entries offered insights to how having an online presence has changed their business, Linda’s story offered a unique perspective. [caption id="attachment_11116" align="alignleft" width="300"] Linda with her son, Colin[/caption] Two years ago, Linda’s son died from cancer. While this is hard in itself, Linda and her family found it difficult to live with the knowledge that what he wanted most to accomplish in his short life was within reach but denied by poor communication between her son and the medical professionals taking care of him. This was her inspiration for starting her website. Examining the Examiner is committed to improving communication and promoting meaningful dialogue between patients and their health care providers by providing an interactive forum that can be accessed by patients and physicians. Examining the Examiner was created as a forum for patients to share how medical professionals can best meet their needs in communication. Patients and caregivers are welcome to respond to questions and interact within the forum. Linda’s website has not only helped her find closure, but it has impacted the lives of hundreds of other patients. Linda demonstrates that not all websites need to be used for running a business. Websites can be used for blogging, promoting, generating leads or showing off your portfolio. Her advice to us? To take the plunge. She says, “This is one of the best endeavors that I have ever tried to bring to fruition, and one that I was least sure about being successful.” Her site certainly has been successful allowing Linda to help a countless number of people, inspiring all of us to bring our websites to realization. Inspired by Linda? Get your own website today! Not quite sure yet what your website should be about? Check out this list of website types that aren't ecommerce.

Event Promotion

You might have a website whose primary purpose is to promote an event. For example, you may promote and offer details pertaining to a public event, such as a fair, a flea market, or a political rally. Or, through a limited access site, your aim might be to promote and offer details regarding a private event, such as a birthday party, an anniversary, a wedding, or a graduation. Your target audience here would be the people attending your specific event, so you may want to put relevant info behind a password wall.

Blog

You may simply want your voice to be heard, and one of the most efficient ways to allow this is to blog, which is a great use for a website. You may, of course, blog on any topic, but some of the more popular ones cover such topics as movie and live performance criticism, political opinions, and personal stories. Or you may have a blog associated with a class you teach or a group to which you belong. In the former case, your target audience could be anyone around the world, while in the latter case, your target audience would be more specific, likely members of the group being featured.

Fundraising

Fundraising is another great function for a website. Often, non-profit organizations establish fundraising sites. Or, you might set up your own personal fundraising page to seek money for a medical procedure, alimony, child support, student loans, car payments, or other bills. You can target various people with a fundraising site. For example, you might target a social media group, such as all your Facebook friends or all your Twitter followers. Or, you might target everyone who has volunteered for your non-profit organization.

Portfolio or Resume Showcase

Another great use for a website is to showcase your portfolio or resume in a place where potential employers and supervisors can have easy access to it by simply going online. Your portfolio might include photos or videos of work you have completed, as well as descriptive or promotional writing regarding your work. You may also include others' positive reviews of your work. Besides potential employers and supervisors, you might target other working professionals who could learn from your work.

Online Community or Forum

You might establish a website for social purposes, such as bringing people together. Such a website would offer connection for people with a common ground such as alumnae of a specific college or university or members of a club. This type of site might list member names and contact information and share any announcements that are pertinent to group members behind a password wall.

Online Magazine

Sometimes, a website is established to feature magazine articles. Access can be public or private, depending on who the target audience is. This type of website might include information on Hollywood stars, book reviews, or other articles of interest to readers. Targeted readers could be local, or if you are ambitious about distributing your articles, you might target national or even international readers.

Online Tutorial

If you have a talent for a specific activity, you may want to establish an instruction, or "how to" website. Maybe you know how to make repairs around the house, launch a boat, build a model, or cook a meal. You can share all of your "how to" knowledge via the World Wide Web, making your website a popular forum for you and other contributors to share and exchange opinions on the best approaches to getting things done.

News Site

You might use a website to report news items. This could be an up-to-the-minute report site on world news developments, local news items, weather, traffic, and other relevant information. Your target audience might range from people all over the world to people living on a single block, depending on the type of news delivered.

Media Gallery

You might use a website to share your photos and videos. These photos and videos can be family oriented, work related, or home related. You might even share media of your pet. Your target audience might be friends, family, peers, potential employers, or co-workers, viewing media of a family picnic, company meeting, or other events in your life.

Research Findings

Perhaps you are a scientist looking to share your findings. A website can be the perfect forum in which to do so. Everyday, medical general practitioners and specialists turn to the web to share their findings and related information. Physicists, chemists, and other scientists can also share their research on the web, with target audiences being their peers and sometimes, the public.

These are just a handful of the common types of websites out there. As you can see, there are numerous types of websites that are not eCommerce based. Websites are a key method of communication in today's society, and are useful for communicating many important activities and messages beyond simply commerce.

Get your own domain name and build your website today with HostGator - click here for a great deal!