Facebook com­pe­ti­tions: how to make them suc­cess­ful and legally compliant

Only a few users would pass up a chance to take part in a Facebook com­pe­ti­tion. Why are they so popular? It’s because they’re fun and users can get rewarded for taking part. They attract more attention than classic ad­ver­tis­ing and enable potential customers to interact with the company in a playful way. However, you have to weigh up whether the time and budget costs are worth­while. It is important to set concrete goals and not to lose sight of them. It’s also necessary to avoid legal pitfalls.

Win yourself a prize, get in touch with your favorite company, or express your own opinion: A Facebook com­pe­ti­tion provides a way of getting customers to interact with the company. It activates passive fans and reaches other users who then become fans or even customers.

One thing is certain: these contests increase your organic reach. In this case, unlike paid coverage, you don’t have to spend money on ad­ver­tise­ments. However, this should not be the main goal, since organic reach rarely leads to sus­tain­able success. The organic reach achieved with a com­pe­ti­tion is only effective short term. If you don’t act ap­pro­pri­ate­ly to keep newly-acquired fans, the range curve will drop sharply within a short time. Some experts even believe that this has a negative effect on the Facebook algorithm. If a single post stands out due to an unusually high level of user in­ter­ac­tion in relation to other posts, this will seem unnatural to the algorithm and could lead to the re­spec­tive page being de­val­u­at­ed. On the other hand, if you proceed strate­gi­cal­ly, you will achieve more and improve your presence on a long-term basis.

Do you run a retail store and are re­spon­si­ble for its marketing and as­so­ci­at­ed blog posts? You will go about it a different way, depending on what applies to you and what you’re aiming for. Different goals for or­ga­niz­ing a Facebook com­pe­ti­tion could include getting to know regular customers better, in­tro­duc­ing a product and arousing buying interest, or at­tract­ing more readers. Once a goal has been defined, you can work out other for­mal­i­ties more quickly such as the prize, the com­pe­ti­tion format and its analysis, and target group-specific ad­dress­ing. Here is what you can achieve with a Facebook com­pe­ti­tion:

• Attract attention and gain new fans
• Activate the community and improve in­ter­ac­tion
• Keep regular customers and gain new ones
• Generate leads (e.g. contact data)
• Introduce products and increase buying interest
• Strength­en branding
• Initiate user-generated content
• Conduct market research
• Receive feedback

It goes without saying that these goals interlock and lead to extra aims being fulfilled. For example, using your online store’s Facebook fan page helps you attract more prospec­tive customers, but at the same time also increases the potential turnover through purchases. If you use a Facebook com­pe­ti­tion to conduct market research, you will know what your customers want and you will be able to orientate your product range more ef­fec­tive­ly. Lead gen­er­a­tion, in turn, extends the pos­si­bil­i­ties for con­tact­ing potential buyers.

There are two basic forms of Facebook com­pe­ti­tions. You can either start one on the timeline of your fan page or use an app pro­grammed specif­i­cal­ly for Facebook contests. Both have ad­van­tages and dis­ad­van­tages. The main advantage of an app is its wide range of ap­pli­ca­tions. The com­pe­ti­tion isn’t made up of in­di­vid­ual posts, but is in­te­grat­ed into an in­di­vid­u­al­ly-designed user interface. The high amount of time and money required can be dis­ad­van­ta­geous.

A timeline com­pe­ti­tion is directly in­te­grat­ed into your Facebook profile page. The or­ga­niz­ers publish a post that calls for people to par­tic­i­pate as well as spec­i­fy­ing the terms and con­di­tions. Users have the usual basic Facebook functions at their disposal: They can either like the post or comment on it. Par­tic­i­pants answer a quiz question by com­ment­ing under the post. Users who have become aware of the company thanks to the com­pe­ti­tion, can get a link to their main page so that all the posts on it will appear in the user’s feed from now on. This can help the fan community grow.

To ensure that the article remains in sight, it is advisable to pin it to the timeline so that it stays at the top during the com­pe­ti­tion. The draw or an­nounce­ment will also take place in the timeline. Since it is not possible to send a message to private accounts from a public account, the winner will be notified in the timeline. After revealing the name, the winner will be asked to get in touch by private message and to leave their contact details to receive the prize. This means that in­ter­ac­tion pos­si­bil­i­ties are quite limited.

Timeline com­pe­ti­tions are easy to implement. Facebook posts are written quickly, and all Facebook users know the well-known functions of the social media platform so it’s easy for them to take part. It doesn’t cost the organizer any extra and doesn’t take much time to prepare, which is one of the ad­van­tages. A dis­ad­van­tage, on the other hand, are the limited design pos­si­bil­i­ties. An animated advent calendar or a col­or­ful­ly designed quiz, for example, isn’t possible. This is because the timeline’s design can’t be in­di­vid­u­al­ized, unlike in an app or on your own website.

Not every business objective can be fulfilled with a timeline com­pe­ti­tion. Since it’s difficult to collect user data this way, they aren’t suitable for lead gen­er­a­tion and only suitable for market research to a limited extent. What users think about the product range, for example, can only be asked within the framework of a survey or vote. Eval­u­at­ing numerous comments can also be rather cum­ber­some. In addition, there are a number of legal rules that need to be adhered to. This makes it difficult to conduct a legally compliant com­pe­ti­tion. For example, you’re not allowed to share the com­pe­ti­tion, which prevents it from going viral. A timeline com­pe­ti­tion on Facebook is therefore more suited to in­creas­ing the reach, en­cour­ag­ing fans to interact more, and gaining new ones.

An app com­pe­ti­tion that runs on Facebook? This does exist and has numerous ad­van­tages. However, this is not a Facebook app! The app must either be pro­grammed by you or bought as a finished ap­pli­ca­tion from a service provider. The app makes the most of the popular social media platform’s potential. As a rule, the apps are usually connected to the social media channel via Facebook’s API (ap­pli­ca­tion pro­gram­ming interface), but not to a Facebook profile page. The app can be used elsewhere, not just on the smart­phone. It is possible and also useful to have the app in­te­grat­ed into your own website, microsite, and landing page at the same time.

If you don’t have any pro­gram­ming skills or no app de­vel­op­ers on hand to help, it doesn’t mean you have to give up hope of or­ga­niz­ing an app com­pe­ti­tion. There are more and more agencies and software de­vel­op­ers who take over the pro­gram­ming for their customers. They either develop new apps com­plete­ly depending on the customer’s re­quire­ments or they provide app templates. With the latter, functions and design can usually be easily adapted to your own ideas using a modular system.

Whether a multi-part quiz or in­ter­ac­tive voting: The app enables the entire range of game formats to be used. Appealing designs can be im­ple­ment­ed and target group specific alignment is made a lot easier. Since an app is more expensive and time-consuming, the effort is par­tic­u­lar­ly worth­while when it comes to extensive ad­ver­tis­ing campaigns.

With an app, the functions are more versatile, which opens up further pos­si­bil­i­ties. Since it can po­ten­tial­ly offer more mul­ti­me­dia content and in­ter­ac­tiv­i­ty, the game theme is more pro­nounced. This increases the number of par­tic­i­pants as well as the success rate. An in­di­vid­ual design is also more appealing and cor­re­sponds to a company’s corporate identity. Some processes such as the scoring, notifying the winner, mon­i­tor­ing the success, and offering prizes can be automated. Other channels such as Twitter or Instagram can also be in­te­grat­ed to increase the reach.

More valuable customer data is collected as part of a Facebook com­pe­ti­tion. Features for col­lect­ing personal data can be in­te­grat­ed in various places. Par­tic­i­pants can subscribe to newslet­ters or fill in contact forms and ques­tion­naires. If you have set yourself the goal of gen­er­at­ing leads and con­duct­ing market research, you can do this much more easily with an app. The pre­req­ui­site for this is that the legal re­quire­ments for data pro­tec­tion are adhered to.

When it comes to Facebook com­pe­ti­tions, there are different forms of action that allow users to par­tic­i­pate. Different formats are available depending on the intention and target group. What they all have in common, however, is that they encourage Facebook users to become active in some way, and that a draw takes place after a certain deadline. If you want to collect user-generated content, a creative com­pe­ti­tion is a better idea than a quiz. Here are some examples of formats that are suitable for com­pe­ti­tions:

• Quiz questions
• Surveys
• Betting games
• Photo com­pe­ti­tions
• Per­son­al­i­ty tests
• Advents calendars
• Comments
• Voting
• Likes

Not all com­pe­ti­tions require a lot of effort and for a new website to be set up. An example of a suc­cess­ful Facebook com­pe­ti­tion was that of the company, Pura Vida Bracelets, which sells handmade bracelets online by artists from all over the world. It asked Facebook users to comment on the bracelets depicted in their posts. If the user indicated which piece of jewelry they liked best, they would qualify to par­tic­i­pate in the com­pe­ti­tion. Within a few hours, the fan page had more than a thousand comments. This meant that the company could find out which products from its range were es­pe­cial­ly popular, without having to spend a lot of money on market research.

There are clear rules when it comes to com­pe­ti­tions on Facebook and if they aren’t followed, it could lead to a de­val­u­a­tion or even account deletion in the worst case. You have to consider data pro­tec­tion as well, so it’s best to fa­mil­iar­ize yourself with the rules.

Is it allowed or not? Take a look at the Facebook guide­lines to be on the safe side. You can find them under Facebook Pages terms. The guide­lines are sometimes updated so it’s a good idea to check them each time you plan a new com­pe­ti­tion. There are quite a few re­stric­tions, but don’t let this deter you from pub­lish­ing your own contest. The reason for all these clauses is that Facebook wants to protect itself against liability for any illegal or unlawful contests.

The platform requires a dis­claimer to be included in every com­pe­ti­tion. This dis­claimer should contain the following points:

1. Facebook is exempt from any claims connected to the com­pe­ti­tion
2. It must be stated that the com­pe­ti­tion is in no way sponsored, endorsed, or as­so­ci­at­ed with Facebook

This means ad­di­tion­al text has to be added to the post, but adhering to these terms and adding the dis­claimer is the only way if you want to make sure you’re protected against all even­tu­al­i­ties.

The re­quire­ments also depend on the type of Facebook com­pe­ti­tion. Generally speaking, it is more com­pli­cat­ed to make a timeline com­pe­ti­tion legally secure. After all, it takes place directly on the social media platform and not as part of an external app. Here is an overview of the rules for timeline com­pe­ti­tions:

This means that it is ok to invite users to par­tic­i­pate in Facebook com­pe­ti­tions via likes, comments, or by posting photos. For example, the most beautiful photo or the comment with the most likes wins. This all takes place on the company’s profile, of course. It’s forbidden to write things such as 'Post about us on your profile!' or 'Write a post telling your friends to take part!'. In addition, sharing posts can’t be one of the con­di­tions for par­tic­i­pa­tion.

The legal situation for apps is even more com­pli­cat­ed. A number of things must be taken into account during de­vel­op­ment. Among other things, the Facebook platform guide­lines apply as well as the community standards and ad­ver­tis­ing guide­lines. These prohibit you from changing the basic Facebook functions. However, the app is less strict when it comes to other areas e.g. the share function and im­ple­ment­ing other forms of in­ter­ac­tion that can be used to collect data. However, it is necessary to give users the option to delete their data if they want to. The easiest way to go about it, is to buy a pre-developed app version that has already been tested for legal com­pli­ance.

When it comes to Facebook com­pe­ti­tions, it is important to consider other things besides the platform’s terms. Be on the safe side and clearly explain the rules of the com­pe­ti­tion. This not only serves for the purpose of trans­paren­cy, but is also required by law. Con­di­tions of par­tic­i­pa­tion must be clearly for­mu­lat­ed and clearly visible. 

For a legally-compliant com­pe­ti­tion, the entry re­quire­ments should include the following in­for­ma­tion as a minimum:

• In­for­ma­tion about the com­pe­ti­tion’s organizer 
• Par­tic­i­pa­tion re­quire­ments and eligible persons
• Timescale: duration, deadline, and draw date
• In­for­ma­tion on the prize
• In­for­ma­tion on how the winner is de­ter­mined
• In­for­ma­tion on how the winner will be notified

This ad­di­tion­al in­for­ma­tion can also be useful:

• What will happen if the winner doesn’t get in touch
• The right to modify or terminate the contest
• Stopping abuse
• The par­tic­i­pants’ dis­clo­sure rights

In addition, the phrase 'the or­ga­niz­ers’ decision is final' should not be forgotten. This means that the prize can’t be claimed in court.

In addition to the terms and con­di­tions, we also recommend that you adapt the privacy policy to the Facebook com­pe­ti­tion. This applies in par­tic­u­lar if you provide a contact form or a newslet­ter via an app function. The de­c­la­ra­tion provides in­for­ma­tion on how personal data is collected and processed.

Facebook dis­claimer, terms and con­di­tions, and privacy policy: these three could result in quite a bit of text. It makes little sense to post the complete set of rules at once. In the case of a timeline com­pe­ti­tion, these can be published in an extra post or placed in Facebook Notes. This is more legally secure that placing the text on your own website or landing page.

Sometimes Facebook needs to cancel the com­pe­ti­tion, for example, because a provoca­tive comment triggered a dis­cus­sion that quickly got out of hand. This is a horror scenario that rarely occurs, but cannot be com­plete­ly ruled out. Therefore, it’s important to know the possible risks. This way, it will be easier to decide whether this form of marketing is worth­while for you and what you can do in case this does happen.

Facebook com­pe­ti­tions are not safe from ma­nip­u­la­tion. Sometimes likes are bought to increase the chances of winning, but this is difficult to prove. Therefore, com­pe­ti­tions where the entry with the most likes wins, might not be the best option. Other possible vi­o­la­tions of the con­di­tions are also hard to spot. It is therefore advisable to focus on deterring those planning to do just this by adding a further clause to the terms for par­tic­i­pat­ing: 'Misuse and violation of the con­di­tions of par­tic­i­pa­tion will result in dis­qual­i­fi­ca­tion. The prize will be sub­se­quent­ly with­drawn'.

You can also protect yourself from fake accounts: Sometimes it helps to ex­plic­it­ly restrict par­tic­i­pa­tion to 'persons with unlimited legal capacity'. It is annoying when the winner doesn’t get in touch, but you can prevent this from happening by then having a second draw, or giving the prize to the second most popular comment. Not awarding the prize would damage the company’s image, and by having a second draw and ending the com­pe­ti­tion, this means that the winner can’t suddenly claim the prize months later. Another possible problem is 'com­pe­ti­tion tourists'. These users take part in numerous com­pe­ti­tions for the sole purpose of winning the prize, but at the same time, they con­tribute very little to the business ob­jec­tives. You should therefore make the campaign as concrete as possible and target a clearly defined group.

Trolls are always a risk on social media. You can report 'hate posts' and comments that cross the line to Facebook’s support service. The service then decides whether the post violates the guide­lines and deletes it if necessary. A good way to deal with trolls is to coun­ter­at­tack them factually.

A worst case scenario is when Facebook ter­mi­nates the com­pe­ti­tion or even deletes the account due to vi­o­la­tions. Regular checks are made to see whether companies are being compliant or not, es­pe­cial­ly when Facebook al­go­rithms detect unusually high activity. To make sure you don’t get any warnings or lawsuits filed against you, make sure you strictly adhere to the guide­lines and sort out any legal un­cer­tain­ties.

Implement a com­pe­ti­tion ef­fec­tive­ly and achieve your business goals: How this can be done is best il­lus­trat­ed by a fic­ti­tious example.

Whether you’re a small or medium-sized company or a blogger, everyone has different aims when it comes to Facebook com­pe­ti­tions. For example, a yoga school isn’t hoping for a large range that spans several towns, but is more likely on the lookout for new students for the school.

To reach potential new customers, the yoga school should know its exact target group. The campaign will only be suc­cess­ful if it is aimed at local residents who want to do something good for their general well-being and are open to trying out yoga. Depending on the courses offered, it might make sense to narrow down the target group even more precisely. If the weekend courses are not fully booked, for example, it would make sense to specif­i­cal­ly target working people and advertise an optimal work-life balance.

Different aspects have to be taken into account when adjusting to your target group: The type of prizes, terms and con­di­tions, as well as the wording and style. Is a friendly approach better than a formal one? Think about how to hit the right note. Ideally, com­mu­ni­ca­tion via Facebook is always on an equal footing. In addition, the image material should fit the target group.

The prize should be ap­pro­pri­ate. For example, the yoga school could offer mem­ber­ship for a month, discount for a beginner’s course, or a 10-entry card. This makes the target group happy and creates an incentive for them to try out the courses. However, existing customers might already enjoy the courses they’re taking and want to visit the school more fre­quent­ly. This way, a trial sub­scrip­tion can quickly turn into an annual mem­ber­ship. In contrast to giving yoga ac­ces­sories as prizes, this excludes par­tic­i­pants who aren’t in­ter­est­ed in attending a course or those who aren’t even located in the same area. Those in­ter­est­ed in the courses will find out about the schedules on Facebook due to the com­pe­ti­tion, even if they don’t win any of the prizes.

The prize doesn’t have to be huge. To increase the number of potential new customers, it makes sense to give away several smaller prizes instead, such as coupons or trial mem­ber­ships. However, the value of the prize also depends on how much effort the par­tic­i­pant has to put in. No-one will take part in a time consuming, multipart cre­ativ­i­ty contest for a few dollars’ discount, but they might for a free annual mem­ber­ship.

A Facebook com­pe­ti­tion needs to pay off. It is therefore important to draw up an ap­prox­i­mate cost-benefit cal­cu­la­tion. In addition to the prize, the working hours and cost of campaign ac­tiv­i­ties also play a role. The ROI (return on in­vest­ment) serves as a benchmark for a prof­itable ad­ver­tis­ing campaign. This indicator expresses the per­cent­age ratio between the money invested and the profit generated. Check how prof­itable the com­pe­ti­tion was af­ter­wards so that you can better estimate the necessary budget next time.

Here’s an example: The yoga school could give away 5 monthly mem­ber­ships worth $50. If it’s a timeline com­pe­ti­tion that doesn’t require much prepa­ra­tion, the labor costs may total $80. A multi-day Facebook ad placement ad­ver­tis­ing the com­pe­ti­tion may cost $140. This means that the yoga company has spent $470 on the campaign. If at least three of the par­tic­i­pants decide to buy a $600 annual mem­ber­ship within 2 months, the school will have made a profit of $1,330. On the other hand, it is more difficult to measure the reach achieved, since the effect sometimes occurs much later.

Once you’ve de­ter­mined the intention, target group, price, and budget, you just need to select a suitable format and ad­di­tion­al general terms and con­di­tions.

Whether it’s a photo com­pe­ti­tion or a quiz, the effort and level of dif­fi­cul­ty should be fair. In the case of the yoga school, it would be too easy to let users par­tic­i­pate by simply liking the page. A quiz on different styles of yoga appeals to just the right audience. Beginners should be able to answer the questions too. Hatha, Ashtanga, or Vinyasa yoga? It’s a good idea to refer to the yoga styles that your school offers.

In addition to the con­di­tions of par­tic­i­pa­tion, you should include the above-mentioned in­for­ma­tion on duration, prize, etc. The duration depends on the con­di­tions of par­tic­i­pa­tion. A simple quiz should not last more than two weeks. At the same time, ad­ver­tise­ments should be placed on Facebook to enable accurate targeting. In general, ac­com­pa­ny­ing ad­ver­tis­ing measures are helpful and increase the number of par­tic­i­pants.

The following table is intended to help you determine whether a Facebook com­pe­ti­tion is worth­while for you or whether another marketing campaign would be more suitable. The ad­van­tages and dis­ad­van­tages of the two types of contest are also compared. How relevant a point is, depends on the marketing goal.