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Understanding the Rules of Engagement and Developing the Right Strategic Approach

If your brand has a Facebook page, chances are you’ve executed or thought about executing a social promotion (contest, sweepstakes, etc.).  Perhaps you are trying to engage your target audience to get feedback from current fans on existing products, promote new products, generate media attention, or drive sales.

The variety of ways brands can execute promotions on Facebook to achieve marketing success are endless, and the most innovative brands are having a lot of fun finding new ways to skin this cat. Before we dive into tactics, we need to talk strategy. Brands that have piqued fan interest through Facebook promotions have typically done so by developing a sound strategy tied to clearly defined goals.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll describe each approach in more detail including case studies, but here is a roadmap of where we are heading:

A couple of housekeeping items to consider:

+ Sweepstakes and contests are not the same. In a sweeps, the participant does not have to prove a skillset.  All participants have the same chance of winning. In a contest, winners are selected based on skill set, number of votes, etc.

+ Follow the rules. Facebook has strict rules about contests, and the rules change frequently.  Before initiating any contest, researching current rules is imperative. Currently, a general rule of thumb is that a brand can’t turn the use of an inherent feature (i.e. voting on a favorite photo by using the “Like” button) into an “incentive” behavior for which a reward is given to in return for the action.

For information on current rules regarding Facebook promotions, visit: https://www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php

The level of fan involvement is extremely important when determining how the Facebook promotion functions and how people engage. The higher the barrier to entry  – i.e., the amount of work involved on behalf of the participant — the more engaged the fan needs to be with the brand. Less engaged fans are likely to leave the experience if the level of involvement exceeds their interest. Determining the engagement level of your fan base should be analyzed during the development of the initial strategy in order to understand if the goal of the promotion is matched appropriately to level of interaction expected of by fans.

A simple way to measure engagement is by analyzing your brand’s analytics using Facebook Insights:

+ Users: Daily, weekly and monthly active users and their content consumption on your page.

+ Interactions: Daily post “Likes”, comments and the page activity.

+ People talking about your brand: Posting about your brand, liking your new postings, commenting on your postings, recommending it to friends and creating page reach.

Aligning fan engagement with your objectives is the first step. Once you’ve accomplished this, you’ll be able to select the appropriate promotion approach.

Next up: Diving into Brand Goal #1 “Awareness”

Gabriela Head is a Strategy Planner at [wire] stone. Contributors: Luke Quanstrom, Zach Melchiori

Tags: technology

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