Hack of the Day: Hold a Facebook Contest

How many views do you get on a Facebook post?

As I was browsing Facebook yesterday, I saw that a friend of mine had shared a post about a jazz vocalist (Diana Krall) coming to the Embassy Therater in Fort Wayne, Indiana where I live.  

The post was published on Friday afternoon and said that they would be giving away two free tickets on Monday. To get a chance to win the tickets, all I had to do was to like, comment, and share the post about the ticket giveaway - which I did.

As Facebook is constantly changing their algorithms, it has become extremely difficult for businesses to have their post seen by their followers.  In the early days, this really wasn't a problem, but as Facebook has evolved they are essentially making businesses pay to use their platform.

The challenge is that when a business posts something on their wall, it will only be seen by a very small percentage of their followers - unless the post proves to be popular with those that initially see it.

When a post is shared, commented on, or liked, two things happen - 1) Facebook’s algorithm views this as a popular post and let’s more followers see the post and 2) the friends of the person who shares the post also see it.  Basically, there is an exponential fact of how many people see the original post.

One marketing hack is to offer a simple giveaway where those who take action on a post are entered into a drawing.  The additional views a business can get from running a contest where followers like, share, or comment, can be much more effective and cheaper than running paid ads.

ACTION ITEM: Try conducting a Facebook contest and see what kind of traffic that post generates.