What are creative and fun ways to promote a Facebook fan page?

One of the best ways to promote your Facebook Page is to run a contest. This will help get people sharing about your Page and get you new Page Likes and leads. Here is a simple 5-step guide on http://corp.wishpond.com/how-to-run-a-facebook-contest/: 1. Choose a Prize and Entry Method The prize is the most important piece of your contest. It’s what entices people to enter. Make the prize something relevant to your business. A great prize is a gift card for your business. Why? Two reasons: 1. A gift card is enticing to all of your potential customers – it’s the prize that is the most enticing to the largest group of people. If you give away a certain product or service, you will only get entries from people interested in that specific product. With a gift card though, you will attract entries from those who are interested in the products you sell. 2. It will only attract people who are interested in your products, which is what you want! If you give away an ipad you will get a ton of entries, but those people will only be interested in ipads, not your products. This will make it almost impossible to convert these users into actual sales for your business. Giving away a gift card ensures that entrants have an interest in your products, which makes it easy to convert them into sales. Next, decide what do users have to do to enter. Do they need to submit a photo? Or just enter their email address? What you ask for at the time of entry depends on your goals. Here are 3 entry methods to consider: 1. Contact Details: This method requires people to enter their email address, name, phone number, etc. to enter. For this method you should ask for the smallest amount of data you need to be able to contact entrants with follow-up emails to convert them into sales. 2. Contact Details + User-generated content: This method allows you to ask users to enter photos, videos and text to enter. It provides you with great user-generated content to use in future marketing, and allows you run contests in which users vote on their favorite entries to win. 3. Contact Details + Friend Referral: To boost entries you can require people to refer “X” number of friends to the contest for their entry to count. This is a great way to boost entries and sharing. 2. Build your Contest Page The contest entry page needs to be simple and exciting. It must get people excited about the contest and prize, and make it easy to enter. Here are the 5 elements of an entry page for a contest on Facebook: 1. Attention-Grabbing Title: A short title phrased as a call-to-action is the best way to maximize entries. For examples, “Enter to Win a $50 Gift Card from Diamond Candles!” is both simple and informative – it tells visitors what they can do on this page, what the prize is and who is running the contest. It contains the essential information a person needs to feel informed enough to enter the contest. 2. Graphic of Your Prize: An image of your prize is a great way to entice people to want to win it. If you’re giving away a gift card (recommended), include an image with the gift card value in text and a product that people can buy with the gift card. 3. Entry & Prizing Info: Include a short paragraph with info about the prize, how to enter and any rules or restrictions for your contest. You can easily add a link to an outside rules & restrictions page using our HTML Text Editor to keep from overcrowding your contest page. 4. Entry Submission Form: An entry form for a Facebook contest consists of an email address signup box and an “Enter Sweepstakes” button. For contests that require entrants to submit photos, videos or text entries, it can include a file upload field or text area. It can also include custom fields like city, age, etc. to capture more personal details. 5. Share Buttons & Facebook Comments: Make it easy for entrants to share your contest with friends by including share buttons directly on the contest page. Wishpond’s Facebook Contest Apps includes built-in Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest share buttons. They also include Facebook Comments to boost interaction on the contest page. 3. Promote & Share your Contest With your contest set up, it’s time to promote it. There will be organic growth from entrants sharing with friends, but you will need a few promotional boosts in the beginning to create the initial seed. Here are 5 methods to promote your contest: 1. Send an email blast: Email your customer email lists – they will be the most likely to enter and share with friends to help jump-start your contest. 2. Promote your contest on social networks: Share on Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ and anywhere else you have a social presence. This is a great way to introduce users from other networks to your Facebook Page and get them hooked more into your brand. 3. Add a banner on your website home page: If you’re an online business, you get the most traffic to your website, not your social network accounts. Capitalize on this traffic by including a banner on your homepage that links to your contest entry page. 4. Create a Facebook Ad:This is a great way to reach new customers outside of your current community. These ads can be very targeted to reach your demographic. 5. List your Contest on popular contesting websites: There are a ton of contesting websites that allow for free submissions. These are a great way to get access to new communities of customers. Check out our http://blog.wishpond.com/post/46349143988/websites-to-host-contest-business. 4. Monitor your Contest Depending on your contest goals, you may be interested in tracking entries, shares or new Fans. Here are 3 methods for monitor metrics of your Facebook contest: 1. Facebook Page Insights: These will allow you to track the number of shares, likes and comments your contests posts receive, and the number of new Fans your Page received during the run of your contest. 2. Google Alerts: Set up Google Alerts to monitor mentions of your contest across the entire web. 3. Wishpond Campaign Reporting: Wishpond’s Facebook Contest Apps includes real-time campaign reporting, which allows you to track view, entries and bounce rates in real-time. This allows you to update your contest in real-time as it is running. 5. Post-Contest Follow-up & Promotion Even after your contest is over, you can use it to promote your Facebook Page further. Here are a few suggestions on how to leverage your contest and keep your entrants engaged with your business: 1. Profile winner(s) on your blog and share on Facebook and other social networks. 2. Create a video showing you choosing the winner to create excitement. 3. Send a follow-up email to contest entrants to convert them into sales. 4. Share your plans for future contests on Facebook to keep your followers hooked. All of these activities keep the momentum going and will prime followers for future posts from your Facebook Page. Pro Tip: Create a custom cover photo on your Facebook Page promoting your contest, with an arrow pointing down to the Page Tab to enter. See how Qwertee did this below:

Add like button to your website or blog Publish  the like button on your website or blog so that it can be  clearly  visible to your visitors. You can even add Facebook social  plug-in so  that it displays the latest posts from your page directly on  your  website or blog. This will make it quite easy for your visitors to  like  your page. However, the number of potential likes you might get  this  way depends on the number of your daily visitors. Add link as a part of your signature This  is a great way to promote your page for free. You can add URL of  your  page in the end of the message in your newsletters. There are  blogs and  forums that allow you to post links as part of your signature,  so you  can use this to put the URL of your Facebook page. Ask people to like Since  you obviously have a personal Facebook account you used for  creating  your Facebook page, you can ask your friends to like by  clicking  “Invite friends” button. In addition, you can ask your friends  (or  employees) to like and to invite their friends. It’s a good way to   gather some new likes in this way, especially when you have just  started  your Facebook page. Organize an online promotion Online  promotions are an excellent way for engaging your fans and for   reaching more people. Furthermore, you will increase the number of   likes and promote your page on Facebook. It is well-know that the  number  one reason people like brands on Facebook, is to get access to   promotional offers and special discounts. This information can be used   to get additional likes which will spread the word about your Facebook   page. Depending on the type of activity you are involved in, you can   organize contests, sweepstakes, giveaways, or offer discount by   distributing coupons. These are all http://www.hisocial.com/blog/en/how-to-increase-engagement-using-social-promotion/?preview=true your existing fans and consequently attract the new ones. Promote with ads Another way to promote your Facebook page could be with online ads, such as http://www.hisocial.com/blog/en/how-to-advertise-on-facebook/?preview=true with Facebook ads, or using Google AdWords. These are effective   campaigns that can help you reach more people, especially as they  enable  you to target the audience and to pay per click, so you will  only be  charged after people click on your ads. Although this method  may be more  costly than the previous ones, it may have very good  results. It is  important to monitor your campaign along the way, and  see if there are  some aspects you could improve. Read more here: http://www.hisocial.com/blog/en/how-to-promote-your-facebook-page/