running a promotional contest?

[David Schuurman]

Hey guys and gals.

I have been thinking of doing a contest to drive more people to my facebook page and therefore create more awareness about my company. I have a piddly 88 likers on my page, and I think I could benefit from having a solid number of people I can spread information to.

So my question is, have you run a contest to get fb or twitter followers and what did you do/how did you pull it off? I was thinking of offering 50% off a certain package to 1 person randomly drawn from among the (hopefully) many who likes my page between x date and x date. Sounds like it could work but I'd like to hear your experiences first.

Thanks.
David

p.s.
feel free to like my page at DS Wedding Cinema | Facebook haha, or don't :)

[Chris Harding]

Hi David

My step son gave me an eBook a while ago and the golden rules according to the author was "Always give away something free on your site" and " give specials/competitions a time restraint"

I would seriously change the conditions a little and offer the 50% off to anyone who has "liked" your page AND has booked a wedding with you...so "like my page" then book your wedding (and pay the deposit) and you will go into the draw and COULD have your wedding at half price.

I can go to your page and click "like" but that doesn't really help you cos I'm not getting married!!!

Just my thoughts!!!

Chris

[Jeff Brewer]

I tried it and failed miserably. You would be surprised the lack of interest in free things. Also, I found it particularly hard to spread the word with such a small initial following. To be honest I only had about 4 people interested in the contest.

If you are going to try it, definitely go the free route and find a way to get the word out. I used friends, facebook, twitter, word of mouth, and still considered mine a complete failure.

The best way to get more likes, in my opinion, is to post your work on facebook and absolutely get permission to friend your clients. You would be surprised with the amount of buzz clients will give you and even take the time to tag you in their posts. Beyond that, people need to want something that you have. If you offer up interesting blog/facebook posts about wedding decor, trends, centerpieces, etc., then you have given brides and wedding lovers a reason to like your page. Clients don't care about what you want, always remember that.

Best of luck!

[Jawad Mir]

There are two things that you can do on facebook that will attract people.

#1. Start conversing on facebook more not about what you do but anything and then here. Trust me News Feed helps a lot

#2. Instead of doing a constant. Do something viral. If there is something you are going to be editing, creating a teaser poster and tease people or some project that is down the road, do a viral campgain by monthly post that gives something away about it.

In my personal opinion, the people who come for freebies or promotions are the people who will give you most problem and ask for the most.

My two cents. Hope that helps


Jawad

[Long Truong]

Promotional contests would most likely not work for a few reasons:
- people who already follow you on facebook and are interested in your prize will keep it for themselves and not share it with others to get higher chance of winning
- people who don't know about you will not know that you're running a contest
- some people simply join your facebook group to support you or by curiosity about your work, it doesn't mean they are getting married soon and need your prize


Somehow, there are some pretty good ideas & suggestions here.

1) Adding your clients as friends on facebook/twitter and interact with them
2) Take a few seconds during weddings to snap a few pictures of interesting things of funny stuff that happened and tweet about it or post it on facebook, then tag your clients
3) Take a bit of time after the wedding to post a little teaser and create a hype for your clients and their friends
4) Talk to other vendors that were at the same weddings you covered and add them on facebook/twitter.
5) Whenever you post something related to a wedding that you worked with other vendors, tag them as well. (i.e: if your work shows how nice the decorations were, try to tag the decorator in your post)

the goal here is to get people who were involved in your past weddings to join your group because they can't wait to see the result of your work

[David Schuurman]

Dang you guys offer some great advice! Makes me totally rethink this contest idea. I think you're right about friending couples on FB, but can you friend couples to only your page or something like that because I dont really want all my couples to be my personal friends on facebook necessarily. Can you guys link me to your FB pages so I can see how you go about it?

[Jawad Mir]

Although I understand your logic of keep friends different from fans,I would suggest add them as friends as well and post your work on your profile and page. The reason is simple. People tend to read more News Feed of Individuals than on Pages. Here is my profile and page

Jawad Mir | Facebook

Film Style Weddings - Wedding Cinematography + Photography | Facebook

Let me know if you have questions

[Long Truong]

That's a pretty solid portfolio Jawad! Mississauga & Brampton must be a great market for the clients you cater. I've covered 2 indian weddings before and really like the culture and all the colors.

I also agree with adding clients to your personal profile. Although I know some people want to separate their professional and personal profile, I actually don't mind letting my clients know more about me. I think it's a good way to connect with them and break the vendor-client barrier. I've built some good friendship with some of my clients and it's a great thing for the business too.

[David Schuurman]

I suppose you're right, I really do like getting more personal with my clients. Do you guys bring it up in a meeting? do you add them? do they add you?

[Jawad Mir]

Long,
Thanks for kind words.

You know that's what everyone thinks. Least amount of our couples are from brampton/mississauga. We are pretty much all over GTA and doing quite a bit of Destination stuff in Canada and outside as well.

For us, it grinds down to compatibility. We have to get to know the couple, feel the vibe, know their story and have them get to know us. There have been quite a times when couples really want to book us but the vibe is not there. Those times we just nicely say, "we don't think it will work out"

David,
To us it's important to get to know them at a personal level. And majority couples want that too.

We don't normally ask them about facebook. Most of them are on anyways and when we can't find them, we ask them as they may be hidden. It's also good idea to become friends with those who don't end up hiring you but meet you. After all they have friends and trust me it works. After being on facebook for almost a year and without any advertisement, we have attracted almost 2000 likes. And that's all due to tagging and being participative on facebook as an individual. And 30% of our business comes through facebook and the rest 70% through word of mouth.

Hope that answers your question


Jawad