There is no denying that running competitions on social media are a great way to get some extra attention to your pages and get some extra followers. The one best way to get Entrants to your Facebook and Instagram competitions is to make them easy to enter. 

There are a large number of competitions you can run, and depending on what your goal is, will depend on the best type of competition to run.
Today I am focusing on the best way to get entrants to your Facebook and Instagram competition, particularly when you are just starting out. You don’t want to hold a competition and only have one person enter it, because let’s face it that can be quire embarrassing.
If you have hundreds of thousands of followers, chances are you will get entrants no matter what type of structure you use. If however, you are running a competition to help you reach your first 100 likes or followers, it is important to plan your competition to ensure you get as many entrants as possible.

The best way to get entrants to your Facebook and Instagram competition is to make the competition easy to enter.
Some things that it is important to consider when planning a competition and trying to get a large amount of entrants include the following:
1. People are time poor; If a competition takes more than a minute to enter, you will likely lose some entrants. The longer the competition takes to enter, the more entrants you will lose because of this factor.
2. People care about what their page looks like; some won’t want to share things onto their page as their page has a specific style. No matter how gorgeous your photo is, some people still won’t share it.
3. You want to reach as many people as possible; the aim of the competition is probably increased exposure and to gain followers, thus you want to.
4. You want to make it easy to enter. If you make it too complicated, those who aren’t overly social media savvy may simply find it too hard to enter, so again making it easy ensures every can enter.

Competition Structure
Structuring your competition so it is easy and quick to enter is one of the best ways to get entrants to your Facebook and Instagram Competition.
Based on the above considerations, I would recommend that you structure your competition as a simple like the image, be following/ like our page and tag a (insert target audience) to enter.
For example, I ask people to tag other small business owners to enter as my prizes are targeted at small business owners.
I also offer them as many entries as they want by tagging additional people, with each tag giving them one extra entry. This means that you are getting a greater reach, as every tagged person will then see the post and often enter themselves. Having large volumes of people tagged is another one of the best ways to get entrants to your Facebook and Instagram Competition.
Loop competitions with other companies mean that you gain greater exposure, but they are very time consuming to enter, which may turn people off entering. Also, a large amount of businesses won’t want you in their Loop unless you have a certain number of followers. This makes it very difficult when you are just starting out.

Competition Promotion
When I am promoting the competition, I always make sure that it is super easy to still enter. Don’t direct people back to your page to find another image that they can enter on. This will lose a large number of people as it is too much time and effort for them. Why not just let them enter by liking and tagging someone on the most recently posted image? This makes it easier for them to enter and means it will take less time for them to enter (two things that are really important). Allowing people to enter the competition from every post about the competition again is one of the best ways to get entrants to your Facebook and Instagram competition.

Even if a competition is running on both Facebook and Instagram, I never make them like both pages to be in the competition. This again will mean that some people who are time poor will simply not bother entering at all. Definitely direct them to your other page and let them know they can gain some more entries (and chances to win) if they enter on the other page. Not forcing people to enter on both Facebook and Instagram will help increase the number of entrants you have to your competition.

Another important thing to consider when promoting your competition is be sure to share information about it (and that you are having it) with members of any relevant groups that you are a part of on Facebook. If it only takes a moment to enter, the more people you reach the more that are likely to enter. Share the competition wherever you can, the more people that know about it, the more that are likely to enter (particularly if it is easy to enter). Sharing the competition in as many locations as possible is possibly one of the best ways to get entrants to your Facebook and Instagram competition.

Having an easy to enter competition means that you are more likely to get more entrants and have a ‘successful’ competition. This way, you can have an amazingly successful competition without having to rely on others for its success. This is from our experience, the best way to get entrants to your Facebook and Instagram competition when you are just starting out. Anyone can run a competition with this structure with a large amount of ease.
Good luck for your next competition and be sure to let us know when you are running it so that we can share it for you on our social media pages.

CJ

Small Biz Shout

Supporting Small Business

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