The 5 Reasons Why This Facebook Contest Worked

In preparation for the launch of Learnivore Local in the Boston area, we decided to donate up to $1000 each to key non-profit organizations in the local community that share our artistic, athletic, and educational vision. Why? Because Learnivore Local is not just about the inspiration and excitement that comes from seeing the new educators, classes, and ideas that pop up on your Learnivore activity feed, but showing our own commitment to the local organizations that provide tools and guidance every day for those that need it most. 

A thousand dollars is a lot of money, especially if you aren't collecting emails, establishing leads or soliciting page likes, and yet a campaign to generate awareness and positive brand association can make quite an impression when it's done right. Then again, no one does it right the first time. Here are the 5 biggest adjustments we had to make to ensure the success of our Facebook photo contest with Urbanity Dance in Boston (when others before it had failed). 

1. Ask participants to enter in the comments section of the contest post.

We wanted to track our first contest via hashtag. You may even remember it: #CutestLearnivore. The problem with hashtags is that, due to privacy restrictions, it is impossible to accurately track contest participation. If participants are posting on their own timelines, then you often will see them only if you are "friends". We then asked people to share to our Facebook page, but even that presented a management issue and could quickly get spammy, so we kept it easy. Anyone could share in the comments section of the contest post; in this way they'd see the other contributions and could invite others to come and "like" their picture so that they could have a chance at the $100 prize. This is was the first step in our successful campaign with Boston's Urbanity Dance.

2. Include a related prize

No matter how you choose your winner (a raffle based on participation, rewarding engagement, an algorithm more complex than the one Facebook uses to keep your audience from seeing your posts, etc.), the prize is important. We decided on $100 to keep it simple, but partnering with an athletics store to give high-end soccer gear to the winner of a soccer photo contest or offering camera equipment in a photography contest can be a meaningful motivator for the type of audience you're targeting. Then again, the prize matters a lot less if you do an effective job with reasons #4 and #5.

3. Use Facebook boosting

Yeah, Facebook hates you unless you show them the money. According to this article in Time, only 6% of your audience will actually see your post. Which means that if you aren't paying the money, then basically no one sees what you're sharing and your contest is an immediate failure. So you have to boost (or rely on other ways to get in touch with your network) and you have to be smart about it.

In our case, we did a more targeted boost toward Facebook users that "like" certain related events and organizations. More importantly, we paid for Urbanity Dance to boost the contest post to their audience of dancers, instructors, and students as well. To mobilize your Facebook fan base, you've got to reach them first! 

4. Buy-in

Plain and simple, this is the most important part of making a photo contest based on donations work. If you are supporting an organization by giving them up to $1000, then they've got to do more than put up one social media post and hope for the best. Even if you're boosting the post, giving clear directions on how to enter, and offering a worthy prize, your contest could be a dud. In our situation at Learnivore, we'd tried working with organizations before and for whatever reason (conflict with promoting other events, donation fatigue, lack of communication, etc.) the contests did not reach the $1000 threshold.

How did Urbanity Dance, a small collective of dancers and educators, make our #PictureofaLearnivore contest work? It was simple. Buy-in. They "seeded the jar" with 15-20 associates of the organization; not previous donors, but the people who dance for them and teach for them and have a true every-day investment in them. The organizations shared pictures of their own as examples of what they were looking for. They asked their influencers to not just share pictures, but to share the post, tag others, and get the community involved. From there, the ball got rolling. 

5. Community, not competition

Which brings me to my last point. It's a point I've belabored elsewhere and it's one that truly has bearing when it comes to contests like this one. While a prize can be a powerful motivator to do something, a contest that perpetuates a sense of belonging within a community is on another level. So many organizations have strong missions, hard-working staff, and rewarding involvement in the lives of others, and yet their Facebook timelines are a collection of event notifications, articles, and one-sided conversation.

A picture contest is an incredible way for a Facebook user to not only open up meaningful conversation with an organization that has made a difference in their lives, but it allows them to show off something about themselves that they love and identify with. You need to only look at the hundreds of beautiful pictures that were posted in the Urbanity Dance contest to see why this worked. It was a chance to show off how that organization has affected them, but just as crucial was a chance to show off the role that dance has played in their lives. As the contest winner told us,

This was a great way to fundraise for Urbanity and get the Boston dance community to come together a little more.

No matter the donation, it's amazing to see that the result is a stronger sense of community.

*****

As the summer progresses, Learnivore will be officially launching Learnivore Local (along with a number of other site upgrades) in cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Washington DC, and Austin. We'll be researching local non-profits that make a significant impact in their communities and reaching out as part of our campaign. If you know an NPO that could use a $1000 donation, is looking to engage their audience in a meaningful way, and would be able to take the steps that Urbanity did to make their contest a success, then shoot me a message her on Linkedin. I'd love to see how we could help!