Should you be running giveaways on Facebook?

So you’re looking for the magic answer to growing your social media following? Giveaways may seem like a pretty attractive way to get increase your follower count but are all they’re cracked up to be? Let’s drill down into all the reasons why you might be tempted to run a giveaway and talk through the pros and cons.

What are you trying to achieve with your giveaway?

Are you trying to grow your brand?  Yes giveaways may increase brand awareness

Are you trying to increase your follower numbers?  Yes giveaways may increase follower numbers

I see you nodding your head, sounds good right, so what is the problem? 

Are you trying to increase your sales or leads?  This is where we may run into some issues. People who love free stuff might not be your ideal customers, but so what right? Those increased follower numbers are just so appealing, and it’s not a huge deal to have dis-interested followers is it? Well this is where our old friend the algorithm pokes their ugly head

The problem with Facebook giveaways is that they often attract the wrong type of followers to your account.

And Facebook can tell that these new followers just aren’t that into what you’re putting down.  And this is a big problem. Facebook uses key metrics to figure out how interesting and relevant your posts are and then your reach is determined. If you attract a bunch of people who aren’t your tribe then you are likely over time to erode your potential reach. 

And it becomes a vicious cycle… your reach is decreased due to uninterested followers, so you panic and think “I need to run more giveaways!” which attracts more uninterested followers, and THEN your throw boosting your giveaway posts into the mix where you are now paying to attract more uninterested followers.   Sound familiar? 

Now is a good time to point out that Facebook giveaways may also impact your Facebook Advertising strategy…

Your Facebook page audience is a valuable warm audience that can be retargeted using Facebook Ads, and can be used as the source data to find more people who look like your followers (a lookalike audience). If you have diluted your follower count with giveaway junkies then you’ve potentially lost this valuable data source. 

A better strategy would be to take the cost of the giveaway - the free product, the time, any boosting and advertising costs - and consider running a Facebook engagement campaign that attracts your ideal customers.

And if it’s about rewarding your followers, why not send them off to your website to enter your giveaway there?

And if you’re going to run a promotion, giveaway or competition on Facebook, make sure you know the rules! That means no sharing, no tagging or any engagement bait!

It’s a violation of Facebook policy to ask people to share your giveaway posts or to promote engagement bait. I know, so many people do it… but whether they realise it or not they are putting their page at risk of being shut down and are experiencing a reduction in organic reach as a result of participating in engagement bait.

If you are going to run a giveaway on Facebook in 2021 you should follow the rules in this blog post and keep your page safe!

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