Do you regularly run Facebook Competitions in an attempt to build your Facebook Page? We’ve researched four of the most common mistakes that businesses accidentally do when running social media competitions. 1. Do you run competitions in the hopes of gaining more website leads? More online sales? Traffic? To sell more of your own products or services to more people? Facebook Competitions (such as those where entrants need to like and share your post/page to win) have the potential to get a lot of interest, but not all of your page or post likers will become potential sales! Competitions don’t foster customer loyalty or potential customers. Most of the people who like your page will like your page for the competition duration and then go, reducing the reach of your future posts. 2. Like and share campaigns are a form of poor-quality advertising. Sharing (and paying to boost) competitions on Facebook fill people’s feeds with ads that users haven’t asked to see, or are of little relevance to them. Just like getting junk mail in your mailbox everyday. For some users, this type of advertising has the potential to turn people away from your brand and from their friends who share it. Let’s be honest, we all have that one friend who shares every competition on Facebook, even the fake holiday competitions! 3. “But people still like and share my competitions and I’m getting really good engagement…”. Yes, but that can come at a cost. Are those engagements turning into sales or website leads? Interaction on your page is great but unless your converting that engagement in sales, is it really worth it? Also, remember that for every person who shares your competition, there is at least one (if not more) person who is hiding your posts! People hiding your posts has a very negative impact on your future reach and makes your future “boosted” posts less worthwhile. 4. Finally, like and share competitions are actually in breach of Facebook’s terms and conditions. By breaking the rules, you could be putting your Facebook Page at risk of being closed down permanently. You can read more about the types of competitions you can run, here.So next time you run a like and share competition on Facebook, remember that you need to focus on achieving a goal that will help you with ongoing and future business goals, and attract new customer and clients. Why don’t you try using some of our recommended competition tips (below) to gain some authentic page likers that are relevant to your business goals in a really fun way. We recommend running competitions that:

• Ask your customers to enter by commenting on what their favourite product and/or service is within your business;
• Ask your customers to enter by telling you something that they love about Tasmania, or by guessing the rest of the lyrics to a specific song;
• Boost engagement organically by encouraging your customers to comment on your post (which makes your post appear in other people’s newsfeed – similarly to what a “share” would do, except in a way that is within Facebook’s terms and conditions).

Until next month, The Island Creative Crew