Facebook Competition Advice

[baycrazy]

Hi,

To try and boost Facebook followers, I've written a competition app:
http://apps.facebook.com/baycrazycompetition/

But, despite advertising it to our 3,400 current followers (of which Facebook told me 1,400 were 'reached'), and also advertising it to my 100 or so real life friends and family, only 48 people have entered, anyone got an ideas why the competition is flopping so badly?
I'd thought it the prize was decent enough, and I think that the app is fairly robust (the only issue being if people have 3rd party cookies off, but I thought I'd programmed around that reasonably).

Any suggestions?

[Ted S]

I can't see any possible benefit to your business running a promotion like this but that's not what you asked so here's some very direct thoughts. These aren't meant to insult but rather paint the picture of what I see as someone who doesn't know you or what you do but just has a link:

Essentially you've got 3 barriers to entry with just about 0 reasons to escape them.

The first thing I see on your app is a requirement to give it all sorts of permissions including wall access, that's a big block and something that any "new" visitor will have to pass before they even know what you're offering.

Next if I make it through that I have to like your page. Why? I don't know what your page is even about and back to my first point, if I do click it it's to win that iPad, and I will never respond to anything other than another giveaway thus killing your EdgeRank and turning that 1,400 out of 3,600 into 140 out of 3,600.

Finally I have no trust. You've explained nothing, the creative is ok but not amazing and there's a thousand free iPad giveaways out there on any given day. Why would I do all of this for yours?

But most of all I suspect it's distribution. Your friends are probably not eligible to enter your contest [friends never are], your fans don't follow you for an iPad and there's nothing inherently viral about the system at all. No game to play, not even a post to a wall or share button. You need distribution for a giveaway to hook and ideally not just giveaway sites.

[EastCoast]

I went to go and look at your app but bounced on arrival, the instance you put a 'allow this app access to loads of private info' notice and in particular 'allow posts to timeline' you are going to switch off large amounts of followers, who are becoming more sceptical and resistant to facebook privacy and spam issues. If you can't even see what the proposition is without clicking through such a notice, then the bounce rate will be horrific.

I ran a competition recently on a fb page with about 5000 followers and got over 1000 entries, by keeping it simple, no barriers to entry, quick to complete (guess a number from a picture). Reach was actually 2x higher than the fan count (which would seem impossible but there it is). Your reach count is a fairly typical proportion, but by getting low interaction chances are you may affect future interaction and edge rank negatively.

[Shyflower]

I agree with both Ted S and EastCoast, mostly because they are far more schooled in apps than I am. However, I took a look and it killed me at first look when it asked for my email. Why? If I take a look and decide to enter your competition, you have a valid reason for needing my email, but not before I decide to enter.

[baycrazy]

Hmm, this is difficult, the App needs to know if you like the page, if you do, it can let you enter, and then to enter, it needs your email address, which I suppose could be any email address you want, but pre-filling it with the facebook email address reduces friction.
I've dropped the request to post to the wall, and adjusted the first page so that it does not require you approve the app before you see it at all.
EastCoast, you said you had a 'guess a number from a picture', what do you mean by this?
The reach issue comes down to friends of fans seeing your post I believe.
I can't believe there are many of our users who would turn down a free iPod or Kindle, the hope was that our users would enter, their friends would then enter (as the fans get an extra entry for their friends entering), and this leading to great reach (as our fans friends are likely to be similar to our fans).

[Ted S]

I can't believe there are many of our users who would turn down a free iPod or Kindle, the hope was that our users would enter, their friends would then enter (as the fans get an extra entry for their friends entering), and this leading to great reach (as our fans friends are likely to be similar to our fans).

I didn't see anything indicating I'd get a free anything but simply that, in exchange for getting your marketing, I'd be entered with hundreds if not thousands of others to win one. Nothing to indicate I've got a good shot, to make me feel more comfortable with your business or to standout. There are people who like contests, there's entire forums of them in fact, but for the most part if the person doesn't know you it's just another random giveaway that logic says I won't win.

As for sharing again you have to think from the user's site... Even if I believe you enough to enter it's an entirely different thing to essentially spam my friends. Even posting to a wall / tweeting is becoming rare as people realize their own role in social networks.

If you want more people to enter go to the contest sites, cough up a few bucks for a featured spot and you'll generate 2-3,000 entries in a few weeks. But again I'll pose the question: what's the possible benefit to you or relevance to the participant?

[EastCoast]

EastCoast, you said you had a 'guess a number from a picture', what do you mean by this?

It was pretty simple, the page is for a music event, we had a picture of a room full of shelves of records, and then asked people to guess how many records were in the picture.

[EastCoast]

The prize was 4 tickets to the event (worth about £400) so the prize had a connection with the page audience, and also -wasn't- generically desirable outside our intended audience (tickets only collectable at the event, and not transferrable). We didn't want hit and run interaction from people not really interested, or inflated numbers of fans that are not engaged with the event, it's not a worthwhile long term strategy.

[Renus]

I can't see any possible benefit to your business running a promotion like this but that's not what you asked so here's some very direct thoughts. These aren't meant to insult but rather paint the picture of what I see as someone who doesn't know you or what you do but just has a link:

Essentially you've got 3 barriers to entry with just about 0 reasons to escape them.

The first thing I see on your app is a requirement to give it all sorts of permissions including wall access, that's a big block and something that any "new" visitor will have to pass before they even know what you're offering.

Next if I make it through that I have to like your page. Why? I don't know what your page is even about and back to my first point, if I do click it it's to win that iPad, and I will never respond to anything other than another giveaway thus killing your EdgeRank and turning that 1,400 out of 3,600 into 140 out of 3,600.

Finally I have no trust. You've explained nothing, the creative is ok but not amazing and there's a thousand free iPad giveaways out there on any given day. Why would I do all of this for yours?

But most of all I suspect it's distribution. Your friends are probably not eligible to enter your contest [friends never are], your fans don't follow you for an iPad and there's nothing inherently viral about the system at all. No game to play, not even a post to a wall or share button. You need distribution for a giveaway to hook and ideally not just giveaway sites.

I agree with your advice.

[EastCoast]

Now that you can pay to promote posts on facebook pages, there is a financially harmful side to artificially inflating fan numbers - you'll pay extra to promote to the larger number of 'fans' than you would have otherwise, yet you'll get less in return as the majority of these fans aren't really interested.