Am I the only one whose feed has filled up with giveaways recently? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining, I love a good giveaway and I love seeing so many small businesses get that engagement and reach boost. That’s the point really – to get more people excited about your products or services. Unfortunately, I’m also seeing a load of small businesses run giveaways and either not getting those results or (worse) breaking the rules and risking a social media ban! So here are a few things I want you to remember for your next giveaway
A giveaway is not a raffle!
I totally understand why running a raffle sounds tempting – if enough people enter, you won’t be making a loss. But they aren’t allowed. If people need to pay to enter, it’s considered a form of gambling and isn’t allowed. That means no raffles, no lotteries and no hiding the prize behind a paywall. A giveaway must be free to enter for anyone.
Give people enough time to find you
When you’re deciding on your giveaway closing date (which should be included in your post), you want to give people enough time to find you without making it drag on for those who find it instantly. I find that a week works well.
Promote your giveaway while it’s open
Running your giveaway for a week also gives you time to create one or two posts promoting the giveaway. This could be showing the benefits of the prize, sharing a testimonial from someone who’s enjoyed the prize in the past, or even sharing what you personally love about the product. The goal is to get people feeling like they need the prize and then you can direct them to your giveaway.
Make it obvious how to win
I say free for everyone, but you can limit entries based on age or country. If your giveaway is only open to UK Residents over the age of 18, that needs to be obvious in your post. You also need to remember to include the steps involved to enter.
What’s your goal?
There are many ways people could enter your giveaway – but what’s your goal? Are you trying to boost reach or engagement? Or are you trying to promote an incoming product or service? What would you like the non-winners to do next? Your goal doesn’t have to be in your post, but it’s good to have in mind when deciding on the entry requirements.
A common Facebook mistake
I see this one a lot because it’s a fairly new rule that they forgot to tell anyone about. In regulation terms: “Personal Timelines and friend connections must not be used to administer promotions”. In human terms, that means that “share to enter” or “tag your friends to enter” aren’t allowed anymore.
Not sponsored or endorsed by the platform
This is an easy one to forget but make sure to include something along the lines of “this giveaway is in no way sponsored, endorsed, administered by or associated with Facebook” – or whichever platform you’re working with.
Consider collaborations
Do you have a business friend with a similar target audience to yourself? Ask them if they fancy running a collaborative giveaway! The winner gets two amazing prizes and you’d get to tap into each other’s audience. It’s a win-win.
Thanks for reading! I share a blog like this one every other Tuesday, and if you feel like they help your social media presence, and more importantly, your business – then please consider leaving a tip.
Tesni xx
