Perhaps you just started your Facebook page and you’re looking to get more fans. Or maybe you’ve had your page for years, but garnering new page likes has become challenging. No matter what situation you’re dealing with, a contest is a surefire way to get more interest in your page and product.

While in the long run nothing can replace producing great content consistently, a contest can help boost your online presence quickly.

Here are a few things you’ll need to know before you run a contest: 

What Kind of Contest are You Running?
Before you decide to run a contest, decide what you’re trying to accomplish. Are you looking for more “likes,” or do you want more interaction on your Facebook page? Do you want to generate leads, or simply drum up interest in your product or service?

The simplest contests are sweepstakes – “Click here to enter!”-type contests that only require a person to fill out a form for a chance to win. You can make it more complex by requiring people to submit a photo, video or essay, or by giving them additional entries for completing actions that align with your goals.

Eyes on the Prize
It seems like everyone and their grandmother is giving away an iPad these days. Stand out from the pack by offering a prize that relates to your business. Do you sell donuts? Give away a year of donuts! Perhaps offer several smaller prize packs – things like branded t-shirts or gift cards – in addition to a larger prize. Of course, if you’re really stuck, there’s nothing wrong with giving away an iPad – but why not use the opportunity to get people excited about your business?

Extra Entries are Powerful
Don’t forget that you can reward people for helping you out with extra entries. Consider giving entries for people who share the contest with their friends via Facebook or other social media outlets – many apps include this functionality. You can also give entries for signing up for your email list, following you on Twitter or uploading a picture of your products. The sky’s the limit!

Make it Easy to Enter
The quickest way to run a contest on your Facebook page is to use a third-party app. Why reinvent the wheel when you can get an app to run your contest for you? Popular apps like Wildfire, Shortstack, Woobox and Offerpop provide easy-to-use contest software that helps you run a professional-looking contest.

Generate Leads the Easy Way
If generating leads is one of your contest goals, don’t inundate your fans with tons of fields to fill out, you should collect, at the very least, some basic information from your contest entrants. At a bare minimum, collect entrants’ names and email addresses. More complex contests lend themselves to collecting more information, but make sure you keep it simple or you risk driving people away from your contest.

All Rules are in Effect.
Facebook’s Timeline update changed how pages look – and also how they function. If you haven’t read through their new page rules (in particular, the promotions section), take time to do it now – otherwise, your contest or even your entire Facebook page may get shut down. Two rules in particular are critical for Page managers hoping to run a contest:

• You need to state that the promotion isn’t run or endorsed by Facebook.

• You can’t use Facebook’s functions as an entry method – so unfortunately, you can’t ask people to “like” your page as a method of entry. However, you can still design the contest so you can receive more “likes”.

Running a Facebook contest has a lot of benefits both to your page and your business. Next time you need a quick Facebook boost, consider running a contest – you’ll generate excitement and give your fans a reason to come back.