Have a contest is a great way to spread your brand on Facebook. However, it’s not as simple as just announcing that anyone who likes your business gets entered into a drawing. Facebook has a very strict set of rules about how contests should be conducted. You don’t want to risk having your account banned. So the best way to pull it off is to use a third party service already set up to do contests.

One that I have used recently is www.shortstack.com. It is easy to use and works great. But there are many of these now, so look at some different ones and find the one you like the best.

One advantage of using a third party service is that it can automatically store you contest entries into a database. Setting up a contest is a little bit complicated, but using a service like this will walk you through it, saving you a ton of time.

As far as the actual prize, it is certainly nice if it can be tied to what you actually sell. If you sell some kind of product or service that people would really like to win, and you can legally give it away, then you can make that the prize. Sometimes it’s not so obvious, however. So you may have to just pick some kind of prize that would be desirable to your market. Maybe give away a trip or an ipad. You get the idea.

If you are busy running your business (aren’t we all?), it is easy for your social accounts to get stale. Hosting a contest is one way to get people liking your account, and it gives you something to talk about. It keeps things moving.

Contact Work Media if you could use some help with your Internet marketing campaign.