Tips: How to run a Facebook contest, sweepstakes, or drawing

So your company is on Twitter (most) and Facebook (increasingly), and you've had a brainstorm: Let's run a targeted marketing campaign in the form of a contest to get more Followers and Likes.

First step: You've got the email addresses of your best prospects and current customers, and maybe (if you're in the K-12 school space) even reached out to the good folks at MDR to put together a segmented campaign to reach even more interested parties. An email campaign to drive interest is key.

Next is applying the same graphics, design, and messaging to setting up a microsite (small set of landing pages on your brand's site) to direct traffic, and explain what your contest is all about -- plus host your legal team's vetted rules.

Your microsite is also a good place to host an entry method for anyone who's not a Twitter or Facebook user. Some companies and schools/colleges block access to one or both of these sites, so having a secondary entry method is critical so as not to sour your visitors to your brand.

Last but not least is the contest entry point or app/tool itself -- this is not something you want to do by hand, setting up a webform and sorting through the results.

That's where Wildfire comes in.

Wildfire offers a turn-key system for creating online promotions in minutes, then deploying them to your website/microsite, Facebook, Twitter, and more. Wildfire also enables automatic sharing of your contest to all major social media channels, so entrants can auto-tweet/FB their entry to encourage others to participate. And it costs less than $50 for a generic campaign, with a decent amount of customization to insert graphics, etc.

Next week ( April 11-16: National Library Week #NLW11 ) you'll be able to see all of this in action at ProQuest's website (landing page, rules) and social media presences: Facebook and Twitter.

We're combining the Wildfire app posted to our landing page and Facebook presence to capture entries to win an iPad 2 and Amazon gift cards daily from M-F, then encouraging visitors to "Like" our Facebook page and comment on daily videos which will appear, letting everyone tell the world why they love libraries.



Here's all the details:

National Library Week, April 10-16, 2011
http://www.proquest.com/go/celebrate

Next week is National Library Week! We have a lot of fun activities planned for librarians and library supporters.

Database Access @ www.proquest.com/go/nlwaccess

We are offering open access to the following products from Sunday, April 10-Saturday, April 16:

· ProQuest Civil War Era
· ProQuest African American Heritage
· ebrary Public Library Complete and Schools Collection
· eLibrary
· SIRS Issues Researcher
· SIRS Discoverer
· Books in Print

New Library Marketing Tools

We have created new Web icons, banners, and a “Live. Learn. Laugh. Love your library!” screensaver. All are available for download at www.proquest.com/go/nlwaccess.

“My library rocks because…?” Sweepstakes

On the ProQuest Facebook Page we will post a video question about libraries every morning from April 11-15.



Facebook Page members can show their support for libraries by answering each question in the Facebook Comments section under each video question. (All of our videos are hosted in our YouTube Channel, and are embedded into Facebook as a Link.)



To enter the sweepstakes, click the Sweepstakes tab and fill out the entry form for a chance to win an Amazon.com gift card, and the grand prize, an iPad 2!

We encourage you to Like ProQuest and answer the daily question. (Official rules are available at www.proquest.com/go/nlwcontest.)

Questions? Feel free to comment on this post, and good luck with your social media endeavors.