Marnie here, 

I know many salon owners who rely almost entirely on Facebook for their bookings and sales.

 

It’s where you post special offers,  announce new products and services, introduce your team members and much more. 

But sometimes, no matter how loud you shout, it seems nobody is listening, right? Hardly anybody seems to notice, and it can be SO frustrating. 

So here are half a dozen simple easy-to-do contests that can serioously boost engagement and activity among your Facebook followers. 

First thing is, a Facebook contest has to be SIMPLE. 

Forget messing about with third-party applications – just run a simple contest through a status update on your Facebook timeline. 

The goal is to increase the engagement and reach of your business on Facebook by encouraging activity.  When people LIKE, Share and Comment on your Facebook updates, you’ll get exposure to their Facebook network and increase the likelihood of showing up in their timeline in the future. 

 

You can also use a simple Facebook contest to grow your email list.  I’ll talk about this strategy last. 

 

If you find yourself wanting to hold a more complex contest than the below, consider using one of the third party apps I mention at the end of this article. 

 

Facebook does have Terms of Service around contests and you can review the official Facebook promotion guidelines here.

 

You can have any of the six contests below running in minutes.

It doesn’t get simpler than this.  Find an incentive to give away and ask people to LIKE your page to enter. 

 

The goal here is simply to increase the number of people that LIKE your page so that you can continue to engage with them. 

 

If possible, use an image of the prize in the post.

Ask your fans to comment on your post. The comment is their entry into the competition. Here’s a typical fill-in-the-blank example that encourages comments: 

“My fav travel destination is_________________________ because __________________ Post your top travel destination to enter to win (Prize)! We’ll pick a winner from the comments at 5pm on Thursday!”

Here’s how Gummy Bear did it: 

 

Contest entries will still be registered through comments but, in this case, you’re asking them to solve a puzzle or answer a trivia question. 

 

Here’s a classic example: 

 

“Guess how many jelly beans are in this jar. The closest guess will win [PRIZE]. Winner will be announced at 6 pm on Easter Sunday on our Facebook page.

The LoansbyChris Facebook page posted a series of trivia questions over several days that ultimately culminated in a single winner. 

 

Notice that the trivia questions are relevant to his mortgage lending business…

Why not take advantage of it, with an “upload your fav selfie and Win!” contest…

Such as:

“Did you go to the Beauty Expo? Share a photo you took of your weekend activities, put the pic in the comments below – if your photo gets the most ‘likes’ you win (Prize) – contest winner announced Monday at 11am.”

Here’s another one:

Here’s another twist on the Comment to Win contest – and this can get a LOT of activity on your page. 

Be careful with the image you choose though, if you use the wrong image, it can fall flat. But a good image that’s relevant to your fan base will generate a lot of comments, likes and shares. 

Here’s a winner: 

But the contest you should be concentrating on is one which gets all those fans and followers into your email list!

Having fans on Facebook is all well and good. But they are Facebook’s customers, not yours – until you can get them away from Facebook and into your mailing list. 

Which is why, for example, whenever my team of specialists builds a new website for a salon, somewhere in the world, we always encourage them to instal some kind of email ‘lead capture’ device on the website. 

Then you can run a competition on Facebook to drive people to your website, where they can pick up a free Gift Voucher for first-time visitors, like this one: