Peter Yared of Webtrends Apps regularly contributes to Venture Beat, and recently ReadWriteWeb picked up his story about what kind of marketing works, and what kind doesn’t work, on Facebook.
It’s a well reason piece and an important one for anyone thinking up Facebook promotions. Yared’s take on sweepstakes is obvious, yet revealing.
Facebook users like to click around and look at stuff, and absolutely do not like filling out forms. We have run highly promoted sweeps campaigns for major artists that included things like backstage passes and a limo ride to the show that had abysmal conversion rates. There is absolutely no incentive to make sweepstakes social.
Why would you invite more people to join a sweepstakes? It reduces your own chances. Have you ever seen a “I just entered a sweepstakes and you should to” posting on someone’s wall?
Addressing what does work on Facebook, Yared says, “Fans want things like exclusive products/services, drastically discounted prices akin to Groupon type deals, and early notification and registration for upcoming events, ideally exclusive to fans. Promotions should make the fan feel like they are a brand insider, not just a standard consumer.”
He calls it lightweight engagement and says it is the Facebook sweet spot for brands. What say you? Are you creating deep experiences on Facebook, or peppering fans with consistent and exclusive deals that are easy to score and easy to share?
