Are you thinking about running a Facebook Contest?  They are a great way to have some fun and get your Facebook community connected.

You can also use them to get a highly targeted list of people who are interested in your product or service!

Facebook Contests have changed within the last year so that now you can run Timeline Contests or use a Facebook App.  Thankfully there are a lot of great tools that can help you run a great contest.  Here are my favorites!

Timeline Contests

You don’t really need an App to run a Timeline Contest – you can just put up a photo, ask for comments, and pick a winner.  But if you are picking a random winner, using an App can make this easier.  Many of these apps also do full service Sweepstakes and Contests (see below).

•  AgoraPulse has a free Timeline Contest Manager in addition to their great Facebook stats they offer
• TabSite has a Timeline Contest App
• Heyo has a Timeline Contest Creator
• Woobox allows you to pick a winner from any post
• Contest Capture is a simple tool to export your Likes and Comments from any post so that you can pick a random winner

Make sure you know the rules for Timeline Contests because many people are doing it wrong.  The biggest thing people get wrong is you can’t require people to share something to their personal profile in order to enter.

Facebook App Contests

Using a Facebook App is a great way to collect e-mails of people who are interested in your giveaway.  Make sure your prize is relevant to what your business does to get a targeted list of people who are interested in your products or services.

Usually we use the term “contest” interchangeably with both the Contest and Sweepstakes versions.  A true Contest is where there may be voting involved and the person with the most votes wins (or there is a judge who decides the winner.  A Sweepstakes is where people enter their name and e-mail and a winner is drawn at random.

Some of these apps only provide the Sweepstakes version with a random winner, some allow for voting.  Do your own investigation into each of these apps and see which one is a fit for you.

• Tabsite has both the contest option (photo, video, or essay) as well as the sweepstakes option. They also have a 14-day trial (which could mean your first contest is free if you time it right). They have templates to make setting up your contest easy.
• Heyo has templates you can use or a very easy drag-and-drop builder for more custom designs. They only do sweepstakes-style contests but also have other interesting templates you can use for custom tabs.
• Woobox has a lot of different apps such as Pinterest and YouTube for your Facebook Page and some are free and some are paid. The sweepstakes app is a paid app but you can unlock all the paid apps for one monthly fee.
• Offerpop has a suite of 19 different Facebook and Twitter applications to help engage your audience. It’s easy to use and customize. Offerpop is free for Pages with fewer than 100 likes.
• Votigo was a full-service application that focused on large brands such as Kohl’s and MAC Cosmetics. Now it offers a self-service contest option also. If you want to use the custom contest application, you need to go to the Votigo website for prices and details.
• Antavo has a number of easy-to-install sweepstakes and contest templates and a free trial to get you started.
• Strutta has a very nice photo, video, and text contest application that you can set up yourself. It is a little more expensive that some of the other apps but the photo and video contests are very well done.
• ShortStack has a drag-and-drop sweepstakes form that you can set up yourself for a customized look. ShortStack is free for pages under 2,000 likes but has some limitations for the free plan.
• Easypromos has a very inexpensive basic version ($15 per promotion) to help you get started with contests or sweepstakes. If you need more features, you can use the premium version ($100 per promotion).
• Pagemodo has some great basic templates to help you get started with contests and sweepstakes at a very reasonable monthly fee.
• Tabfoundry has recently started offering Facebook Contest and Sweepstakes functionality on their app and it’s free.

Hope that was helpful and be sure to read my other Facebook Contest posts.

If you want in-depth help on designing, setting up, and promoting your Facebook Contest or Sweepstakes, make sure you get my Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies book – there is a whole section on making your Facebook Contest successful!