I realize this is not tied directly to Tess software. However, since there are Tess conference sessions and webinars on digital trends, digital marketing, etc., I hope it is OK to ask this question via the Marketing forum.
Have you run a contest on Facebook for your organization?
“Rock of Ages” [arena rock musical set in the 80’s] is coming to our venue at the end of January. Starting next week, I’d like to hold an “80’s Big Hair” photo contest on our Facebook page to help spark interest in the production. I’d love to hear from anyone who’s done a photo contest on FB, where fans submit photos to be entered into a prize drawing.
This seemed easy to me until I Googled “Facebook contests” - and saw all the legal warnings to protect against spam and false contests.
Basically, fans will be invited to post their best (biggest) 80’s hair photo to enter the contest.
We’ll post start/end date for submissions, no purchase necessary. LEGAL: Facebook is neither a partner nor a sponsor in this contest.
And announce the winner on FB, blog, twitter, etc.
If you’ve done something similar, did you create a photo album and ask fans to post directly to that album? I’d like to have all the photos in one place when it comes time to judge them – and have one spot where fans can see all the photos together.
I’m thinking each new photo posted to the album would also show up on our wall?
In regard to contacting the winner, I just plan to send them a message on Facebook.
Any input would be appreciated!
Chris
Hi Christine,
We’ve done many and we have Rock of Ages the week before you. I’m sure our digital media/web editor, Pavlo, would be happy to share with you. He’s at psynadinos@rutheckerdhall.net
Regards,
Susan
Susan M. Crockett
Chief Information Officer
Ruth Eckerd Hall & The Historic Capitol Theatre
1111 N. McMullen Booth Rd. l Clearwater, FL 33759
727.712.2757 l Fax: 727.791.6020
scrockett@rutheckerdhall.net
Facebook Twitter YouTube
Tickets to all of our great shows are on sale now at RuthEckerdHall.com
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the intended individual or entity. If you have received this email in error please notify the sender. You are notified that disclosing, copying, distributing or taking any action in reliance on the contents of this information received in error is strictly prohibited.
From: Christine Long [mailto:bounce-christinelong7777@tessituranetwork.com] Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2011 12:42 PMTo: Susan CrockettSubject: [Tessitura Marketing Forum] Social Networking: Have you run a contest on Facebook?
Chris LongManager, eCommunications and Audience Research
501 West Main StreetLouisville, KY 40202-2989(502) 562-0196 p(502) 562 0728 fwww.kentuckycenter.org
This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com because you subscribed to the Tessitura Marketing Forum. You may reply to this message to post to the Marketing forum or visit the site to search, read and post to the forums. In the interest of keeping the forum posts from becoming cluttered, we encourage you to delete previous message text from your reply before sending. Thank you!
Hi Chris,
We held a similar Facebook contest last year when we presented Steel Magnolias and asked individuals to post 'bad hair' photos to our fan page.
We offered a prize from a local hair salon to tie-in with the show but I wasn't too happy with the results; we only a few entries, although our Sound Designer put up some interesting past photos of himself! It was our first effort of a photo contest and seeing as our patrons are generally older and not necessarily familiar with Facebook, it may have been too much effort or confusing for our patrons to post pictures. We also thought they may not have be interested in posting "embarrassing" photos from their past. :)
Regarding keeping them in one place, we did find some people posted pics on our wall, while others followed the contest instructions and uploaded a picture into the Album we created for the contest, so we had to monitor both sections of our page for entries.
We did try to encourage people to 'like' photos which would be used to declare entries, which also didn't work.
Having said all that, definitely try it. Your Fan Page seems a bit more active than ours and this show definitely lends itself to a similar contest!
Have fun!
We kind of skirted the Facebook contest issue by holding a photo contest on Flickr and linking to it from Facebook. The problem there of course is that participants need to be familiar with or create an account on Flickr, which may be a barrier to participation.
Your contest sounds fun- hope you get lots of great entries!
LILAIA KAIRISDIRECTOR OF DIGITAL SERVICES
LKAIRIS@NEW42.ORG | TEL 646.223 3009 | FAX 646.562 0175
From: Christine Long <bounce-christinelong7777@tessituranetwork.com>Sent: 1/6/2011 11:38:07 AM
Error! Filename not specified.
Hi, Chris -
This is from our Social Media guy here at Center Theatre Group:
I’ve done these sorts of contests, but I’ve use an application called Wildfire. There’s a fee associated, but it makes submission, organizing and judging very simple. The fee is minimal.
That would be my suggestion. Wildfireapp.com
Hi Chris -
We've done a variety of Facebook contests and found that the less effort people have to do, the better. We've also found that there is a certain embarrassment factor that you have to weave around. The most successful contests have been one that link to funny things already online. Our patrons just post links to funny things (i.e. the funniest youtube dance picture). This eliminates them having to do something (i.e. find and scan a picture) and also makes for some fun 'search the web while at work' time. :P
Even our 'successful' contests, they are still a teeny percentage of our followers.
HTH,
Heather