Running a competition on Facebook - what you need to know

Before you decide to run a competition on your Facebook business page, it's important to understand what a contest can or cannot do for your brand.

A facebook contest can...

1. Help boost engagement between your brand and your fans
2. Help incentivise new users to like your facebook page
3. Be used to promote a new product and get the word out there about your brand
4. Build awareness of your brand and products and services.

On the other hand, a facebook competition cannot...

1. Make up for a poor product or customer service. A contest could potentially damage your brand further through negative comments, as was the case of the Qantas Twitter competition that backfired.
2. Create an instant, online community of fans that are loyal to your brand

Before you run a facebook competition ask yourself the following questions:

1. Do you have the time, resources and budget to plan, manage, monitor and continue to engage with your fans when you run the competition?
2. Do you have the budget for a prize that everyone will find value in and which will encourage participation from your fans?
3. Do you have clear goals for this contest?
4. What is the purpose of running this contest? Will it support the rest of your marketing strategies?
5. Are you using a third party app provider to administer the contest? Note that this is required as per Facebook's guidelines.

Below are some points to take into consideration when running a contest on Facebook.

1. Set clear goals

• What do you aim to achieve from running this contest?
• What results do you want to see at the end of the contest? Eg increased engagement with fans, increased number of fans etc

2. Details of the competition

• How will you get your online community to participate in the competition? Eg photo competition where they have to upload a photo and write a caption and the best photo wins a prize, write a story or a line to say why they deserve the prize or will they simply enter email and contact details in a form and the winner will be selected randomly?
• It's important to keep the contest simply. If the entry forms are too long or complicated, it will deter the user from participating. Make it effortless and eliminate the chance of them becoming frustrated or having a negative experience.

3. The prize

• Take your target audience into consideration - what prize will attract them to participate in your competition?
• What does your budget look like? It doesn't need to break the bank as long as the prize is of value to the fan
• Choose a prize that will match the interest of your audience. This will help with participation and encourage them to share it with their friends

4. How will your winners be selected?

• Will your online community help to choose the winner? For example, the photos submitted with the most votes wins a prize, or will they simply enter their contact details and the winner selected randomly?
• Make sure rules are clearly defined

5. What personal information will you gather

• Only collect the information you need, for example, email and contact details to notify the winner
• Too much information required may deter participation
• Keep it simple. If it looks too long or too hard, it will only cause people to abandon your contest

6. Check that your contest is Facebook compliant

• Check the Facebook guidelines for more details: http://www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php
• In summary, Facebook states that contests must be run through a third-party app, you cannot use Facebook features and functions as part of the contest mechanism, you can't use the Facebook 'like' button as a means of collecting votes on entries and you can't notify the winners on Facebook, such as a wall post, message or in chat.

7. Check the fine print with legal

• If need be, get your terms & conditions reviewed or drafted by a legal representative
• Your T & Cs should include entry regulations, selection of winners and how winners will be notified, restrictions on certain groups to participate (eg above 18 years only), how entries can be used by the company in the future (eg for marketing purposes), or alternative modes of entry
• Check to see if you need to get a license to run a competition if the prize is over a certain value amount. This will vary from state to state.

8. Promote your contest

• There are many ways to promote your contest on Facebook, for example, sending an email to your database advising them of the competition and encouraging them to participate, promote with facebook ads, add a competition banner on your website, make it shareable so fans can share with it their friends, send out a flyer or put an ad in a magazine etc.

9. Manage your contest

• When you've launched your competition, make sure you regularly check it to ensure that it's running smoothly. Monitor comments, feedback and other activity. Answer questions from fans and encourage them to participate.

10. After launch

• Monitor the results after launch - did you achieve the goals you set out to achieve? What are the topics, questions or conversations that were asked by your fans? These can be used for future marketing or to better your service
• After the competition has ended, make sure you continue to work on engaging with your fans to grow your online community. For example, provide them with unique content, specials, news, events etc that will keep them coming back to you.
• Keep a two-way conversation happening with your fans to ensure loyalty, brand awareness, trust in your brand and ultimately, increased sales

Facebook competitions are a beneficial way to create buzz around your brand, create fan interaction and generate long-term relationships with your customers online. It's also important that after a competition that you continue to engage with your fans by providing them with content that they will find of value, whether that is special offers, sneak peek previews, event updates or tips.

For help with facebook marketing and how you can get started, speak to one of the marketing consultants at TA Fastrack today on 07 3040 3588 or visit www.tafastrack.com.au.

Best practices for email marketing success

Below are some of our top tips for email marketing success.

• Get started! It doesn't cost much, it's so easy to do and it works so well! If you can't bring yourself to do a regular newsletter each month because of content, then at least one e-Christmas card a year is a good start. 
• Make it about them. Did you know that 294 billion emails get sent each day? If you want people to notice your emails and not delete them, then give them something they want and they can use. It could be a special offer, a whitepaper download, news updates on upcoming events in your area or travel tips. 
• Make it personal. Don't be lazy and send a mass email to everyone. Have a look at your database and see if you can send them something that's unique to them. Whether it's using their first name, writing a personal message, or giving them a deal based on their interests or hobbies. It shows that you care and you're listening. 
• Keep it short. People have short attention spans. They don't have time to read, so keep it short and sweet. 
• Use pictures. Pictures say a thousand words and can make your newsletter and articles look good. Don't overdo it though with too many images that take a long time to download. Take into consideration that some email clients may block images from showing through. 
• Don't spam. Australia has a very strict anti spam legislation, so make sure you follow it, or you will be fined. 
• The best time to send your emails is on Tues/Wed after 10am. That's when most people are reading your email 
• Include a strong call to action 
• Use an attention grabbing subject line

To get started on email marketing, speak to one of the marketing consultants at TA Fastrack today on 07 3040 3588.

Tripadvisor has launched new Management Dashboard

Tripadvisor has launched a new Management Dashboard which provides hotels with information on how they are engaging with their customers online, tips on areas where they can improve on, the countries where the most traffic is coming from and they can even get a list of their competitors who are most viewed by the same customers who viewed their page.

The new Management Dashboard is available for free to all registered business representatives and can be accessed via the Tripadvisor management centre. A more comprehensive version of the Tripadvisor Management Dashboard will be made available in the next few weeks exclusively to accommodations that have a paid business listing with Tripadvisor. The comprehensive version offers additional metrics and information, including graphics which depicts a property's Business Listings performance over time and how they compare to their competitors in the same geographical region.

At a glance, the features of the Management Dashboard include:

Free version

• View your status at a glance: View total reviews, current popularity ranking and TripAdvisor rating
• Reviews and comments summary: View latest review activity and top comments from reviews
• Photos metrics: Total number of traveller and business-submitted photos, photos in the last 30 days and the number of visitors viewing photos
• Most viewed competitors: A list of your competitors most viewed by the same people who view your business' page
• Top visitor locations: View a breakdown of the countries generating the most number of traffic to your page

Features of the paid Business Listings Management Dashboard

• The paid version includes all of the features of the free version
• Trend Graphs: Dynamic graphs showing page-view trends over a period of time
• Performance metrics: How your property's Business Listing compares to other properties
• Top Special Offers by click-through: Special Offer recommendations based on the offers that are receiving the most clicks (this tool is shown when a property is not taking advantage of their Special Offers feature)

The free Management Dashboard is available immediately.

For more information about how you can take advantage of the new features in Tripadvisor, or if you would like to optimise your Tripadvisor listing, speak to TA Fastrack today on 07 3040 3588

How to increase engagement with your fans on Facebook

According to research, you can increase your Facebook engagement with fans just be taking the following into consideration.

• Research found that 60% of posts analysed were published between 10am and 4pm
• Brands that posted before or after business hours recorded Facebook engagement rates that were 20% higher than the average
• Research also found that the shorter the Facebook post, the more likely fans will read it
• The research also found that the less people want to be at work, the more they are on Facebook
• The highest engagement rates on Facebook occurred on Thursday and Fridays for the travel and hospitality industries
• The lowest engagement rates occurred on weekends and Wednesdays
• To drive more 'likes' or comments on your posts, ask your fans directly to 'like', 'tell' or 'comment' and this will drive the best results
• 'Liking' a post or page requires the least amount of effort, so if you tell them to do it, they will
• Simple action words such as 'like', 'take', 'submit', 'watch', 'click', 'post', 'become a fan', 'share', or 'visit' worked best
• Posts that end with a question have a 15% higher engagement rate - engage with your fans!
• Questions that start with the word 'where', 'when' or 'should' have the highest engagement rates
• Questions that start with 'why' have the lowest engagement rates
• If you're running a contest on Facebook, use words like 'event', 'winner' or 'win' for best results. Direct words like 'contest', 'coupon' or 'promotion' don't work as well. Win/winning keywords give fans something to get excited about and they don't feel like they are being sold to.

If you would like to get started with Facebook marketing, speak to one of the marketing consultants at TA Fastrack or call 1300 659 289.

How to get found online with search engines

1. Choose your keywords

• Choose keywords that your target market will use to search for your product and services. For example holiday apartments mooloolaba, serviced apartments melbourne cbd
• Choose keywords based on the search volume. Optimise your website for keywords with the larger number of searches for month. There is no point in optimising your website for keywords that no one will use. You might rank well for these, but if no one uses the keywords to find you, there is no point.
• Remember that depending on the competitiveness of the keyword, it might take longer for you to rank higher for those keywords.

2. Website on-page SEO

• Place your primary keywords in your page title, headings, within the content of your page and description tags.
• Use your keywords as part of the URL. For example, www.yourcompanyname.com.au/serviced-apartments-mooloolaba.html
• Make use of H1 and H2 headings
• Place keywords within the meta-keyword tags and alt-text on images

3. Off-page SEO

• Build inbound links to your website from other quality websites
• Build links to your website using keywords as the anchor text. For example, the text that is hyperlinked to your website should be keywords you are optimising your website for (like serviced apartments melbourne), not the words 'click here' or your company name.

4. Always measure and analyse your data

• Track the number of inbound links, keyword ranks and visits every month to ensure that it's building up.
• Track number of visits to your website through organic searches using Google Analytics. It's free to set up and you just need your web developers to insert the code in the website to track the statistics.

If you need help with your SEO, speak to one of the search engine marketing consultants at TA Fastrack today on 07 3040 3588.

Tips to encourage fan engagement with your Facebook business page

Below are some of our tips to boost fan interaction on your facebook business page.

• Encourage your fans to post their questions or feedback on your Facebook page. Answer their questions, thank them for their reviews and feedback. Let them know that you're listening
• Share photos and videos of your property on your page. Encourage fans to post their holiday snaps and videos on your wall.
• Ask for their feedback. For example, get your fans feedback on their thoughts on a new colour scheme for your hotel renovations, or their thoughts on a menu change for the season etc.
• Celebrate company milestones, achievements or awards. For example, the company's birthday, the 1000th guest who stayed at your hotel, staff birthdays or the total number of years employed at your company, industry awards etc
• Participate in seasonal celebrations/holidays. For example, post photos of the Christmas decorations in your office, or a Valentine's Day special etc. Add a post on your wall wishing all Mothers a Happy Mother's Day and so on
• Have fun! Ask your fans questions, use polls etc or get fans to finish the sentence or fill in the blank. For example, When I'm travelling, my favourite song on my playlist is....... 
• Play a game or post a puzzle on Facebook and get fans to respond with their answers. Eg guess where this photo was taken. 
• Runs contests, competitions, promotions 
• Share interesting content with your fans. It doesn't need to be just specials. Offer other content of interest or relevance to your fans, such as tips, whitepaper downloads, links to interesting news articles etc. 
• Offer content based on current news. Eg Did anyone watch Dancing with the stars last night? Who do you think will go? 
• Leverage events and create buzz around upcoming events. Post photos or videos after the event
• Champion a good cause. Let everyone know the charity your business supports. Post photos of your staff participating in a charity event, eg Movember
• Talk about other things besides your product. Mix it up with other content to interact with your fans and get them to talk to you.

To get started on Facebook, or if you would like more information about facebook marketing and social media management, speak to TA Fastrack today on 07 3040 3588 or visit www.tafastrack.com.au.

5 things your hotel should do right now with social media

If you're on social media, have you considered what you will be doing next year? Below are some things your hotel should implement 2012.

Put your staff to work.
Your staff members are a wealth of information and you need to use it to your advantage. For example, your reception or concierge are experts on the area and can provide customers with tips on the best place to eat, best shopping or places to see that no one else know about. Your chef is an expert on food and could provide tips or recipes.

Get your staff to write a few sentences every month on various topics, and you’ve got yourself some tremendous social media content with hardly any effort or time at all.

Include more social media only offers. 
Give your fans something of value that they can't get anywhere else, such as updates on events, sneak peek previews, news updates on your hotel or special offers that aren't available on the website.

You can use social media specific codes that can only be redeemed online and the codes can only be found via Facebook or Twitter if they are a follower.

Someone to really take a big foursquare/Facebook Places leap. 
Many places offer people a free glass of wine if they check-in using Foursquare or Facebook Places, but why not go all out and really create some buzz! Give away a free room or upgrade for customers who check-in often.

Cross promote. 
People need to know that your property has a social media presence, so make sure you include your facebook link on your website, in your email marketing messages, under your email signature, in ads in newspapers or magazines etc.

Fewer minutias. 
There was a time when a post like “it’s sunny today” did the trick. It was simple, felt personal, and kept a social presence active. These posts aren't bad now, but the problem is everyone's doing this. Include more depth to your general posts. For example, tell your fans about an interesting event going on in the area that people from outside your location might not know about. Post a photo of the sunset, or wildlife near your property.

Social media can no longer be ignored and although it might not be perfect for every accommodation, it is an important option for most. There are many benefits to using social media and with a bit of effort, your hotel can use social media to generate leads and raving fans.

If you would like more information about social media marketing, speak to TA Fastrack today on 1300 659 289.