Good Morning Christine from ABC7!
Rack up new fans and higher engagement with this simple daily contest
We've had a number of requests from members to find out whether like-gating "fan of the day" contests is still allowed by Facebook. They are, and much beloved by both the local media and viewers who have participated. This contest is running on ABC7 in Los Angeles's page. Here' we've broken down how it works, why it meets Facebook's new guidelines, and how to replicate the idea for print and radio sites.
To promote a contest like this, advertise a page on the media's home site, such as ABC7.com/Facebook, with a redirect to the contest's tab page on Facebook. The redirect provides a shorter, simpler URL and drives all traffic directly to the right page, no hunting around or conflict with Facebook guidelines.
Radio and print companies can also take advantage of this continuous fan-builder and community engagement opportunity: Simply announce on-air or post a photo in the newspaper every day. Of the two, we still think radio has more cache, but who does not want their picture in the daily newspaper? And who will not show it to their friends. What's compelling is thie hyper-local, social component:
- Highest egagement with the most loyal viewers
- Great potential for social engagment. Not only will viewers be watching to see if they are selected, but also they will drive traffic to ABC7's Facebook page, when they update their own page to show they were chosen.
- Ongoing contest with 365 opportunities for winners. We like onging contests with multiple winners, and a daily contest is at the top of the list. We don't see many of them, and that is what makes this contest so special.
- Easy to enter. The fact that people already have a photo on Facebook, makes entering super simple. All they have to do is agree (by clicking) to the reuse of their Facebook photo and it's ready to go.
To find out how the contest is put together, take a look at ABC7's Facbook page, updated to the new Timeline format - and with its 344,458 likes in LA. That's the most fans we've seen at any local media (if you have more please drop us a note); and in spite of the fact that this is also a huge television affiliate in LA, if you think a "Fan of the Day" program is not worthwhile, ask yourself what they know that you do not about building fans.
What you should be looking at on the Facebook page below is the second tab, 'ABC& Wants to Wish You a Good Morning.' The new Facebook format puts contests behind the custom app - and this is where all the creativity is really taking place.
Clicking on the tab takes you to a third party provider - and allows like-gating, which is otherwise prohibited by Facebook for use to enter a contest.
Like-gating a contest, is allowed: Notice that viewers can't actually get to the contest until they like-it. This is a critical step - in hiding the contest behind the thrid party custom app until the like is made, that Facebook allows. Liking ABC7 takes you to this page:
Comments from people who have entered are shown on the same page, further down. Notice how this meets Facebook's criteria because the comments do not appear and the wall and create "artificial" messages that Facebook does not want.
The winner each day is "notified" by email and/or phone - also required by Facebook which does not want the notifications to come through it's own site. However, winners
are also announced on the air using the Facebook photo, and on the ABC7's wall. 
We haven't had a chance to talk to them about the contest, but would love to hear feedback from anyone who has done these contests or has a new spin. Thanks also to ABC7 for nice work on this daily promotion.
The author, Alisa Cromer is publisher of a variety of online media, including LocalMediaInsider and MediaExecsTech, developed while on a fellowship with the Reynolds Journalism Institute and which has evolved into a leading marketing company for media technology start-ups. In 2017 she founded Worldstir.com, an online magazine, to showcases perspectives from around the world on new topic each month, translated from and to the top five languages in the world.
