Companies with the most success on Facebook are those that find a way to reward people for becoming fans and keep them coming back regularly. For some interesting promotional ideas, have a look at 1-800-Flowers.
Their recently introduced Friday Floral Ambush invites Facebook fans to enter a weekly contest by specifying which arrangement under $49.99 they’d like to win (which gives 1-800-Flowers some useful market research). Every Friday, 10 winners are chosen at random.
Another ongoing promotion is their weekly Birthday Giveaway. Anyone with a birthday during the upcoming week is eligible to participate in the random drawing. Facebook fans are invited to register their eligible friends, thereby widening 1-800-Flowers’ network.
Yet another regular contest is the Celebrity Birthday Quiz. A series of clues are posted on 1-800-Flowers’ Facebook page about a mystery celebrity who happens to be celebrating a birthday that week. Fans are invited to submit their answers, and those that answer correctly are eligible for a prize drawing. Doling out the clues a little at a time encourages participants to keep checking 1-800-Flowers’ Facebook page.
While these ideas may not translate directly to your business, they do illustrate how to use Facebok to move beyond a mere discussion of “here’s what’s going on at our company today.” With a little imagination, you too can use social networking to widen your network, engage customers and get helpful feedback.
