Oh dear! The holidays are just around the corner.

Which means now is the perfect time to think up a holiday-themed contest for your real estate Facebook Page.

That is why I’m sharing with you 10 different ways your business can engage with customers this holiday season.

These hopefully will help you make a great Facebook contest for your fans!

WHY RUN A CONTEST?

Brands host contests on Facebook for many reasons including a product or service launch, milestone or giveaway. For real estate agents, you may want to consider a contest so you can:

• Create Awareness about your business
• Drive traffic to your Page
• Refer friends to view real estate listings
• Invite people to attend your open house events or Facebook events
• Entice clients to call you to set up a meeting

Once you decide on the goal, next move on to the topic and type of contest.

GENERAL TOPIC IDEAS

You can create a contest around any Holiday theme. Take a look at some of these examples to get you started:

• Holiday items: Best holiday decorations, favorite food, costumes or dress,
• People: Kids, Caption this! (photo), holiday parties with family or friends
• Animals: funniest, cutest, adorable, animals with people, etc.
• Places: Best City To Spend the Holidays
• Fill in the blank: All I want for Christmas is…? I want to spend the holidays in  [insert your city] because…”, “I want to spend the holidays with [insert name]”

What is important is that you come up with a topic that is meaningful to your audience.

PRIZE IDEAS

Depending on budget capacity, prizes should be irresistible and valuable to your target participants. This will ensure participation from your fans.

• Freebie Items: Things such as branded novelty items to gadgets like USB sticks, mobile phone covers and Notebooks.
• Events: Like an “exclusive” Open House Party invitation to one of your most high-end listings.
• Complementary services: You can offer to waive or discount fees for valuable services like loan assessment, remodel planning, professional photography, 3rd-party house inspections, etc.
• Discount coupons or gift cards (for attending an open house) for commoditieslike gas, meals at  a nearby restaurant, free massage/ spa treatment or selected     products from a home improvement store.

USE UNIQUE SOCIAL MEDIA HASHTAGS

When you choose to run a contest that requires fans to share content as entries (photos or videos or status posts), make sure that all entries include the unique hashtags you prepared prior to launching the contest. Do some research and check to see that the hashtag (a phrase or keyword such as #100daysofgifts) isn’t already used by a brand, and that it makes sense for your goal.

The hashtag is a great way to easily track contestants. Just click the hyperlinked hashtag and a pop-out window will show all posts on Facebook that have included the #hashtag.

TIP: Usually your business name or top keyword are part of the hashtag.

10 EXCITING CONTEST IDEAS FOR YOUR PAGE

Sweepstakes
Sweepstakes are one of the easiest contests you can do on Facebook. You will need to create a form so fans can enter their email addresses and join the electronic raffle. Allow many winners for smaller prizes and one enticing major prize.

Photo contest
Photo entries should be consistent with your contest theme. You can also add specifications like minimum size, file format, image resolution, restricting photo-editing to text overlays, and number of entries.

Voting contest
You can create a poll question in which people vote for 2-3  choices. At the end of the contest check entries for the one with the highest number of votes and then draw your winners from there. You may also need photos that represent the voting choices to help the people decide.

Essay contest
Create an emotionally-meaningful prompt that excites fans to enter. They can use a Note from Facebook or upload texts into your custom-made form. You will also need to set word count limits.

Coupons
This is best for mobile users. Electronic coupons are best distributed through mobile content like QR codes or SMS text message fans can bring with them and show when claiming their prizes.

Group Coupons
Since it will be a challenge for the contestants to come up with a group entry, offer hard to pass-up prizes such as steep discounts and free gadgets for more entries.

Refer a friend
Entice people to promote your business for you! Offer an amazing prize that will get people buzzing and willing to refer 3-5 more friends for your campaign. Make sure you have an email gate-entry form ready.

Caption this!
Another easy and fun contest for Facebook! Post photos of animals or a fun scenario related to your holiday theme and get fans to compete for writing the caption. These types of contest can generate a lot of buzz!

Music video/Caroling
What could be a better way to celebrate the holidays than with music? Have fans submit their creative homemade videos or audio recordings of a seasonal tune. Then open the entries in a gallery for people to vote for the winner.

Video contest
Come up with a fill in the blank topic like, “What are you most grateful for this holiday season?” and let your fans submit their response in a video.

TIPS AND LOGISTICS FOR RUNNING CONTESTS ON FACEBOOK:

• Set a time frame for the submission of entries, drawing the winners and deadline for claiming prizes.
• Make a list of possible prize sponsors which are located in your city and create a deal with them.  This could be restaurants, coffee shops, retail stores or gas stations. That way, winners can actually have the opportunity to see what other amenities your city or real estate territory has to offer when they come to and claim their prize.
• Target participants well and research to find the most enticing prizes that they will deem valuable.
• You can hold mini-contests on a weekly basis for smaller prizes, then the non-winning participants can be eligible for the grand draw/ judging day later in the month.
• Make sure your contest themes is fun!
• Make contest procedures a bit challenging; but still doable.
• Make sure rules and guidelines are concise in order to avoid misinterpretation and confusion.

WHAT WILL YOU NEED TO RUN A CONTEST:

• A good plan on how to run your contest.
• Contest graphics with clear rules and call to action.
• An updated cover photo for your Facebook Page.
• A custom tab or media album to show the gallery of entries for your Facebook page.
• Facebook Ads if you have budget to promote your contest.
• Your prizes and winners with their photos – of course!

Important Note:

Most Facebook contest are usually run in a way that requires contestants to upload their entries from their personal profiles and get “likes” from family or friends.

However, when you do this it does not result in many leads for your real estate business. So, you may want to suggests contestants reach out beyond their family network.

Since the goal or running contests like these is to get a fresh list of contacts, you want to consider having contestants fill out an entry form to be eligible to join, instead of “likes” to a post or page.

So what do you think? Do you have an idea for how you can host a holiday contest?
Share with me in the comments below!
Then sign up for my FREE video series FB Real Estate Pro and get instant access to 3 helpful videos that will help you grow your list!