Heather John of Los Angeles, Calif., asks this week’s Help This Hound question:
“I created and manage the Facebook business page for an online store and I want to set something up on Facebook (maybe through Events?) where we send out a mass Facebook message inviting previous customers to like our new Facebook business page. (There are about 30,000 people on file in our customer base, though many may not have a Facebook profile.)
“The idea is that I would say something like, ‘Like [our company] on Facebook and get a promotional code for 10% off.’ But how can I set it up so that it sends the code automatically to anyone who likes us (for a limited time)? Is there an app that I can make for that or do I just have to respond directly to each individual Like?”
The Publicity Hound says:
I’m getting more questions like this from Publicity Hounds who want to know how to reward people for Liking their Pages but I don’t think there’s an app available for what you want to do.
Wildfire is an online software application that lets you create branded interactive campaigns like sweepstakes, contests, give-aways and incentive-based surveys, and to simultaneously publish them in multiple social networks and on your website, but I haven’t tried that yet.
I’m experimenting with Suggest This, the Faceboook app at that lets you suggest to 20 friends at a time that they vist your Page and Like it. But it doesn’t reward them for doing so.
Please share your comments on how you actually reward visitors for Liking your page, with coupons, discounts or other incentives, and what kind of return on investment you’ve seen. And please include a link to your Page so we can see it and Like it.
Update on April 26, 2011: Blogger BL Ochman, who commented below, just wrote an excellent post: Disturbing trend: Big brands pimping Facebook “Likes”.
There’s an intereresting discussion under way at the Lost Remote blog about how a local TV station in Salt Lake City, Utah, has contests for Fans who Like their pages. Be sure to read all the comments: http://tinyurl.com/4vvveol
They include a comment from a reader who says Aptivada.com is helping with the TV station’s custom applications on the page.
Could you not just use a simple like and reveal iframe script? Or did you want something which supplied unique codes to each user?
Besides being against Facebook’s policies for fan pages, rewarding people for liking your page is a bogus way of earning numbers of people who are not likely to come back and engage with your brand beyond the reward. Yecch, blecch.
If you have good content, and great products or services, people will like you for real. Yes, you need to drive traffic to your fan page, but that’s not the same as rewarding people for liking you. that’s a while ‘nother blog post :>)
giving a coupon for liking your page is not against facebook’s policies. Read them again.