Use these social media contests for restaurants to get more followers FAST.

You created a Facebook fan page (or other social media website account) for your restaurant, and you feel like you have plenty of followers, or “Likes”…

… or maybe you don’t.

No matter how many fans or followers you already have, you can never have too many.

Whether your page is new, or it’s been around for a while and you already have 1,000 fans, there are things you can do to get even more attention for your restaurant and expand your reach.

The more LIKES you have, the more your restaurant’s sales will increase.

Why?

Because all of these fans prove that you are one of the best places in town to eat.

All the engagement on your social media pages shows authority.

They also establish you as a great brand that cares about your fans, because you take the time to reward them.

Here are 4 very effective social media contests for restaurants that will do just that.

First “Likes” Pledge

Do this if your Facebook page is brand new and you’re trying to get as many Likes (followers) as you can as quickly as possible.

Offer to do something fun and/or beneficial for your first followers!

You can change the number of first followers to get the deal to whatever number you see fit.

Here a some ideas:

• Offer a discount to your first 500 [or other number] followers.
• Offer to post their photo up in your restaurant on a “customer appreciation wall”.
• Offer a free or discounted t-shirt. Just be sure to get their info in a direct message so you know who to send it to, and keep track!

Be creative and use the unique identity of your restaurant to come up with ideas for ways to reward your first social media followers.

By the way, we’d love to hear about what you’ve done. Just leave a comment!

Giveaways

Very easy to do on Facebook, as well as Twitter.

Tell your followers to “Like” or “Share” a certain post, and you can use a free randomizer tool to pick a winner.

You can also pick multiple winners, just to get more people to want to Like or Share it.

Random.org has a free number randomizing tool that you can use to keep it fair. Just be sure to take a screenshot of the result on the randomizer, and post it when you announce the winner/s.

You should also announce what they will win.

You can make it a surprise “secret” giveaway, but if the award has a high value, there’s a better chance that more people will Like the giveaway post.

A good example of an award would be a free family meal, a free t-shirt, etc.

Quiz Your Fans

Ask a question/questions and let your followers know that the first person to answer correctly, or get all the questions correct will win.

Be creative and use what’s popular at the moment to create the quiz.

For example, right now Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a record-breaking box office hit, and everyone is talking about it.

We could create a quiz using trivia from the movie, or from the past movies in the Star Wars franchise.

Post these quiz questions directly on Facebook.

That way, you’ll be able to easily keep track of who got all the questions right first.

To keep your fans watching your Facebook, announce that there will be more chances to win in the near future!

Pinterest Recipe Board Contest

Once you have plenty of followers on Facebook and Twitter, or whatever social media sites you’re on, you can hold a recipe board contest on Pinterest.

The contest is fairly easy to enter, especially if they like cooking and Pinterest.

Offer a great reward, and tell your followers to create a Pinterest board full of the best recipes they can find that match the style of your restaurant.

They can enter their board by linking to it in a comment on your contest post.

Give them some of the criterial you’ll be looking for when you judge the winner, and announce a deadline.

After the deadline, choose the winner based on the criteria.

Whatever type of social media contest you choose to do, make sure…

• It’s fair for everyone.
• You lay out all the rules for that particular contest in the announcement post.
• Make the award something of high value. The higher the value, the more people will enter.

You’ll have a lot of fun with these social media contests, and so will your fans.

Promising a reward to your dedicated fans will cause more goodwill to spread around your brand.

Think of it as a cheaper form of advertising!

Leave us a comment to tell us about what contests you’re doing, or ones you’ve done in the past.

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