Facebook has updated its promotions guidelines to allow brands to run Facebook contests on their Fan Page Timelines.

With these new Facebook promotion guidelines, brands can now accept “contest entries” by asking fans to like, comment, or message the page.

While this is a huge opportunity to drive brand engagement, many businesses are struggling to come up with Facebook contest ideas for their fan page timelines.

Several Facebook app companies launched the ability to export a .csv of likes and comments to help business owners take advantage of these changes.

Brands are asking this question

These new guidelines though have raised the following question.

“With many great tools to manage likes and comments, how do you go about ensuring that Facebook Timeline Contest you post actually gets engagement?”

The status updates below are meant to inspire you with ideas that take advantage of the new Facebook changes and create and drive engagement.

30 Facebook Timeline Contest Ideas

We’re almost to 40,000 fans. Click like to celebrate! The 100th like will get a free [INCENTIVE] Comment “Coupon” below to get 20% off your next purchase at [FAN PAGE NAME]. Enter before 5pm EST tomorrow! We’d love getting to know you as well as your best friend knows you! Leave a comment below and attach a picture of you and your best friend for your chance to win [INCENTIVE]. We’ll pick a winner at noon PST tomorrow. Comment below for your chance to win a free T-Shirt: The best kind of [INSERT] is _____________. Get the most likes on your comment by 2pm EST tomorrow to win! Comment below, what year was [FAN PAGE NAME] founded in? The first person to guess it right gets [INCENTIVE] On a scale 0-10+ what do you think of our new product pictured below? The person who leaves the best feedback in the comments will win the product totally free! Winner chosen at 2pm EST tomorrow. Who is excited for Winter? Like this post for your chance to win [INCENTIVE]. We’ll pick a winner at 1pm EST tomorrow. Tomorrow is our 50% in store sale! Click like for your chance to win your entire purchase, free (max $500). We’ll pick a winner at 9am EST tomorrow! We’re launching a new menu item and want your feedback. Comment below and tell us what ingredient you think we should add to the menu item pictured below. The winner will get a free year of the menu item! We’ll announce the winner on our fan page at 2pm EST tomorrow. TRIVIA: How many fortune 500 brands do we work with? Comment below with your guess for a chance to win a free $500 service plan! Winner will be announced at 1pm EST tomorrow. Click “Like” if you can’t wait for the weekend. At 2pm EST tomorrow we’re picking a winner who’ll get a weekend trip for two to Myrtle Beach! Caption this! Comment below with your idea. The comment that gets the most likes will win a [INCENTIVE]. Winner will be picked tomorrow at 5pm EST. Guess how many Jelly Beans are in the jar pictured below. The person who comments closest to the actual amount will win a free year of Jelly Beans! Winner picked at 5pm EST tomorrow.Pro Tip: Get a picture of whatever your product is with “a lot” of the product featured. This could be your new books stacked on a bookshelf if you’re an author or 100’s of pairs of shoes if you’re Nike. Ask your fans to guess #’s. Its quick, fast, and easy for them to participate. On a scale of 0-10+ how much do you love [ENTER BUSINESS NAME]. Tomorrow at 2pm EST we’ll pick our biggest fan and will feature them in our cover photo! Enter your twitter handle in the comments below. The person who comments with the most followers will win a Free T-Shirt! We’ll pick the winner at 3pm EST tomorrow. Last night we played an epic show at The Sycamore Deli. Click ‘LIKE’ if you were there (or wish you were!) for a chance to win a free CD! Gearing up for Halloween! Post a picture of your costume in the comments for a chance to win [INCENTIVE]. Winner will be picked tomorrow at 5pm EST. What will the score of tonight’s game be between the Eagles & Redskins? The closest guess will win [INCENTIVE]. Winner will be announced at 8am tomorrow morning on our fan page. When you were a kid what you want to be when you grew up? Share your dream in the comments to win [INCENTIVE]. We’ll pick a winner at noon EST on Friday. Click on this picture and tap ‘L’ on your keyboard for a chance to win [INCENTIVE] hint: tapping L ‘likes’ the photo 😉 The 100th like wins! How many cups of coffee is too many? Comment below for a chance to win a $10 Starbucks giftcard to feed that caffeine addiction 🙂 Winner will be picked at 9am EST tomorrow (that is, if you’ve had your coffee and are awake) What did you do this past weekend? Share a photo that you took in the comments – picture with the most ‘likes’ will be our featured cover photo for the rest of the week! Contest ends on Monday at 11am PST. If I could be anywhere in the world right now, I would be in __________________. Share your favorite vacation destination for a chance to win! Winner will be picked at noon EST tomorrow! Who is the first character to utter any kind of speech in the original Star Wars? Guess the right answer and you could win this Darth Vader t-shirt! Winner will be picked at 9pm EST tomorrow! Who is the only MLB player to hit a homerun in his first two World Series at-bats? Share the right answer and you could win tickets to the 2013 World Series! We’ll pick the lucky winner at noon EST tomorrow. Check back on our fan page wall to see if you won! My favorite song is ________ by _______. Post your favorite song and artist below and win tickets to the next show! We’ll pick a winner from the comments at 5pm on Wednesday! If you could eat only one thing from our menu for 365 days, what would it be? Share with us for your chance to win a giftcard! Winner will be announced at 3pm EST on Tuesday! My favorite thing to do at the beach is _______. Share your favorite beach-day hobby with us, and you could win a trip to Cancun for Spring Break! Giveaway ends at 4pm EST tomorrow. Who was the first astronaut to go into space? Answer correctly, and you could win tickets to the Air & Space museum downtown! Contest ends at 5pm EST tomorrow. “A flute without holes is not a flute. A donut without a hole, is a Danish.” – ?? Name who said this quote and from what movie, and you could win a [INCENTIVE]! We’ll post the winner to our wall at 5pm EST tomorrow.

Sentence architecture for high converting Facebook contests

For brands looking to make Facebook contests that’ll get likes and comments on their brands timeline, you can follow the formula below and it’ll work every time.

Call to Action Incentive Ending Time Rules and Regulations

This will keep the Facebook Timeline Contest focused and brand specific for best results.

Your turn

Do you think you’ll run a Timeline Contest on your Fan Page?

Guest author: Alex Shamy is a very cool marketer at Heyo

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