10 tips to win more prizes on Facebook
There are thousands of competitions launched every day on Facebook, most of them with thousands of entries too! So how can you increase your chances of winning? Here are my top tips for comping on Facebook…
1. Read the instructions
It’s an obvious one, but you wouldn’t believe how many people fall at the first hurdle! Read the instructions – and also the text on the accompanying photo. If there’s hardly any instructions or details, are you certain it’s genuine? (see my post How to identify a scam Facebook promotion). Always click see more if you can’t read all the post – sometimes the final sentence will be ‘Enter on our website’, and all those people who left just a Facebook comment won’t even be included in the draw! Follow the instructions exactly – if it says to comment ‘WIN’ then don’t leave your life story. Check what the closing date is, and who can enter – I see a lot of my friends commenting on Australian and US contests they’re not even eligible for.
2. Check your Pages Feed
Your main News Feed shows you a mix of posts and updates from friends, groups and pages – but some of those posts from friends can be distracting if you’re only hunting for comps. Instead, bookmark and visit your Pages Feed, which only shows posts from pages you follow – that’s where you’re more likely to spot the best comps. Find a link on your left menu – or go to www.facebook.com/pages/feed.
3. Search for low entry competitions
Local comps are always low entry. Join a local Facebook Comping group to share and find local comps, and Like your local magazines, shops, entertainment venues and restaurants on Facebook (you’ll often find links at the bottom of their websites). When you click to like a Facebook page, you’ll see More Pages You May Like pop up underneath – you can find lots more local pages this way. Visit these pages too, and search for giveaways by finding the Search for posts on this Page box underneath the profile photo (unfortunately not on mobile!) and typing win.
Use Facebook search and view Latest results to find local and low entry comps, especially on special days that have their own hashtag (#WorldGinDay, #WorldBookDay etc) – I find the search results easier to scroll through on mobile. Strangely enough, Twitter can be a great source of Facebook comps too – search using keywords like Facebook, page, like, comment, photo, win, competition, tickets, meal, etc in a search and click to view ‘All’ results – you can often find low entry comps like this! You can also adapt a Google search – use the text site:Facebook.com in your search box to restrict your results to Facebook.
4. Never miss a post from your favourite pages
You can select to see posts from certain pages at the top of your Facebook news feed – to do this, click Liked then See First. You can also choose to receive notifications of every post from a Facebook page, which can be handy if there’s a certain type of prize you’re after (eg. toy shops), for pages that run regular short-lived comps or for local Facebook pages that have low entry comps you might miss. To do this, click Liked, then the pencil icon next to Notifications to see a pop up window – tick the boxes to receive post notifications.
5. Don’t share!
When you share a post, it appears on the news feeds of your friends, as well as on your own profile page. That’s brilliant for a referral comp (eg. Gleam or Woobox), where any extra clicks will get you bonus draw entries, but in most cases, you’re reducing your chances in the comp as dozens of your mates click through to enter. If a promoter doesn’t even mention sharing is required, then don’t do it. If the promoter does ask you to share a post in order to enter, they’re breaking Facebook rules – and in many cases, a promoter won’t even check if their winner shared or not because it’s too difficult to do! Lots of compers don’t share at all, and still win prizes. What I tend to do is to share on the Only Me setting – and then if I’m lucky enough to win, I scroll through my timeline to find the competition and change the privacy setting of that post from Only Me to Public – just in case anyone points out they can’t see my share! I also sometimes share to a public ‘Giveaways’ group which I’ve created solely for competition shares, so I can keep them off my profile page.
6. Make comments funny and relevant
A bored promoter will smile at a comment that stands out amongst a hundred ‘Ooh lovely giveaway!’ posts featuring 40 emojis. If they’ve not been specific about what you need to comment, then post something that will make them chuckle, or something relevant to their brand. Do your research – pop to their website, read their menu, show an interest in what they have to offer rather than leaving an OTT copy & paste paragraph. Epic sob stories rarely win anything – they just make people miserable!
7. Enter as late as you can
Found a low entry comp? Don’t enter right away! Your comping friends will see your entry on their feed and come over to join you, reducing your chances of a win! Save a link to the post on a ‘to do’ list or in a bookmarks folder and return near the closing date – this is handy for creative comps, where you can check out all the other entries before submitting your own. Not sure how to get the link? Right-click on the ‘timestamp’ of the post then ‘copy link address’. After entering, move your link to an ‘Entered’ list instead of ‘To Do’ so you can check back to see who won!
8. Get some Facebook comping friends
Having a few comping friends to tag in Facebook comments when required is helpful – if your friend responds or likes your comment, it might get pushed to the top of the responses and be more likely to get noticed by a promoter (not too many tags though – again, it’s against Facebook terms of use and spammy…). Adding more comping friends will give you more content in your feed – but watch out, as there will be more friends to copy what you’re doing too! If you’re looking for Facebook friends, check the pinned post in the Lucky Learners group
9. Search for your wins
You wouldn’t believe how many people forget this bit! They busily enter hundreds of competitions, and then presume if they win, they’ll get a message in their inbox. Unfortunately it doesn’t always work like that – promoters can be slack at contacting their winners if they get no response from their first attempt! Make sure you check your Filtered Messages folder and search for your name in the public Competition Winners group. Search for your name (in quotes) plus Congratulations or Winner in the regular Facebook search bar too. If it’s a low entry or effort competition, I save the link and keep checking to see if a winner has been announced. Having said that, I did miss my own Specky Wren win in August and only found out I’d won a pair of £250 sunglasses when I popped into the shop a fortnight later!
10. Enter photo and video competitions
Most compers will skip effort competitions completely, so it’s worth taking the time to have a go. Store folders on your phone with competition photos in, so you can find them and upload quickly – great for Halloween, Mothers Day, Christmas, or just your favourite photos of the kids! You can upload a photo to your comment even for a ‘random’ draw – after all, not all promoters do pick their winners fairly, so why not make an attempt to stand out? This works well where you’re asked to comment with a unique answer (eg. what’s your favourite barbecue food, what’s your favourite Autumn activity?). On the other hand, if the promoter simply asks you to comment WIN, then adding a photo will probably make you less likely to win – use your own judgment!
Finally, upload a friendly Facebook profile photo and cover photo – and make sure your profile page is more than just spammy competition shares, because some promoters will take a look! Remember that despite what they say, lots of promoters won’t be choosing a random winner at all – so do what you can to make your entry stand out!
Found this useful? Check out these two posts with my winning Twitter and Instagram tips:
And of course, there are lots more tips in my SuperLucky Secrets book!
What are your winning tips for Facebook? Leave a comment and let me know!
Beware people I’m an oap I thought my luck had changed being told I’ve won money like a fool I was told I needed to send money to release was needed for insurance purposes I was taken in done as requested then was requested for more money This is when I said I wanted to opt out and to return my money 11 months now still having emails all excuses why I can’t get my money I have now said I will seek advice and show all evidence what I have.
I’m so sorry to hear this Hazel, you need to contact Action Fraud who can help you https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/
What is a ticker please? Newbie as you can probably tell lol
Ah, the pop up Facebook ticker has been discontinued and I need to update this blog post. It was a scrolling live feed of what your friends were doing!
Okay thank you
Hi,
I have only been comping since the end of feb and I am enjoying it, however, I am not very FB savvy! I have managed to to get to grips with the basics, thanks to a fellow comping friend but the thing that’s frustrating me, is the amount of notifications I’m getting! I’m not sure what I need to do in settings to minimise these? What concerns me, is if I turn them off, I won’t be getting any updates about comps I’ve entered? Another thing is, I’m getting duplicate notifications for every notification I get. It’s just getting frustrating now as I can’t find anything…and I’m told you can only delete each notification one by one I just can’t seem to keep up now and find my friends comments within notifications in posts they’ve tagged me in. Apologies for the very long winded message!! Thanks in advance
I get it now. Good point, I’m going to do this in future. Thank you!
Hi Di. Thanks for the fantastic advice.
On point 5, is it definitely OK to share to ‘only me’ for a Comp? I (maybe wrongly) assumed the promoter wouldn’t see it.
The promoter can’t see anything that’s not set to public (globe icon) – but the point is that most promoters don’t even bother to check if you’ve shared. It’s quicker and easier to just choose a winner from comments.
Thanks your post really help me alot
I was told I won 150000 I received a ticket confirmation number and was told to send $100 and an eBay card to release my prize is this a scam. The gentleman that contacted me was Michael John Lottery commissioner does he work for Facebook and there’s this is a real or is this a scam get back with me they asked me to send three more. 300 more dollars to release my prize I have the 300 should I give that to him so the prize can be released from FedEx within 6 hours
It’s a scam. You should NEVER have to pay any money to receive a prize!
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I am going to re-read and apply your advice to my writing.
Best tips to win on Facebook. I found all this information useful to me. Thanks for the informative article.
How about when it asks you to tag friends? How can I do this without spamming my friends?
I would avoid any comps that ask for more than 2 tags (there’s a risk you’ll get flagged as spam comment when you add too many tags!). Join a local Facebook comping group (https://superlucky.me/facebook-groups-for-compers/) and ask – or add a comment on one of our posts in the Lucky Learners Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/luckylearners/) and add two comping Facebook friends who are happy to be tagged!
I know we are supposed to make you your timeline not like you are a constant comper,But, i never know what to add to mine.I dont think pple are bothered about what i eat or if the sun is shining here. I hate taking my own photo in case it puts promoters off.
What do you have on your profile page Marie? Do you have any favourite photos of yourself when you were younger – sometimes people like to use old family photos! Posting on Facebook regularly isn’t as essential as on Twitter – on Twitter you need to send out those random non-comping tweets to ensure your account doesn’t get banned or flagged up as spam! I don’t post much on my own Facebook page, I must admit!
lol SuperLuck. Yeh down under the participants will check if you commented and shared etc. I see the comments in the winners forums regularly. Nice tip about sharing it to public afterwards thou you might have issues if the promoter is using automate software to check for public share etc.
The only issue I find if you comment and having comping contacts they notice my post. Occasional I’d put that comp in my do later at the last minute. Almost funny when you see contacts entering after the expiration time. Not something I do regularly just had an issue with one contact which regretted adding this has now come to it’s natural conclusion. (Removed from the Xmas card list). Gee lot of points I already do. I suspect your connected directly or indirectly to large comping groups. lmao.
If so handy hint check the likes on the giveaway post for “mutual” friends. If there is none then probably be more cautious if sharing the post.
I tend to focus more on the international gleam referral competitions. Thou sharing can still be an issue if it’s a more obscure giveaways and is poached and aggressively shared about. Sometimes it’s best to sit on it as late as possible or not share at all.
I’ve been comping for over 40 years Mark, so I do know what I’m doing! And I wasn’t inferring that not sharing is cheating – I was saying that if the comp asks you to share publically, and you share privately, but then go and change that share to public AFTER you’ve been picked as a winner as stated in point 5 above, than that IS cheating, or at least misleading the promoter!
Sorry I misunderstand what you meant by sharing. I’ve recently had some issues with a couple individuals regarding sharing the more obsure sourced competitions. Some compers are just vacuum cleaners and don’t appreciate the effort to track them down. Sharing giveaways I find bit of give and take. You know when the best they throw back at you is a pair of glittering thongs with 100 winners you start to worry. lol
Well I’m umpire cricket, IT background and have a very good contact which investigates any comping issue i.e. cheats or badly run giveaways if that helps. I make it a habit of checking the T&C’s. 🙂
I’m fairly sure (99.9%) if a Facebook giveaway requests mandatory sharing or tagging of friends for entry requirements, it goes against their current policy for promotions and contests. (They rather promoters pay them to advertise) This doesn’t stop promoters from doing them at their own risk with Facebook taking various forms of action.
It’s pretty widespread you will see a lot asking to share and maybe ask to tag friends. I have seen a couple of giveaways this year have their giveaway post and all shares from participants removed. One classic example was TweakTown. I happened to be checking their comments at the time when it all unfurled around May. They were scrambling around asking participants for clues what happened.
You will notice that they carefully word their giveaways now. A lot of savvy promoters have done the same. It may only take one person to report it or enough activity might alarm Facebook for action to be taken.
So is it cheating? Facebook policy and the various government regulations override any conflicting conditions, if there were complaints about the winner announced. However I wouldn’t recommend not sharing etc if they request sharing as a lot use various sites which automatically check their “criteria” for a “valid” entry.
Regarding sharing giveaways. I’ve recently created a group for international giveaways around helping each other with referral based competitions. I was disappointed with various groups dominated by a few determined/greedy individuals after observing their actions, I’m restricting my generous service. 🙂 They are mainly IT and men’s fashion giveaways. Looking for a compers that have a least some mutual respect if that exists.
A FB search you will spot my shared international referral giveaways fairly easily. There’re not your average shares. 🙂 I find by providing a bit of extra information more likely to get a few extra referrals. Additional I’ve made things enticing to encourage referrals thou it also attracts some that are total against my best interest to share.
If a seasoned comper probably know some of the sources I would use. Thou I occasional do random searches etc. Thou takes time checking the T&C’s etc. At the moment a bit manual the next step down the track to automatically trawl for giveaways.
Great articles 🙂
Do you not think that entering on facebook annoys your friends? By the way I agree with sharing. If comping makes you selfish then it’s not for you.
Exactly Stevie!
Point 5 – The whole point of comping is SHARING WITH OTHER COMPERS!!!!! What you are suggesting in your post is not far off cheating!!!!
Sorry William, I thought the whole point of comping was to win prizes! You might notice this post is tips to help YOU win more prizes, not how to help your friends win more prizes (although I could easily write that post too!). The fact is, sharing is helpful for your (comping) friends and helpful for the company but it does reduce your chance of winning significantly, which is why I’ve pointed it out in this list.
If you don’t share with others, they won’t share with you and you have less comps to enter!!!!! The whole point is to share so promoters get more entries and provide more competitions as a result!!!! I am really shocked that you take the stand you have done!!! You seem to have missed why they put the comp on in the first place!!!
Also, your point 1 says follow the rules, and your point 5 is how to get around the rules!!!
Depends how insular your comping contacts are. If close group and only each other are contacts not much of an issue and have different tastes.
It depends who’s on your “friends” list some may not be in your best interest to share everything with. I.e. the ones connected to large groups of people you don’t know.
You share with fellow compers don’t you?
Thanks for the tips Di I’ve never though about sharing to only me, I wish they wouldn’t ask you to share at all it’s so redundant nowadays for reach anyway. I don’t seem to have a ticker yet I will keep my eye out for one.
It’s also against Facebook competition and promotitions for sharing to be a mandatory criteria for entry. It does stop a lot trying thou.
Thanks Di, now using the ticker 🙂 #alwayslearning
I dislike Facebook comps these days, but having read your post, I may do some now and then!! Thanks Di!
Thank for these, I’d never heard of the ticker!