By Juliette Rule
Late last month, we were in the midst of determining how to run Sierra Trading Post contests in our social spaces. Facebook, you see, has rules about this stuff. (Remember that user agreement you agreed to when you created your Facebook account? Yep, that fine print detailed this, and you just checked the box, silly!)
At the office, I didn't have much faith I'd get my wish, which was to contract with Wildfire App, so I decided to unleash the power of free and use hy.ly social apps. I've talked a lot about hy.ly here and I talked about it a lot at the Chamber Luncheon I keynoted April 1.
I put hy.ly to the test with a sweepstakes late last month for SocialWyo after Sierra Trading Post generously agreed to provide my prize -- three gift certificates for $25. (The trade was that I'd then know how, exactly, hy.ly worked for contests.)
We test stuff like this all the time at Sierra Trading Post, so this was no big deal. But it was a nice opportunity for me to see how it worked and where then I could use it. I find it's true in a lot of social, new media stuff. You just never know how it works until you use it. In this case, I was quite happy with the ease. But I wouldn't call my use of the hy.ly app for SocialWyo a success.
This is what I learned:
We chose three winners -- two of whom were new likes, I believe. (Well, I chose four winners, but one was purposefully chosen because he could forward the notification email to me. He didn't qualify for the prize because he, too, works at Sierra Trading Post.) We gained just a dozen or so more fans. I was hoping for more, to be honest. While I'm glad the winners were all new likes, it would have been nice to have more than seven entries from which to choose the three winners.
Yes, we had more new likes than entrants. That's got to speak to my two bullet points above, for sure. I should have messaged that you had to like us and then enter the contest. Instead, one of my updates on the contest suggested that the mere act of liking us got you entered.
Actually, the hy.ly sweepstakes app choose the winners for you and sends an email telling the winners what to do next, so that was a really nice feature.The whole set up was really quite seamless. It's not as customizable, of course, as say the fancy Wildfire App, but it is low-cost, no-cost and it worked, as far as I can tell, like a charm.
Oh, you want to know who won the $25 Sierra Trading Post gift cards? Angi Harper, Frank Hoelzeman and Bobbi Wade. They were notified via email, and I hope they're each enjoying their prize. Chris Lange was the unwinner, and an awfully good sport about it!
So how about it? Are you willing to try hy.ly apps for you social platform? If so, let us know and we'll help you promote your contest here.
Late last month, we were in the midst of determining how to run Sierra Trading Post contests in our social spaces. Facebook, you see, has rules about this stuff. (Remember that user agreement you agreed to when you created your Facebook account? Yep, that fine print detailed this, and you just checked the box, silly!)
At the office, I didn't have much faith I'd get my wish, which was to contract with Wildfire App, so I decided to unleash the power of free and use hy.ly social apps. I've talked a lot about hy.ly here and I talked about it a lot at the Chamber Luncheon I keynoted April 1.
I put hy.ly to the test with a sweepstakes late last month for SocialWyo after Sierra Trading Post generously agreed to provide my prize -- three gift certificates for $25. (The trade was that I'd then know how, exactly, hy.ly worked for contests.)
We test stuff like this all the time at Sierra Trading Post, so this was no big deal. But it was a nice opportunity for me to see how it worked and where then I could use it. I find it's true in a lot of social, new media stuff. You just never know how it works until you use it. In this case, I was quite happy with the ease. But I wouldn't call my use of the hy.ly app for SocialWyo a success.
This is what I learned:
- Running a contest requires a sense of how it looks to your audience. This was by far my biggest blunder. I didn't make it clear that even those who already liked SocialWyo's Facebook Fan Page had to enter the contest, much less how to do that. Even worse, someone asked in a Facebook comment if they were automatically entered if they already liked us, and I didn't answer. (It's the bane of being an admin on five Facebook Fan Pages, I guess. I just didn't see it until it was too late.)
- Be sure to use the powers of page admin to make the Sweepstakes App the default landing page on your fan page. I'm not sure I did this. It was a busy week, but I think I did. (Do you know how to do this? Go to edit page on your fan page, then choose manage permissions, and look for the drop down that allows you to choose the default landing tab.)
- I think the sweepstakes could have been a much better tool for generating likes had I promoted it more via Twitter and Facebook. (Again, being the only admin on this page is a bit rough at times, especially as my full-time job managed to really whoop me that week!)
We chose three winners -- two of whom were new likes, I believe. (Well, I chose four winners, but one was purposefully chosen because he could forward the notification email to me. He didn't qualify for the prize because he, too, works at Sierra Trading Post.) We gained just a dozen or so more fans. I was hoping for more, to be honest. While I'm glad the winners were all new likes, it would have been nice to have more than seven entries from which to choose the three winners.
Yes, we had more new likes than entrants. That's got to speak to my two bullet points above, for sure. I should have messaged that you had to like us and then enter the contest. Instead, one of my updates on the contest suggested that the mere act of liking us got you entered.
Actually, the hy.ly sweepstakes app choose the winners for you and sends an email telling the winners what to do next, so that was a really nice feature.The whole set up was really quite seamless. It's not as customizable, of course, as say the fancy Wildfire App, but it is low-cost, no-cost and it worked, as far as I can tell, like a charm.
Oh, you want to know who won the $25 Sierra Trading Post gift cards? Angi Harper, Frank Hoelzeman and Bobbi Wade. They were notified via email, and I hope they're each enjoying their prize. Chris Lange was the unwinner, and an awfully good sport about it!
So how about it? Are you willing to try hy.ly apps for you social platform? If so, let us know and we'll help you promote your contest here.
Hi Juliette,
ReplyDeleteI am the founder of Hy.ly and it was a pleasant surprise to discover your post this morning. Thanks for the write-up!
We want folks like you to use our tools to build and manage a social media presence for your clients. For instance, we have just finished a round of changes that has evolved our Welcome Tab app into a general Tab Builder app: http://apps.facebook.com/hyly-welcome-tab-app/. But with more options, there is a need for social media specialists like you to guide folks into making the right choices from an array of options.
I would love to talk to you and learn about how we can help you. Please feel free to reach out to me at [mg at hy dot ly].
Thanks once again and I look forward to connecting with you.
Munish