When managing your social media, you are in a constant battle for the attention of your fans. Producing worthwhile and entertaining content all of the time is hard, right? But you can win this battle!

One way of easily providing entertainment is by giving your fans the chance to win something. That excitement is good for them but also for you. Using contests and sweepstakes, you can grow your email list and increase engagement.

We have seen a lot of good examples over the last year (I am co-founder of a lead-gen tool to build Facebook contests), and I wanted to share a few ideas to help with your annual planning.

In the following infographic, there is one Facebook contest idea for every month of the year. Some promotion types mentioned are...

Sweepstakes. Entrants get a chance to win in exchange for their personal data (email address, name, and other information you ask on the entry form). There are different sweepstakes types. For a quiz, people need to answer a question correctly to win; for a poll, they need to give their opinion; and for a drawing, they need only provide their email address. You can decide to grant bonus entry points for fans who invite their friends to participate.
 
Contests. Social media contests are skill-based promotions: People need to submit a photo, a video, or an essay (probably more like a short story with the opportunity to upload image and text). The viral element here is that entrants can invite friends to vote on their uploaded entry, allowing you to reach the friends of fans.

Deals. These are mini sales events on Facebook. You can give away coupon codes redeemable on your site or in your shop. Alternatively, you can require a group of people to claim the deal together within the group offer. At a giveaway, you can distribute product samples or overstocked inventory.

If you wanted to read about some successful campaigns, check out these case studies.