Craft Focus - Aug/Sep (Issue 68)

business advice craft focus 93 with your audience, your readers have to know how and why you are hosting this competition, whether you have used the product or service yourself and who will be shipping the winner’s item. "Remember, if you have also prompted your readers to like your Facebook page, they may help you promote your competition by sharing the post themselves." Terms and conditions Terms of Service agreements on many social websites state that you cannot use the network as a means of gaining mandatory entries into a prize draw. This means you can’t get your followers to like your Facebook page as an automatic entry; they must post a comment to your original site in order for it to be counted. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest also insist that you post a disclosure notice on your competition update, stating that your giveaway is in no way affiliated with the social network. You must then post how long the competition will run for, how the winner will be picked, and how they can get in touch to claim their prize. It’s also necessary to add a time limit for the person to get in touch with you. This will allow you to pick another winner if the original entrant wasn’t quick enough to follow up. You should set an age limit (ages 18 or over), state where you will be willing to ship the prize (which may be UK only) and be clear on how many people can actually win. Spread the word Once the giveaway is up and running, you will need to promote it on social media. Be wary of spamming your readers by posting multiple updates, as this could cause you to lose followers. Once or twice per day through all of your social networks should be enough to get the word out. Remember, if you have also prompted your readers to like your Facebook page, they may help you promote your competition by sharing the post themselves. Friends in the blogging community can do this too. However, don’t send frequent emails to everyone in your network, as this may harm your reputation. Once you have picked a winner, allow them to verify their entry by giving a set amount of time to reply to you. When you have notified the person you can let other readers know who they are. It’s also a good idea to ask your winner to post on their own social pages, tagging you, to give you further reach. Michael O’Connor Grey Sergeant michael.oconnor@greysergeant.com