How to Drive More Traffic to Your Company's Facebook Page

So you've built yourself a Facebook page to promote your business (perhaps using a tool like Pagemodo, which helps non-designers create professional-looking Facebook sites). Now what? How can you bring lots of new visitors to your page and get them to "like" it?

One word: contests. Everybody loves 'em, whether the prize is something simple like a free meal or an extravagant goodie like an iPad 2. (My advice: start with something that costs you little or nothing, then raise the stakes only if you don't get a good response. You may find that a small carrot brings in the most rabbits.)

Okay, so how do you set up a Facebook contest -- and get the best possible response to it? For starters, check out Woobox, a great service that helps you host contests on your Facebook page. It's one of many such services; others include Wildfire and ShortStack. (The latter can help you design your Facebook page as well.)

What kind of contest should you run? I recommend something that engages people instead of just getting them to click "Like."

For example, I recently entered a Zoup contest for a $25 gift card. The challenge was to write the best caption for an amusing photo, which definitely appealed to my creative nature. It was fast, easy, and fun to enter.

And those are key ingredients, according to Wendy Kenney, author of 5 Tips for Running Facebook Contests. Among her suggestions:

One way to build your brand and generate buzz is to feature an interactive contest that inspires user participation, encourages users to invite other users to participate, and provides a reason for users to keep coming back to see what's happening. ShortStack, one of the contest app providers, helped one of their users, a clothing company, increase their fan base from 3,500 to 25,000 in a single campaign. By offering to give away a pair of jeans to fans who were nominated by 20 other fans of the company, the campaign got users to get their friends and family to "Like" the company's page so they could nominate them and help them win a pair of jeans. This is a perfect example of how participation and multiple interactions through contest activities can drive fan engagement.

One last thing: The key byproduct of any Facebook contest is a database of the entrants' email addresses, which you can then use for any number of marketing efforts. (Best bet: Turn every non-winner into a "winner" by offering an exclusive discount.)