WIworks recently announced a new Facebook contest directed at 501c 3 charities. The premise of this contest was to have loyal followers recommend a charity for entry into the contest, We featured that charity on our Facebook page and then created a custom application in order to begin tabulating votes for each one, real time and showcasing the results in almost a leader board fashion.  This custom voting program can be seen at http://apps.facebook.com/wiworks/fb_contest_vote.php. The charity then rallies all of their followers, board members, donors and anyone that is a supporter and has them vote and then spread the word.

The charity at the closing of the contest on May 31, 2010 wins a $10,000 web design package or SEO marketing program. In the space of only 5 weeks we have added over 1,700 (fans now likes) and the momentum continues to pick up. 4 charities are clearly competing for the top prize and way ahead of the other 24 that have been nominated. So far the friendly competition between them has been fun to be involved with.

Any business looking to find a way to increase their following can use very effectively this type of marketing, whether the contest is the cutest puppy, strangest place to use a companies product, best slogan submitted or marketing jingle or even a tip of the day or gift certificate give-away. Each of these marketing programs are designed to bring new fans, friends and followers to your Facebook site and then to your other corporate offerings and services.

Care needs to be taken however to resist the temptation of turning any of your social sites into spam or heavy self promotion programs. Friends, fans and about anyone will move away from you as fast as possible. Patience in this setting is truly a virtue that will pay off handsomely in many ways to the savvy business marketer.