Using your Facebook page is a simple and easy way to communicate with your audience. When you post on your Facebook page, you can post the latest news about your fundraiser, showcase who is in the lead, talk about your prizes and remind your audience about contest deadlines.
In a hurry? Jump to each section:
- Creating a Facebook Post for Your Contest
- Facebook Post Ideas
- Pinning Your Post to the Top of Your Facebook Page
- Updating Your Cover Photo
- Why You Should Boost Facebook Posts
- How Do I Boost a Post?
- I Don't Want to Pay to Boost Posts on Facebook
- Don't Forget About Facebook Stories
- Facebook Stories Ideas
Creating a Facebook Post for Your Contest
Your post should include:
- A call to action for people to enter, vote, and share your contest link
- Your main prize(s)
- Why you're having the contest (raising money for a certain project, fund, medical need, etc)
- A direct link to your contest
💡 Experiment with putting the link to your contest in the comment section of your posts, instead of in the main body of your post. Facebook tends to penalize outbound external links (links that take users away from the Facebook platform).
Why does Facebook penalize posts with links? Every external link is a doorway that lets users escape to the wider web—or even a competitor. Including the link to your contest in the comments of your posts might help to bypass the external link penalty.
💡 Using a URL shortener may also help the reach of your post. Use our custom one here!
💡 Don't forget to tag the Facebook page of any sponsors your contest may have!
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Example post: 📸 Join the Fun and Help Save Lives! 🐾 We need your support: Every vote costs just a small donation, and all proceeds go directly toward providing life-saving care. 🎉 The TOP 13 PHOTOS with the most votes will be featured in our exclusive 2026 Calendar, and the #1 photo will shine as the COVER STAR! 👉 Enter your pet, vote for your favorites, and share the contest link with friends and family to spread the word. Celebrate the love for your cherished friend by helping others! ENTER HERE: https://gogo.photo/go16 |
💡 Need help crafting your message? This is where AI like ChatGPT can really shine. Give it a few prompts about your contest (contest theme; how many winners and prizes; any sponsors) and why you are raising funds, let it know that you want it written as a social media post, and see what magic it comes up with!
Graphics for your Facebook post:
The easiest way to start is to create a new Facebook post with your marketing message, and include a link to your contest (https://wwww.gogophotocontest.com/yourcontestname).
Facebook will automatically pull in your contest's banner when you include the link to your contest in your post:
Another option is to create a fun graphic using an easy-to-use design tool like Canva.com.
Registered non-profits can gain access to all of Canva's premium tools for FREE-- find out more here!
Example of a quick graphic created using Canva
💡 Including your contest banner, a fun graphic, or even a video makes your post more likely to be noticed when someone is scrolling through their Facebook newsfeed.
Facebook Post Ideas
Here are some example posts that we recommend during the course of your contest:
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Check out our latest entry to our photo contest!
https://www.gogophotocontest.com/linktoentry -
Have you seen who is currently in the lead of our photo contest?
https://www.gogophotocontest.com/yourcontestname - Only 4 hours left until our photo contest closes, and we're $xxxx away from our goal. Reminder: The top 13 photos with the most votes will be included in our exclusive 2026 Calendar, and the photo with the most votes will be the cover star! It's not too late to enter or vote! https://www.gogophotocontest.com/yourcontestname
Great Examples of Facebook Posts
🔍 Click on each example to view larger
⭐️✨Unique Facebook Post Ideas ✨⭐️
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The Seeing Eye encouraged their followers to interact with their post by requesting that they post links to their favorite entries in the comments. Having their followers engage with their post boosted their post's visibility in the Facebook feeds of their audience. |
Brandywine Valley SPCA updated their Facebook cover photo with their banner, giving it visibility at the top of their Facebook page. |
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Lint Roller Productions invited followers to engage with their Facebook post by commenting the name of their favorite contestant, rewarding each comment with 15 bonus votes. This interactive approach energized their audience and boosted the post’s visibility in news feeds, expanding its reach and impact. |
Colorado Pet Pantry posted their winner to Facebook, and also shared the very important impact their winning donation made for the pets in their care. |
Pinning a Post to the Top of Your Facebook Page
Pinning a post about your GoGo Photo Contest will place it at the top of your Facebook page in the "Featured" section (see red box). This gives it maximum exposure whenever someone visits your page.
Pinning posts is free and easy-to-do. You can learn how to pin a Facebook post right at this link.
Updating Your Facebook Cover Photo
Updating your Facebook page's cover photo to reflect your contest fundraiser (whether that's with your contest banner or another graphic that you design) is another excellent way to give LARGE visibility to your fundraiser (unlike a Facebook post that may get lost in your feed).
Here are two examples, and you can find instructions at this link:
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Why You Should Boost Facebook Posts
Facebook has made it harder than ever to reach out to your followers for free, and penalizes sharing what it deems "promotional" links. This penalty is in the form of very low reach, meaning your post will only be shown to a small percentage of your FB followers.
While posting to your Facebook page is free, we recommend that you use the "Boost Post" advertising option Facebook makes available to ensure that your contest is getting out to your entire audience.
It's easy to tell if your organic reach is down: You may have 15,000 followers on Facebook, yet the posts you make may only garner 10 or 15 likes from your audience.
This means that only 2-5% of your Facebook audience are seeing the posts you make.
💡 At the very least, you should consider boosting the very first post that you make that's announcing your contest.
How Do I Boost a Post?
Facebook has step-by-step instructions right at this link:
How to boost a post from your Facebook Page➛
How Many Posts Should I Boost?
This depends on your budget.
We recommend boosting 1-3 posts throughout the duration of your contest: a post announcing your photo contest, a post in the middle (when participation may be dropping off), and a post at the very end reminding participants that the contest is coming to a close.
I Don't Want to Pay to Boost Posts on Facebook
And that's totally fine! Here are some things you can do on Facebook to make sure that your message still gets out:
- Create a Facebook post without a link to your contest in the main message, and instead include the link to your contest in the comments of that post. This might help to bypass the promotional link penalty.
- Post about the contest often-- if not daily, at least 2-3 times a week. Talk about the current entrants, prizes, etc (see Facebook Post Ideas above).
- Change your Facebook cover photo to the banner for your photo contest (see Brandywine Valley SPCA's example).
- Pin your posts to the top of your Facebook page for maximum visibility (See Pinning Posts above).
- Encourage other members of your rescue group/organization/shelter to "like" and share the posts you make about the contest. The more "likes" and shares a post has, the chances increase of your post appearing on the newsfeed of your other followers.
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If you have any sponsors, encourage them to share posts you make about the contest to their own Facebook pages, or create their own posts about your contest.
📣 Most importantly, you should strongly consider email marketing. If you don't have an email list, it's time to consider compiling one. In the age of fickle social media CEOs, boosted/promoted posts, and waning Facebook usage, it's time to return to email as a way to spread your message. Learn more about email marketing➛
Don't Forget About Facebook Stories
With Facebook Page Stories, you can share content that represents your organization directly from your mobile device. Stories engage your audience and allow you to develop deeper connections in a more frequent, authentic and casual way. You can share pictures and short videos to bring your audience behind the scenes.
Page Stories appear at the top of your follower's Facebook Feed in a highly visible area. People can also tap on your mobile Page's profile picture to see your Page story.
Learn more about creating Facebook Stories➛