How to play a lottery with a gift in contact. VK prize draw: key rules, features. Choosing a theme and prizes

Hi all! In my previous articles about family business in IT, I talked about how we worked long and hard to launch our own service. Now we are actively developing Energoslon, and in this article I want to talk about how our first PR campaign was organized.

After the launch of the service and my article on Habré, we received our first clients and a large dose of positivity. However, it was necessary to move on. The service is still very young and little-known. Therefore, we were faced with a task: to increase the recognition of Energoslon.

I have a site, I need an idea

There is a fairly large community of website promotion specialists (SEO specialists) on the Internet, who are the core of our target audience. There are two main forums where SEOs hang out: searchengines.guru and maultalk.com. At the same time, the attendance of the first forum is higher and amounts to 35-40 thousand users per day.

In fact, we based ourselves on this information when choosing a platform for our PR campaign. It so happened that the traditional and already familiar scheme for “bringing an SEO service to people” looks like this:

1. A corporate account is purchased on the forum.
2. The theme “Meet the new service” is created, all sorts of goodies are offered to users: a free period, bonuses and discounts.
3. It pays to pin a topic higher.

Well, then the forum members watch, study, scold, praise. Over time, the thread turns into a kind of customer feedback channel.

The method is good, proven. But somehow he became boring. We wanted to present Energoslon in a more original way, to show that we are positive, cool and customer-oriented. This is how the idea of ​​holding some kind of competition was born, all that remained was to come up with what kind.

Let's hold a lottery?

Since we decided to hold a competition on the forum, it was important to collect as many comments as possible. After all, the more actively a topic is commented on, the higher it stays in the ranking, the more users see it, the more actively they comment on it... Well, you get the idea.

And then I came across an article on Habré “How to make a competition so that more than 2 people participate in it.” In this article, Milfgard talks about the seemingly obvious reason why people don't participate in various competitions. And the reason for this is laziness. The rules of the competition should be so simple and the prizes attractive that even for the laziest person the desire to receive a prize is stronger than the reluctance to do anything for it.

What could be simpler than a lottery? You get a ticket and wait, whether you’re lucky or not. Having learned about the lottery from Mail.ru, in which more than 20 thousand people had already taken part at that time, I realized that laziness can be defeated!

Calculations, logic and combinatorics

Surely many people watched the program “Russian Lotto” in childhood, we decided to take exactly this principle as the basis for the drawing. Each participant receives a ticket.


Then, live on air, barrels with numbers are pulled out of the bag, participants cross out the numbers on their lottery ticket, and the one with the “combination” wins.

This scheme fit perfectly into the format of the drawing on the forum. After all, users will ask for tickets in the comments, and we will give out these tickets in the comments. This way the topic will always rise in the rankings.

In traditional lotto, there can be multiple winners and the prize pool is shared among everyone. We were giving away prizes, not money. Therefore, each ticket had to be unique.

Besides, I really didn’t want to win a ticket that wasn’t distributed.

So, let's solve a simple math problem

Given: There are 5 numbers on the ticket. The combination of numbers in each ticket is unique. The order doesn't matter. There are 90 kegs in a bag.
Question: how many tickets are there?

Solution.
The rules of combinatorics tell us that the number of combinations without repetitions of n different elements of m is calculated by the formula:

Those. the number of possible combinations is 90!/(5!85!)=86*87*88*89*90/120.
Too much! Accordingly, in order to reduce the number of tickets, you need to either reduce the number of numbers in the ticket or the number of barrels.

Of course, we hoped for the maximum effect, but we understood that it was unlikely that we would be able to distribute more than 500 tickets. Therefore, we decided to play it safe and add barrels as needed. Those. First, we distribute all the tickets that combine 10 numbers of 5. Then we add the 11th barrel. When all possible combinations of 11 numbers have been dealt, add the 12th barrel and so on.

At the same time, we announced to users that no more than 3,003 tickets will be distributed in total. Those. the maximum number of kegs would be 15. Limiting the number of tickets encouraged users to be more active and hurry up to claim their ticket.

As it turned out, the scheme was chosen correctly. We gave away a total of 316 tickets, so there were 11 kegs in the bag for the drawing. Moreover, in 13 days, the message on the forum was viewed almost 20,000 times. SEO specialists learned about Energoslon, which means everything was going according to plan.

Choosing a theme and prizes

It’s mid-October, people around are gloomy and sad. As everyone in the office began to get sick in turn, from friends and acquaintances I increasingly heard conversations in the spirit of “how I’m sick of everything!” In general, the surrounding atmosphere gave me the idea to hold a draw under the auspices of “Down with autumn depression!” And choose soft, warm and positive things as prizes. We set the total prize fund at 50 thousand rubles, and 18 prizes were awarded.

List of prizes

I paid for some of the prizes in advance to be sure of their availability. I agreed with online stores on delayed delivery, since I could provide the addresses of the winners only after the drawing. I didn’t buy the iPad in advance, assuming that I would then choose an online store that delivered to the region where the winner lived.

By the way, this was the right decision. The main winner was a resident of Ukraine, so it was much easier to buy an iPad in a Ukrainian store. Just 3 days after the drawing, the winner received his long-awaited gift.

How to organize an online broadcast

The next issue that needed to be resolved was conducting an online broadcast. Google and its Hangouts helped us here. Hangouts has the ability to broadcast live on YouTube. Moreover, the number of simultaneous viewers of the broadcast is not limited in any way. This is exactly what we needed.

Video filming had to be organized in such a way that viewers could see:

• firstly, the leader;
• secondly, a pouch, which should always be in the frame;
• thirdly, the numbers on the barrels.

It became clear that we needed to shoot with two cameras. To do this, in Hangouts we decided to organize a video conference between two users and switch cameras at the right time. We also needed a microphone so that I could be heard clearly. And a Bluetooth headset to tell me in my ear the names of the winners and other information.

So, 4 laptops, two cameras, two microphones, and a Bluetooth headset were simultaneously used in the online broadcast. None of us had experience in holding such events, but I think we did a pretty good job.

Here's a diagram of how everything was organized:

The operator's task was to switch between cameras and display on the screen the numbers of the barrels pulled out of the bag.
The director entered the numbers of the barrels into the database, determined the names of the winners and reported them to me. The observer watched the live broadcast on YouTube and chatted with users.

Here's a snippet of the draw:

And here’s what it looked like “from behind the scenes.” I apologize for the quality of the photo, the camera was successfully forgotten at home.

Results

The drawing took place on Friday, November 7th. Not all participants have received the prizes yet, since many winners do not live in Russia. However, the iPad has already found its hero.

I know the main question on your mind is “What is the economic impact of the giveaway?” But it's too early to draw conclusions.

I will give a full report on the numbers in the next article from the series “Family Business in IT”, which, as I previously promised, will be published in a year (now already 11 months). Now I don’t want to disclose any numbers so as not to injure my competitors. What I can say with confidence: the main goal of the draw - to increase the recognition of Energoslon - has been successfully completed.

And finally, we have prepared a compilation of footage, mainly from rehearsals, so that you understand how we prepared for the broadcast. Positive and good mood to everyone!

Holding competitions on VKontakte is one of the most effective ways to promote and attract people to the group. With the help of all kinds of competitions, you can not only increase the number of subscribers, but also revive your audience. Users are happy to repost in the hope of winning.

There are a huge number of regional communities that have become popular and gained a large audience due to the fact that they relied on promotional drawings for prizes for joining and reposting.

How to conduct sweepstakes on VKontakte

Today, for a competition to bring results, you need to try very hard, show imagination and spend money on the prize fund. The audience is already tired and has begun to participate less in such events, which is why administrators have a logical question: how to properly conduct a VKontakte drawing in order to interest users?

Despite the fact that each competition must be individual and creative, there are some features that are typical for events of this kind. Don't know how to run giveaways Just follow the basic rules.

Rules for holding competitions

The first thing to do is to properly organize the competition so that as many people as possible can participate and have someone to choose from. It is imperative to describe in detail the conditions of the drawing, that is, what actions need to be performed, what the prize will be, when and how the results will be summed up.

Basic moments

The following points will attract the user's interest:

1. The visual component is very important, users will be more willing to take part in the competition if they see the prize, so place an attractive picture on the poster, ideally this should be an image of the prize.
2. Don’t know how to hold a prize draw on VKontakte? First of all, do not forget that the main interest for participants is prizes. Therefore, write down information about them in detail. For example, the winner will receive pizza for first place, a 50% discount coupon for second place, and a 10% discount for third place. The more prize places, the more actively participants will be included in the drawing.
3. Please describe the conditions in detail - what needs to be done to participate? The conditions should not be complex, and if there are several of them, then divide them into points. Example:
   • "You must be subscribed to our group."
   • "You should repost the post."
   • “You cannot delete a post before the end of the competition,” etc.
4. Indicate the end date of the drawing and how the winner will be selected. For example, “On the last day of the month, using the application to select the winner, the results will be summed up, the process will be filmed and posted in the group. Good luck, guys!”

How to interest your audience

How to conduct “VKontakte” drawings in a group so that the competition is of interest to the participants? We need to add some creativity.

Come up with an occasion dedicated to some event, holiday or any other occasion. Despite the fact that everyone has long understood the purpose of competitions, it will bring more results if participants see in it an interesting legend that will add ambiance. The draw can be timed:

• by calendar date;
• release of a new seasonal collection of a store/brand;
• launch of the season (skiing, summer, etc.);
• the onset of summer;
• as support for a promotion, sale, new arrival of goods, etc.

You can come up with a huge number of interesting and creative ideas.

When choosing a topic, do not forget that this tool makes it possible not only to gather an audience in the VKontakte group, but can also be an effective marketing tool that will help convey information about products to consumers, and most importantly, increase sales. So how can you conduct a “VKontakte” drawing among reposts as efficiently as possible?

What else to pay attention to

For good results you also need:

1. Choose a thematic prize. You shouldn't play the microwave if your specialty is sporting goods. This approach will not only prevent you from attracting the maximum target audience, but will also put you in a stupid position. In addition to the fact that the prize must be consistent with the activities of the community, it must also be valuable either in value or uniqueness.
2. Write a unique text. The key to the success of any competition is a bright picture and catchy text. Today, in the age of information overload, users scroll through the news feed very quickly, rarely stopping only at interesting posts. Your task is to hook a person and not scare them off with long text. Remember that the reader makes a decision in seconds.
3. Advertise the competition. Don’t know how to hold a VKontakte giveaway? If the community size is less than 10 thousand participants, then you can’t count on good results. Think over this point in advance, pay for advertising, and negotiate with the administrators of similar groups about reposts. Cooperation with like-minded communities always produces results, but under no circumstances work with direct competitors.
4. Remind subscribers about the competition. If the prize is valuable, then the competition can be extended over a long period. Some competitions last for a month, and many subscribers simply forget about it, and new community members may not even know about the competition. To avoid this, you can do the following:
   • pin the announcement of the competition in the community header;
   • publish additional posts about the draw with a link to the main post;
   • send out a newsletter about the competition (on your own website, on other resources, by mail).

Summarizing

The correctness of the summing up procedure should be approached with particular care.

Are you thinking about how to conduct VKontakte giveaways? The random winner must be chosen fairly. The key to future successful competitions is transparent and clean elections of the winner. If your goal is to develop the group and work with the audience, then additional risks are not needed. If results are suspected of being manipulated or other violations are detected, the group may be blocked altogether. How to avoid this?

1. Choose the winner honestly, making the process as transparent as possible (video report, photo report or live broadcast).
2. Submit your results strictly on time.
3. Post a photo or video of the prize being presented.

Ask the winner to write a review, talk about his impressions of the giveaway, about the product, separating a separate topic for such posts in the group.

Competitions can trigger bans

Most community administrators know how to hold a VKontakte raffle, but they do not know that all kinds of competitions can also cause harm. There are a number of rules, failure to comply with which may result in blocking the community. Therefore, carefully study the requirements, choose conditions and prizes.

Virtual rewards in the form of gifts, votes, and stickers can only be given to participants in creative competitions, such as for the best drawing or photograph. When distributing virtual prizes for your activity in the community, you may be blocked.

If the community administrator complies with all the listed rules, then he has nothing to fear. Next, you can move on to the issue of determining the winner.

How to choose a winner

We have discussed how to conduct VKontakte sweepstakes, now let’s move on to how to choose a winner. There are various ways to do this, but in most cases, a random participant who shares the competition post with friends wins. If you choose manually, the administrator may be suspected of cheating, so it is better to use special services and record the process on video.

There are various applications that automatically determine the winner. It’s not difficult to find them; to do this, in the menu on the left, go to the “Games” section, and enter the name of the application in the search bar. What applications are there?

• Lucky you. The most popular program with which you can very quickly and easily choose a winner. It’s easy to use: insert the link to the entry about the competition in the top field, and the link to the community in the bottom field. The program will automatically determine the winner from the list of participants who shared the post.
• "Choice" The advantage of this application is that it can determine any number of winners who shared a post from those participating in the competition.
• Random App. To get started with this program, you must allow access to your personal information. There are several options for choosing winners: those who shared the post, by likes, from all participants.

Websites

In addition to the official VKontakte applications, you can use the following sites:

• Konkurzilla.ru. Working with the site is extremely simple; you do not need to install anything or open access to personal information. You just need to enter a link to the competition post, and you will receive a list of winners (you can select up to 100 people);
• "Vkonkurs.rf". To select the winning participant, you must provide a link to the competition and press the “Define” button. It is possible to select several winners at once.
• Megarand.ru. The site contains additional functions, such as setting a check for a specified time. This is convenient when the draw ends at an inconvenient time. You can specify the number of winners and the list of gifts they are entitled to. It is also possible to check whether all competition conditions are met.

There are a huge number of ideas for how to conduct VKontakte sweepstakes, as well as ways to determine the winners. The main thing is to do it honestly and openly, then everything will work out for you.

You create an entry in your community, where you publish a photo with a gift and describe the conditions for receiving it. A prerequisite is to join your community and repost (click on the “tell friends” button) under the entry with this promotion (in VK). Without this, there is no point in holding this competition. Other conditions are at your discretion. You also choose the number of winners. Usually this is 1 person. The period is also at your discretion, I did it for 1 month. Here is an example text:

Where can I get non-standard characters in the form of VKontakte emoticons?

In this text, for example, non-standard digit-symbols 1 and 2 are used. They cannot be found among the standard symbols. And I found them in this group.

Use them or not, decide for yourself. 🙂 But definitely, pranks decorated with emoticons look more attractive.

What do you need?

1. Choose a prize that you will give to one of those who repost your post (it does not have to be any product, it can be 100 rubles to the phone account). I recommend giving only what you actually have in stock, and so that the picture does not differ from what you will actually give. It is advisable to entrust the image to an experienced designer, it needs to be attractive :) Here are examples of images that I made in Photoshop:

   

   

2. Set the promotion period and write the text of the draw with all the conditions. You can copy them from others. Here are 3 links to communities where only giveaways are published:
3. After the publication of our action, unfortunately, crowds of people wishing to participate will not come to us. And all because they simply don’t know about it yet. Your task now is to notify as many VKontakte users as possible. To do this, you need to select a public or group and buy advertising there for this post. What matters here is whether you work with all of Russia or only in your city. Based on this, you select a group to buy advertising. Nowadays there are many groups and public pages where they post only such information. Some do it for free, others pay. The cost is different everywhere. I even remember in my experience there was a community to which you pay money, give the drawing text and image, they post it on their site and choose the winner themselves. Since the message about the giveaway was posted in their community, they had to order another advertisement in another group to repost this post from their community. Otherwise I would just order advertising for this post from my community. It turned out that in this way I promoted not only this competition, but their public. I still recommend that you do not buy in communities where only sweepstakes are published, since you will notice that after the winner is determined, your group will be unsubscribed en masse. Where then should you place it, you ask? If you work only in your city, then I can recommend news communities in your city.
4. Next, you will need to choose a winner. I use - Random.app / Prize draws.
   I have already told you how to choose the winner. It is advisable to make a video. I usually do this using Qip Shot. You can download it from here: https://welcome.qip.ru/shot
   Using it, you can take both video and screen photos (screenshots). You can capture the entire screen or a specific area. You can also add arrows, frames, text, etc. to the screenshot.
   
5. Here are 2 examples of videos shot using it. In the video, the winner is first selected, and then his presence in the group is checked.
   Video #1
   Video No. 2
   
6. Well, the last step is presenting a gift to the winner. If he lives in another city, you will have to send it by mail or transport company at your own expense.

Cost of organizing the competition

• 1000 rub. — approximate value of the prize (may be higher or lower).
• 300 rub. - the work of a designer.
• 1200 rub. — approximate advertising budget if you buy advertising for 600 rubles. 2 times: after the publication of the drawing and in the middle of the term. The more you spend on advertising, the better.
• 400 rub. — the approximate cost of delivery by mail or shopping center to another city.

Total: 2900 rub. Afterwards, I advise you to be sure to measure the number of people who have joined your community. Once you know this number, you can divide it by expenses and see how much 1 subscriber cost you. 🙂 That’s all, if you have any questions, write in the comments. Bye everyone! 🙂

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• Why is it now dangerous to mention the word “lottery” when conducting marketing campaigns?
• Is it possible to determine the winner of the promotion randomly and set limits on the number of prizes?

In this article I will tell you, how to hold a draw prizes correctly and not receive a fine of 300 thousand rubles for this.

To increase demand for their products, companies hold various competitions, sweepstakes, games, quizzes, but in essence they are all lotteries. An unpleasant surprise for business came from Federal Law No. 416-FZ of December 28, 2013 (amending the Law “On Lotteries”), which actually imposed a ban on organizing such events from January 1, 2014. If previously any company could hold an incentive lottery, having previously notified the tax office, now only the state has this right. Lotteries can be all-Russian and international, as well as draw and non-draw. In the first case, the prize fund is played out between all participants at the same time after the distribution of lottery tickets; in the second, information that allows determining the winnings is included in lottery tickets (including electronic ones) at the stage of their production (creation).

If you want to run a lottery. First, you need to select a lottery organizer (this role may be played by any federal executive body), submit an application to participate in the competition (there may be several applicants) and wait for the results. If the decision is positive, your company will receive the status of a lottery operator. Please note that companies that meet certain requirements are allowed to participate in the competition, for example, they have no debts to the budget. One more nuance: the company that wins the competition undertakes to transfer to the state 10% of the difference between the revenue received and the winnings paid. This money will be used to finance socially significant facilities and events. To ensure that funds are received, the organizer often requires the operator to provide an irrevocable bank guarantee valid for at least five years.

How to hold a draw? To avoid dealing with government agencies, it is better to hold sweepstakes or promotions. The main thing is that this marketing ploy is not regarded as a lottery. Otherwise, the company will be fined 200–300 thousand rubles. for holding a promotional event without permission from the Government of the Russian Federation.

Signs of a lottery (according to the Federal Law of November 11, 2003 No. 138-FZ “On Lotteries”): purchasing a ticket for money; drawing a prize using special equipment (lottery machines); formation of a prize fund from proceeds received from ticket sales; random way to determine the winners. Therefore, when conducting a promotion, your marketers must exclude these criteria, since the presence of at least one of them will lead to it being recognized as a lottery.

The American company HubSpot found out which first sentences do not inspire the reader, but, on the contrary, force them to delete the letter.

In our article we have collected 5 such phrases and ways to correct mistakes.

You can do this as follows:

• collect requests from customers for free, for example, using your company’s website or SMS messages;
• if you need to draw a ticket to determine the winner, use a regular vase for this;
• form the prize fund from your own funds, and not from money from ticket sales ;
• establish an algorithm for determining the winners.

At the same time, it is possible that even after fulfilling all the requirements, you will still have to defend your position in court. The following methods will help you increase your chances of winning.

Rules for the prize draw: how not to come to the attention of inspectors

Method 1.To avoid the factor of chance, give prizes to everyone who applied to participate in the promotion. In this case, your client does not risk anything: receiving a prize does not depend on the will of fate, but only on his actions aimed at receiving the winnings (for example, by filling out an application on the website). True, the question remains open about what prize the participant will receive: the main one, an incentive one, or one of several (receipt of the main prize can be regarded as something that happened by chance). It is also worth noting that you cannot limit the number of prizes. Phrases like "the number of prizes is limited" or “the prize will be awarded to the first five applicants” will also be considered a violation. To avoid such incidents, it is better to write in the conditions as follows: “prizes are distributed according to the approved methodology”, “prizes are awarded based on objectively obtained data”, that is, immediately eliminate the factor of chance. Here, for example, is how the Yves Rocher Vostok company tried to bypass the rule of chance when determining the winners of the holiday promotion “City of Flowers for You”: “1st, 2000th, 4000th, 6000th, 8000th and 10,000th - participants of the promotion who have placed an order for products are entitled to receive a prize from the organizer of the promotion. Participants of the promotion who are entitled to receive a prize become the winners of the promotion.”

Method 2.Form a jury to select the winners. You can give prizes to those who cope best with a creative task (for example, who speaks most effectively about their love for a product, writes the most romantic letter, comes up with the most original use of packaging, etc.). Then the final result will depend not on chance, but on the creative abilities of the participant, which must be assessed by a competent jury.

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Prize or gift ?

To avoid being subject to restrictions, replace the word “prize” with the word “gift”, indicating the conditions for receiving it. For example, one of the companies offers gifts to the first five customers who make the largest purchases, or the first five customers who pay for goods on the 5th of the month at all fifth cash registers in the network. In this case, all gifts are paid from the profits of previous periods.

We've released a new book, Social Media Content Marketing: How to Get Inside Your Followers' Heads and Make Them Fall in Love with Your Brand.

VK is one of the most popular social networks, which opens up maximum opportunities for users. With its help, you can not only maintain communication with friends, but also implement various commercial ideas and ideas. One of the effective tools for successfully running and promoting a business are groups and communities. You can attract new audiences through sweepstakes. Next, we will tell you in detail how to hold a competition in VK and what you can achieve with its help.

The principle of the drawings

All competitions on VK follow the same pattern. It involves performing the following actions:

• publication of a separate entry that contains information about the rules of participation;
• selection of a picture that matches the theme of the drawing or prizes;
• creating a prize fund (or purchasing raffled goods and services).

The competition entry must contain information about the number of prizes, the timing of the promotion, as well as the method for determining the winners. The visual component is of particular importance - users will be more willing to take part in the drawing if they see what awaits them if they win. That is why it is recommended to place photographs of prizes on competition posters.

Another factor that encourages users to participate is the simplicity of the conditions, so there is no need to come up with complex schemes. The rules for holding competitions require participants to fulfill the following points:

• subscribe to a public page or join a group;
• like the competition entry;
• repost it;
• do not delete the post from your page until the end of the promotion.

As a rule, the number of prizes awarded varies from one to three. The more prizes there are, the more willing people are to take part.

VK management policy

As a rule, the owners of groups and public sites decide to hold a drawing on VK in order to expand the audience and increase the activity of subscribers. Previously, automated programs and cheating applications were used for these purposes, but the VKontakte administration launched a serious campaign to combat them. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, all the methods that help increase the number of subscribers and likes do not allow the group to earn money from its target audience. And secondly, they undermine the internal ecosystem of the social network, which negatively affects the incentives to fill public pages with high-quality and interesting content.

In addition to external resources, VK management is fighting communities that specialize in distributing prizes to everyone who joins them and invites a certain number of friends. They are variations of automatic cheating programs and facilitate the sending of spam and illegal advertising.
Official rules for holding competitions in VK:

• Groups that are entirely dedicated to distributing votes and other virtual gifts for joining them and inviting friends are subject to penalties and are blocked without warning. It is not recommended to use them for advertising purposes or to promote goods and services.
• When organizing competitive events in commercial or entertainment groups, you should not use VK virtual objects (votes, stickers, gifts, etc.) as prizes. Give preference to your organization's products and services. This way you will not only increase the target audience of the community, but also promote your own brand and increase interest in its products.

By adhering to these rules, you will successfully conduct the draw without blocking or other penalties.

How to hold a draw on VK

You must consider three important aspects:

• The competition must be creative and interesting.
• The prizes to be played must be real (a product or service that the winner can use).
• Do not encourage users to subscribe to the community - this will not bring you many new subscribers.

At the end of the entry, be sure to indicate how the winner will be determined. This will convince participants of the fairness of the event and dispel assumptions about fraud. As a rule, applications such as:

• Random App is an official application recommended by VK management. To use it, you must allow access to confidential information. The winner can be chosen by likes or reposts.

An honest and clear determination of the winner is the key to a successful competition. If you are suspected of rigging the results, the group may be blocked. You will avoid this by providing participants with irrefutable evidence: video or photo report, live broadcast. In addition, results must be summed up within a strictly specified time frame. When the prize is awarded, it is recommended to take a photo or video with the winner.

What competitions can be held

Competitions and sweepstakes are clearly regulated by VK management. If you fail to comply with at least one of the established rules, you risk being subject to penalties and being blocked from the community. Next, we will talk about what it is strictly forbidden to do during competitions, and how to avoid getting banned.

Young groups often offer the following condition: repost the post and collect the maximum number of likes on it (the one who manages to get the most “Like” marks wins). Such competitive schemes are a direct path to blocking. The fact is that they stimulate artificial cheating and mass spam, thereby disrupting the internal functioning of the social network.

Often, communities require contestants to write a post of a recommendatory nature (for example, about goods or services sold to them). The one whose review ends up with the most likes wins. Such conditions are also subject to penalties and lead to blocking.

What conditions are acceptable? The organizer of the competition may require participants to:

• like the post;
• repost;
• subscribe to the community or join the group where the draw is being held;
• subscribe to one third-party source (YouTube channel, sponsorship account on Instagram, another VK public page, etc.).

To summarize all of the above, we note that regardless of the topic, competitions should be held after all prizes and gifts have been announced. People need to understand what they can get if they win. Some publics use a trick, saying that the prize fund can be increased if a certain number of contestants are recruited. Such tricks are considered illegal and are not allowed by the VK administration.