Ugly Door Contest Drives Traffic to Facebook Page

Want to find a way to promote your store, its products and your social media presence? Tom Siwek, co-owner of Siwek Lumber & Millwork in Minneapolis, and his staff have learned contests on the store’s social media pages are a popular way to engage customers and drive traffic—both online and in-store. So when the staff was recently looking for a way to get more visitors to the store’s Facebook page, they knew a contest was the way to go.

Josh Siwek, Tom’s son, and Kathy Price, who work in advertising and handle the business’s social media, came up with the idea of an ugly door contest. “We chose that because we do so much with doors and millwork at our store, and recently the front door has become the focal point of homes,” says Tom.

Josh and Price used the Facebook page to reach out to homeowners who wanted to enter their front door in the contest, and then staff narrowed the entries down to the top three and
posted those photos on Facebook. The photo that gets the most “likes” after 10 days of voting wins, and the winner gets 50 percent off (up to $500) a new front door from the store.

“We saw 60 or 70 votes in the contest just within the first few days of voting,” says Tom. “During this contest, we’ve gained an additional 100 ‘likes’ for our store’s page. Those who vote often share the contest, and the page, on Facebook, which means our store’s page gets further exposure. During the voting, we’ve added photos and information about some of our doors on the page as well—it’s a nice tie-in with the contest and helps us further promote our products.”