Facebook tips for compers

I know from the messages and emails I get that lots of you are only just discovering the joys of Facebook comping! Here are a few helpful tips to get you started… It's also worth checking out these two helpful blog posts: Not winning on Facebook? and Is somebody pinching your prizes?

'Tagging' in your posts and comments
Facebook lets you tag friends and pages in your status. Friends' names should appear automatically as you type them, but did you know you can go back and delete the surname from your blue tagged name? This helps if you want your comment to read more like a natural conversation! If you see a competition post and think a particular friend will be interested, you could comment on it and tag their name so they get a notification - tagging is also useful if you see a friend of yours has won a prize, you can comment on the post with a 'Congratulations' and tag their name so they know they've won! Facebook doesn't always let you tag the pages you want to in a status update - you're more likely to be able to if you've Liked and interacted with the page; I believe this is an anti-spam measure.

Copying links
If you want to share or bookmark a status update on a Facebook wall, all you need to do is right-click on the 'timestamp' under the text or photo, and choose 'Copy Link'. OR just click on the time - the status will open in its own window and you can copy the address from your browser bar. This is useful for copying a status to a friend's wall, or bookmarking a comp for future reference (then you don't need to spend hours scrolling down the wall looking for it!), or sharing winner notifications on The Winners Circle, as it includes a link to the original page. If you repost it on Facebook, once the preview has loaded, you can delete the long link in the body of your post so you're not duplicating information.

Receiving winning messages
This is a classic, but you'd be amazed how many people don't understand why they're not receiving messages to say they've won competitions! You need to do two things - most importantly, check in your Facebook settings that you're allowing non-friends to message you. To do this, go to www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=privacy - then click 'How you connect' and ensure that 'Everyone' can send you Facebook messages. Next, regularly check your Other inbox at www.facebook.com/messages/other - this is where EVERY message from someone who's not on your Facebook Friends List will go!

Finding Facebook competitions
It's incredibly difficult to find competitions on Facebook, as there's no proper Search function! You can check out the comps listed in our PrizeFinder Facebook section and also LIKE our Facebook page - but a great tip is to use Twitter search to find the very latest comps. Simply go to www.twitter.com/search and type in 'Facebook competition' - or use this link. You don't need to be a Twitter user to do a search, and this is a great way to find low entry competitions (although be careful you don't enter the comps on the South African and Australian pages!)

Facebook can be incredibly overwhelming for new compers - the best way to learn is to 'Subscribe' to, or Friend successful compers and 'stalk' them (in the nicest possible way) to see what they're doing - good luck!