Want to gain more Facebook Likes? Strike a deal with one of your rivals.
That’s what the University of Iowa and the University of Nebraska did in connection with their Nov. 25 football game (the schools’ first meeting since Nebraska joined the Big Ten Conference).
On Aug. 18, the University of Iowa challenged Nebraska to see who could get more Facebook Likes before kickoff of their game.
Iowa won the contest, but both schools clearly won big. Iowa increased from 15,052 Facebook Likes to 51,833. Nebraska climbed from 18,718 to 51,250.
You can see from the chart that each school saw a huge change in from their normal growth on Facebook (and has continued to see growth after the contest ended).
And because of the nature of the contest (you’re probably only going to Like a school if you really want to help it win), it’s realistic that the majority of the Likes are from people who actually want to get updates from the school.