WARHEADS® just ran a campaign utilizing the Instagram entry functionality, with the hashtag #showusyourcubes to promote their new Sour Chewy Cubes candy.  As you can see from the contest screenshot below, this encouraged a lot of creativity from WARHEADS fans, which resulted in more fan interaction with the contest, and some very fun submissions!

How does it work?

The Woobox Photo Contest application will automatically monitor Instagram for posts with your hashtag, and import entrant photos into the submissions dashboard, where you’ll have the chance to review and approve individual submissions to be displayed in the voting gallery.   The example above was run from a Facebook page tab, but you can choose to embed it on your website or run it on it’s own microsite.

Hashtag Entries work for Tweets too!

Not only can you enable the option to allow entries through Instagram posts with a specific hashtag term; you also have the option of enabling external entries through Twitter!  When a user tweets a photo with your hashtag term, the Photo Contest app will automatically pull in that image to the contest submissions.

Learn More & Get Started

You can get started with your own live Photo Contest for as little as $1/month, right now!  Check out the other great features of our Photo Contest app on our website at http://woobox.com/photocontests where you can also find current and past examples of Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook photo contests.

The submission form you see below allows users to submit the YouTube URL of their video question.  Having users submit their videos to YouTube first means that the videos get even greater exposure, and can be viewed by the public on both Facebook and YouTube.  Once the video is submitted, the user is shown a “thank you” page, and the video is placed into the gallery.

The Woobox Video Contest app lets you auto-approve all new submissions for instant user gratification; or you can choose to manually review each one via the Submissions dashboard.  Once approved, the submissions are placed in the gallery for everyone to view.  The app lets you enable the ability for users to vote on their favorite video submissions; or to disable voting and just display a gallery of user-submitted videos.  Visitors can click the videos to open them in a light-box window where the video will start playing automatically.   Viewers can quickly jump from one video to the next by clicking on the forward/back arrows included in the light-box view.

Video Contests  are available to all Woobox customers.  You can set up a contest in Admin-Only Mode for free to test it out and purchase one of our plans to publish it live.  Whether you’re looking to have a simple video gallery or a full user-generated submission contest with voting, you can do it with this app.  You can find more examples and information on the app’s overview page at http://woobox.com/videocontests.

Contact our support team if you have any questions about using this feature.  Get started today at http://woobox.com.

When LUNA approached us with the idea, we knew 90% of the solution was already built with our Photo Contest application.  There were only a few things we would need to add to the Woobox platform to make a great cheer card contest; namely the ability to preview and generate the cheer card images on the entry page.   We went to work on it, and the result is what you see in these screenshots and the live contest: http://woobox.com/pw5u3z.

The best part is that this capability is now available to all Woobox customers.  The ability to create and preview user-generated images using an HTML5 canvas from the entry page is available on all of our apps that have entry pages including Sweepstakes and Photo Contests.  The possibilities are really endless; cheer cards are just one example.

If you have an idea for a promotion, we’re here to help you succeed. Contact our support team if you have any questions about using this new feature.  Get started today at http://woobox.com/.

We find our customers’ most engaging video contests have loads of short length video entries.  This lets fans and followers check out many entries in a session and encourages more entries.  Twitter’s Vine is perfect for Video Contests for this very reason.

Have you heard of Vine yet?  It’s a new way of recording videos via an iOS device (support for other devices is surely coming soon) and sharing them.  Users have six seconds to record their video – starting and pausing as they choose.  Once ready, it’ll loop and repeat when played.  Vines can easily be shared on Twitter or the Vine iOS app with a catchy caption and/or hashtag.

As Twitter has proven, it’s amazing what can be created and communicated with constraints such as a 140 character limit and now six seconds.  We’re already seeing hilarious shorts, compelling video snippets of life around the globe, and some good ol’ fashioned magic.

With this explosion of creativity comes the opportunity to host promotions for your fans and followers.  The Woobox Video Contest app allows Vine submissions via entry form or hashtag on Twitter.  So, what do you do for your first contest?  Here are a few seed ideas to get you started:

- Best use of a brand tagline
- Best product placement
- Most creative use of a product
- Product/experience testimonials
- Product demonstrations

With the Woobox Video Contest app you can create an entry form to let users submit the URL for a Vine video or have the system automatically import Vine videos that are shared on Twitter with a hashtag you select for your contest.   Your contest can be set to run as a dedicated micro-site, embedded on your website, or directly on your Facebook page as a tab.   Once videos are submitted, you can choose to automatically approve entries to show in the gallery or you can pre-approve entries from the dashboard.  The approved Vine videos will be displayed in a gallery style layout and allow users to Vote for their favorites.

To create your own Vine video contest create a Woobox account and select the Video Contest App.  On the Settings page you will see the option to select Vine as the video type.  If six seconds isn’t long enough you can also use the Video Contest app just as easily for Youtube videos.  You can access this app and learn about the entire Woobox app suite at Woobox.com.

The Woobox New Year Sale is on.  Get the social marketing apps you need for 2013 and save 50% until Jan 8th! 2012 has been a very exciting year for Woobox.  Over the past 12 months, we’ve introduced several new apps, along with many new features within the existing ones.  We’ve grown tremendously and we couldn’t have done any of it without you, our customers.  For that, we’d first like to say, “thank you” to all of our loyal users.

In celebration of the new year, we’d also like to offer a limited time opportunity for both current and new Woobox users, to help you save some money and plan ahead for 2013!  From now until January 8th, you’ll have the opportunity to purchase a subscription for a one-year prepaid commitment, at half the regular subscription price.

The first 1,000 subscriptions will receive 50% off the normal cost of any Woobox Pro-level plan when you pay upfront for 12 months; saving you anywhere from $174 to nearly $1,500!  There’s no limit to the number of businesses you can upgrade at this discounted price, so feel free to purchase your prepaid subscriptions for any/all of the businesses you manage, just make sure to do it before the offer ends (January 8th, 2013 @ 5:00PM PST).

It’s easy to take advantage of this offer, just follow these steps:

1. Log in to your Woobox account (or sign up for an account if you haven’t done so already);
2. Go to the Change Plan page of your Business Settings;
3. Select the (12-months) plan level option;
4. Click the Purchase Account Level button to  complete the transaction.

You’ll be charged a one-time fee for the total (discounted) cost, and the subscription will be set to run for 12 months from the day you upgrade.  On behalf of all of us here at Woobox, we wish you the best for 2013!

This opportunity is limited to the first 1,000 subscriptions and will be available starting Thursday, December 27, 2012 at 8:00AM PST, and ending Tuesday, January 8, 2013 at 5:00PM PST.

Facebook is removing all Static FBML Page Tabs Wednesday, December 5, 2012.  It’s the last chance to move your Static FBML Page tab content to our HTML Page Tab. According to the official report in the Facebook Developer Roadmap:

“On December 5th, we will remove the Static FBML Page app and any Static FBML tabs you had installed on your Page will disappear.”

Don’t worry, there’s really no need to panic, you’ve probably already made the switch from Static FBML Tabs to some other non-endangered species of custom tab app.   However, for those of you who haven’t (or if you’re not sure), we would like to provide you with the following FBML Apocalypse Survival Q&A.

What does this even mean?
Facebook is completely removing the Static FBML Page Tab application. Pages still using this technology for their custom tabs will lose those tabs forever, along with the content they house. If you’re a Page Admin still using the Static FBML app on your Page(s), you will lose your tab content if you don’t take action.

How do I know if I have any Static FBML Tabs on my Page?
At the top of your Facebook Page, click Edit Page and one of the choices such as Update Info.  Next click the Apps section.  Look through your list of apps for any that look like the App below.  You can click on the Edit Settings link to access the current content of your tab to copy it to a new tab such as our replacement tab.

What do I do to save my custom tabs?
Our free Static HTML Tab solution is the most popular page tab app on Facebook and is a great replacement for the Static FBML tab.  It includes that ability to fangate/likegate and will allow you to paste the content you copied from your Static FBML tab settings into its Page Source setting.  You can install the Woobox Static HTML Iframe Tab here.

When is this happening? How long do I have?
Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 is D-Day… As of right now (Friday, Nov. 30), you have less than 5 days to get your affairs in order.

Quick Guide to FBML Apocalypse Survival

Step 1) Identify if your Page(s) still use the Static FBML Page app for your custom tabs.

Step 2) Install your replacement tabs.  Woobox’s Static HTML IFRAME Tab app is completely free.

Step 3) Migrate your current Static FBML Tab content to your new IFRAME Tab’s Page Source (you can simply copy/paste the HTML from one to the other).

Step 4) Sit back, have a drink, and relax; you’re good to go.

If you have more than one FBML tab to migrate, create your Woobox account here: http://woobox.com/signup for free and navigate to the HTML/Fangate Tab section.  That will let you easily create multiple tabs to migrate too.

The Woobox Photo Contest app has become an extremely popular solution for running photo contests on Facebook.  Today we’re announcing 8 great new features available for Photo Contests. We’re just getting started, there is even more to come!

1. Amazing Refferal Traffic with Enter and Vote Actions – Woobox Photo Contests now support automatic posting of the Open Graph “Enter” and “Vote” actions. When enabled, all users who enter or vote will have the action posted to their Facebook timeline. Posted actions also have the opportunity to be distributed via the News Feed and Facebook Ticker. The referral traffic we are seeing on contests with this enabled is simply amazing.

2. Fangated Vote Page – You can require voters to like your page before they can vote on photos. This has been one of the most successful ways we have seen of gaining new fans.

3. Restrict Voting by Facebook User – You can now choose to restrict voting by Facebook user (or by IP Address); and voting can be limited to once per contest or once per day to keep people coming back.

4. Redesigned Vote Page with Larger Image Thumbnails – We’ve completely redesigned the photo voting section. The photos are larger, the Vote and Like buttons are more prominent, and all around customers are telling us it looks great.

5. All-New Expanded Zoom View – We’ve made the photo the star here, with nearly full tab width and arrows to easily move between entries.

6. Facebook Comments Support – You can now allow users to comment on entries using Facebook Comments. Full moderation is supported.

7. Sort by Date, Votes, or Randomly for Vote Page – You can now choose the default sort method you’d like to use on the Vote Page; whether by date of entry, vote count, or at random.

8. Improved Submissions Dashboard – You can now edit individual submissions’ caption, name, and vote count. You can also rotate photos that weren’t uploaded with the correct orientation.

We’ve also made a number of improvements under the hood that improves the speed and experience for users.  We hope you enjoy all the new features, and expect even more to come soon! Find out more about the Photo Contest app and its features, plus see live examples of contests at http://woobox.com/photocontests.

If you haven’t done so already, you’ll want to sign up for your own Woobox account so you can try it out for yourself (admins can test any of the apps with a free account). The Photo Contest app is included in our Pro plan, starting at $29/month. Also, make sure you don’t miss out on future updates and announcements by following @Woobox on Twitter and Liking our Facebook Page!

The new Passbook capability gives users accessing your promotion on their iPhone the option to store a pass for the voucher on their phone in Apple’s Passbook app. The created pass contains a QR code that is unique to each voucher (just like standard Woobox Coupons), which can be scanned with any QR code reading app for instant validation and redemption. For a low tech solution, you can also print out a list of issued vouchers and mark them off by hand using the unique redemption code.

Passbook support is even available on the free version of our Coupons app to issue up to 50 passes per month. Visit http://woobox.com/vouchers for more information about the Coupons app and sign up to get started with creating your own Passbook coupons. We’d love to hear what you think!

You control the submission and voting periods for the contest, and have the option of running the two individually or simultaneously. You’ll also be able to choose whether photo entries are approved automatically, or choose to manually approve each entry before it is available for participants to view and vote on.

Entrants can submit captions with their photo, which will be displayed with the photo in the Vote Page gallery. Each photo entry has a unique shareable link that participants can Like or Send to other Facebook friends from the gallery; and voting can be limited to one per IP Address [per day] or one per Facebook user [per day]. On the Vote Page, participants can click on the thumbnail of each image to expand it, as well as view the full caption. Voting and sharing of individual images can be done via the thumbnail view, or in the expanded lightbox view, as you can see in the screenshot below.

Winners can be selected based on the number of votes received for their photo (the photos with the most votes are displayed for admins in the offer dashboard); or you can even select the winner(s) at random from all the entrants using our “Pick a Winner” function in the dashboard (this method works just like with the Sweepstakes app).

As with all of our apps, you can FanGate your contest, collect entrant information with custom form fields, embed the offer on your website, fully customize any and all content using HTML, and much more! Find out more about the Photo Contest app and its features, plus see live examples of contests, at http://woobox.com/photocontests.

If you haven’t done so already, you’ll want to sign up for your own Woobox account so you can try it out for yourself (admins can test any of the apps with a free account). The Photo Contest app is included in our Pro plan, starting at $29/month. Also, make sure you don’t miss out on future updates and announcements by following @Woobox on Twitter and Liking our Facebook Page!

You set the odds of winning, retry interval, the total number of winners, and (of course) the prize. As with the other Woobox apps, you can create a campaign for Facebook and/or Twitter, meaning you can choose to limit your Instant Win offer to fans and followers, and limit wins or attempts to one per user. All participant information is available to you at all times as two downloadable spreadsheets (CSV file format) separated into Winners and Non-Winners, which contain all the information collected for each winner and voucher, and each attempt, respectively.

Perhaps you’d like to have different prize levels, or just multiple/different prizes… That is completely doable using custom codes for the winning vouchers that indicate different prizes. In fact, this is exactly what Rubbermaid did in the offer example shown above, where they asked fans to register for their Rubbermaid Club email newsletter, and in return gave them a chance to get a discount ranging from 10% to 50% off.

Within the app, you’ll have the opportunity to set up and fully customize each of the following pages:

• FanGate Page — This is the content shown to non-fans when they view your offer on Facebook.
• Offer Page — This is where users will see the offer information and have the opportunity to actually try to win. This is also the page where they would enter any information you’ve asked for in the entry form.
• Not A Winner Page — This is a static page that all non-winners will see. You can fully customize the content on this page using an Image or HTML, as with all Woobox offer apps.
• Voucher Page — This is essentially the “‘golden ticket;” it’s the voucher that winners receive, which can include redemption codes (automatically generated, custom, or static). Alternatively, you can use an uploaded image or HTML to display your own pre-made voucher or how to claim their prize.
• Pre-Start Page & Ended Page — The content users will see if they visit the offer before it has started and/or after it has ended.

One example of an Instant Win campaign that we really love is the DimensionU promotion shown below, which integrates FriendGate, requiring users to have seven friends who Like the Page before entering.

Entry Page

Not A Winner Page

Voucher Page

Find out more about the new Instant Win app at http://woobox.com/instantwin.   It’s included in our Pro plan starting at $29. If you haven’t done so already, make sure to sign up for your own Woobox account so you can try it out for yourself (admins can test any of the apps with a free account). Also, make sure you don’t miss out on future updates and announcements by following @Woobox on Twitter and Liking our Facebook Page!