KATHMANDU, Jan 9: Barsha Maharjan, a second-year BBS student at People’s Campus, is a girl with many ‘like’s and quite some luck. Maharjan, who has experienced winning various small goodies through quiz and lucky draw competitions on Facebook, landed herself perhaps the biggest win in her life, yet. [break]Through the ‘Colors X Factor Video Upload Competition’ organized by Colors Mobile in December 2012, she took away a Honda Dio scooter. The competition required participants to upload a two-minute video clip showing their talent and the video with the maximum number of Facebook ‘like’s would be declared the winner.
Maharjan managed to fetch herself a total of 3,567 likes. While the act of liking anything on Facebook is simple, Maharjan shares that the task of getting people to like a video wasn’t a joyride. Though after winning a scooter, she says it was a “dream come true” for her, she admits that at one point during the competition, she was exasperated.
“At first, it was exciting,” shares Maharjan, “But when after possibly requesting every person on my friend’s list to like my video, and I still required more likes, it was frustrating.” She adds, “It even reached a point where even if I simply said hello to friends online, they would immediately ask me what they had to like next.” Maharjan shares that some people would just not agree to help her and rejected her requests.
However, she was persistent. She wanted to win and so she pushed negativity aside, and win she did. “I got my friends to constantly share my video and made sure that their friends and families liked it as well,” she says, adding, “Such competitions are all about the skills of online networking.”
Apart from the grand prize itself, she also gained many new friends online and also experienced her 15 minutes of fame.
“Nowadays, people spend a lot of time online and so do I. Hence, I engage in such competitions,” shares she.
With companies, both big and small, announcing such competitions on Facebook, these ‘Like’ Competitions have become commonplace.
“While these competitions are effective marketing strategies and prolific publicity schemes for companies, on a personal level, it’s very irritating as well,” says Ayush Birendra Bajracharya, 20, who says that many times, he’s been forced to like pictures and posts on Facebook. “Many people talk to me online and are always requesting to ‘please please like’ this or that. Because it’s my friend or a friend of a friend, I’m obliged,” he shares. Bajracharya, however, isn’t interested in these competitions no matter how desirable the prizes are, unless perhaps it’s something to do photography.
Competing against 1,000 other participants for Rs 200,000 in the Yamaha ‘Like My Style’ Facebook photo contest is 22-year-old Samar Manandhar. In less than a month since the contest began, he has managed to garner 5,500 and counting ‘like’s for his participating photo in which he’s seen carry out a stunt on his Yamaha motorbike and posing with a friend.
“Up until now, I think I have the maximum likes,” shares Manandhar who entered the competition because of his passion for motorbikes. He says that instead of just posing with the bike, he has applied some efforts and creativity with the photo as to make those likes justifiable.
“Even when people like my photo, they don’t just simply click the button for the sake of it. Most have told me that my photo is really worthy,” he says, adding that he never forces people to like his photo but asks them to really like it, which they do.
Manandhar says that it’s mostly about the networking that one has which contributes to winning, and even if he doesn’t win, it would be because the one who did had more public relations online.
With 7,413 likes, Nitisha Dangol, 21, had come close to winning the Oodni Boutique’s photo contest. Hers was amongst the top two most-liked photos. A first-timer to such a contest, she says, “Oodni has always been my favorite boutique. Being a frequent visitor on their Facebook page, I participated for the contest just out of excitement for the best dressed [in an Oodni product] with the most likes.”
Although she didn’t win, the whole experience was fun. She says, adding, “I’m glad I participated. I also made some new friends because of the contest.” The only negative part of it, according to Dangol, was the fact that it required the photo to be publicly shared, which caused inappropriate comments from strangers. Fun and beneficial for those participating, she admits, but for outsiders who are required to like the photo, these contests may be annoying.
Nevertheless, ‘Like’ Competitions have gained popularity amongst Facebook users. Through frequent audience demand, Crossroad Apparels, a fashion boutique of designer Subexya Bhadel, has also started a similar contest. This contest gives an opportunity for the participant whose photo is most liked on Facebook to become one of the faces for the boutique.
“Facebook has become a huge part of most people’s lives. It has become useful professionally as well,” shares Bhadel who is using this platform to interact with her customers as well as fulfill their demands of wanting to become a face for her boutique. Saying that these competitions should be taken positively, Bhadel shares she plans to hold similar contest often.
For the zealous youth at the participating end, these competitions have become an opportunity to win various prizes in the form of cash and kind. It sounds simple, really. Upload something on Facebook and get maximum likes, and one wins! But as someone who has experienced trying to succeed in such a contest will tell you, there’s more to it than having to collect like votes, and as someone who has experienced having to contribute to such a contest with their likes will tell you, these contests do tend to get infamously famous.
As in every case, even in this one, some people really like it, and some people really don’t.
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