Tornado Industries announced on the company’s Facebook site that Hillyard Des Moines, a distributorship based in Urbandale, Iowa, is the winner of a new TV 2 canister vacuum cleaner as a result of becoming a fan of the company’s Facebook page.

The contest, which ended in March 2012, invited Tornado dealers and distributors to simply “Like Us on Facebook” in order to participate, according to marketing manager Jolynn Kennedy.

Kennedy says the contest was communicated as an announcement on the company Facebook site, and in e-blasts to dealers. The goal was to increase the number of visitors and fans of the company’s Facebook page.

“They did not have to submit pictures or videos or anything like that,” she says. “Just ‘Like Us’ on Facebook and they became a contestant.”

Of the dealers and distributors who became fans of the site, Hillyard was selected “because they got more involved with the site, shared what they were doing to promote Tornado® equipment to their end-customers, and demonstrating a strong dealer-manufacturer partnership,” says Kennedy.
By the end of the contest, the site had almost tripled its number of Facebook fans.

“We actually consider this quite impressive,” Kennedy adds. “Because of this we are planning another contest, this time for end-users, in a couple of months.”