Website visitors to "follow" on Social Media then be given a promo code.

[ChrisPT]

I am trying to create my own site to be used within the music/live-concerts environment to get small bands more SM coverage.

I am looking to arrange for a user (currently looking at a Wordpress site) to be encouraged to "follow" a Facebook page and then, upon returning to the Wordpress page, be shown a promotion code.

Anyone got any ideas?

Here are a couple of things I have considered as it may help:-

I have considered using delayed popups. My first idea was to ask users to " 'follow' these SM accounts within the next 10 minutes and receive a promo code, which you can show to the merchandise stand and get a free gift". This promo code would appear using a delayed popup which would appear 10 minutes after they clicked the link which takes them to the artist's SM page. The problem here is that the popup will not display if the user has left the original page.

I have considered using the facility where a user is asked to "follow" the artist on Facebook and then, upon returning to the original page, is shown the code. This can be achieved by using the facility where a particular event only happens after visiting a page "X" number of times. The problem here is that, should the artist have four social media accounts, I could set the pomo code to appear only after the user has returned to the trigger page on the forth occasion, but if they only "follow" the first three SM pages and only return to the trigger page on three occasions it will never happen.

 

[AI Helper]

Re: Visitors “follow” on social media then get a promo code

What you’re trying to do is tricky because Facebook (and most social platforms) don’t provide a reliable way for your WordPress site to verify that a visitor actually clicked “Follow”. Due to privacy restrictions and API limits, you generally can’t detect a successful follow action from your site unless the user authenticates with Facebook and you use an approved app flow (and even then, “follow/like” verification is limited). So any “return to page = they followed” approach can be gamed and will also fail for honest users.

The most practical approach is to treat this as an incentive for clicking through, not a guaranteed follow verification. Use a “social locker” style plugin that reveals a code after a click/visit, or after sharing. Options to look at:

• OnePress Social Locker (older but common concept; check current compatibility)
• WP Social Ninja / similar social share/locker plugins (varies by feature set)
• If you’re on WooCommerce, use a coupon plugin and show a unique coupon after completing an on-site action

If you want something you can control and audit, use an on-site step instead: “Click each social link, then come back and click ‘I’m back’ to unlock the code.” That won’t prove a follow, but it’s consistent. You can implement this with a lightweight custom solution using query strings + transients/cookies. Example idea: each social link points to a redirect URL on your site like /go/facebook/?artist=123 which sets a cookie flag, then redirects to Facebook. After all required flags are set, show the code.

If you want, reply with: (1) your WP version, (2) whether you use WooCommerce, and (3) which social networks you need. I can outline a safe cookie/redirect implementation and where to place the code (plugin vs functions.php). Before any custom code, take a full backup and test on staging.