Remember the golden days of Facebook contests?
It was a simpler time. You could enter a contest by liking or commenting on something. It was glorious. Then Facebook squashed it all by requiring contests to be run through third party apps. Suddenly we had to create interesting and unique content to get likes or comments. The horror!!!
Fear not my marketing friends, the golden days have returned!!!
In a shocking move Facebook has done a 180 on their contest requirements. On August 27th Facebook announced they have changed the Page Terms to make it easier for businesses to run promotions on Facebook. You can now run contests on your business timelines without a third party app!! Huzzah!!
So what does this mean?
Now, promotions may be administered on Page Timelines and in apps on Facebook. For example, businesses can now:
- Collect entries by having users post on the Page or comment/like a Page post
- Collect entries by having users message the Page
- Utilize likes as a voting mechanism
As before, however, businesses cannot administer promotions on personal Timelines.
Let’s take a more detailed look at what you can do and what you can’t do in your promotions:
Do this:
- Use likes as a voting method (either liking a post or photo on your timeline).
- Require people to like a post and/or comment on a post to be entered.
- Require that someone post something directly on your timeline to enter.
- Require that someone message your page to enter.
- Announce the winner of the contest on your page.
- Use a Like button plugin on your website as a voting mechanism.
Not this:
- Have anyone who likes your page be entered to win (contest does not take place on the timeline).
- Require that people share a post or photo to be entered.
- Require someone to post something on their own personal timeline or a friend’s timeline to enter.
- Require people to tag themselves in a photo to either vote or enter.
As you can see there are still a few caveats for running promotions. It’s not a free for all. A few distinctions worth mentioning.
- Liking your page cannot be used as an entry to the contest
- You can’t ask people to post something on their timeline. The contest must be contained on your timeline only.
If you want a more detailed look at what you can do with your facebook promotions check out their Facebook Promotion Guidelines.
I’m looking forward to seeing a few more promotions for fly gear now that the rules have become a little easier to work with. I’m in the market to win a new carp rod…
-Nick Hoover runs Niby Design Group in Denver.
