Just when you think you have it all under control.
The under-lords at Facebook decide to implement some changes and not always for the greater good!
The new guidelines regarding Competitions on Business Pages annoys me somewhat.
It’s almost rewarding all the people who didn’t abide by the rules in the first place.
So anyway rant over here are the new guidelines:-
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Facebook has removed the requirement for promotions to be administered through 3rd party apps.
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Promotions can be administered on page timelines and in apps on Facebook.
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Entries can now be collected by allowing users to post on their page, leave a comment, or like a post.
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Entries can also be collected by having users message the page. (I really dislike this as I think it can be very misleading when you say XYZ won via private message – I think it is very open to abuse and competition rigging)
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Utilise “like” as a voting mechanism – ie. like this post and you can win.
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Promotions CANNOT be administered on personal timelines – ie. like and share
One thing that does still remain is LIKE AND SHARE competitions are NOT allowed! I repeat are not allowed. You CANNOT ask someone to “like and share” to be in with a chance to win. Liking is OK – sharing as a form of entry isn’t. Obviously if you want to share images/status’ you can but there is no reward for doing this.
“Accurate tagging” is required in promotions :-
“In order to maintain the accuracy of Page content, our Pages Terms now prohibit Pages from tagging or encouraging people to tag themselves in content that they are not actually depicted in.”
Basically in plain English you can’t say “tag yourself in this picture to be in with a chance of winning”. The tagging tool is simply to tag people who actually appear or own the images. Not a form of competition entry.
For full information from Facebook please check out their guidelines.
So what do you think small business owners good or bad?
I personally shall stick to rafflecopter for competitions simply for the fact it is all in one place, you can see visually who entered, how and when and the app picks a winner.
