Firstly, when I Googled this to find out what is already written about it it was a suggestion from Google which suggests that it's a hot topic. Does this indicate that people are aware of the Facebook guidelines and are simply ignoring them, or assuming that because everyone else seems to be doing it, then that simply makes it OK?
I was recently asked this question on Twitter by Gwawr of @Lolfa_Cynin
@nat_reynolds Hi Nat. I wondered what your opinion on the "like&share" competitions on Facebook was. - Gwawr :-)Where do I start?
— Lolfa Cynin (@Lolfa_Cynin) April 11, 2013
Facebook Guidelines - detailed in section E. Promotions:
"You must not use Facebook features or functionality as a promotion’s registration or entry mechanism. For example, the act of liking a Page or checking in to a Place cannot automatically register or enter a promotion participant."So in very short terms - Facebook doesn't allow it!
What does this mean? Worse case scenario is that they could remove your page (they have every right to):
"We reserve the right to reject or remove Pages for any reason"Or if you're lucky, they might just remove the promotion (aka competition) and give you a slap on the wrists!
So putting the rules aside (as everyone seems to be anyway) let's look at it from a different angle...
Do you want people interested in your business or just interested in winning a prize?
Think about it, these people taking part in your competition are only interested in winning the prize. Do you think they'd pay full price to purchase your services/products?
Moving onto Facebook's lovely algorithm where Facebook pretty much decides who it shows your posts to - what if they only start showing your posts to your recent competition entrants (who are only interested in winning something and not paying for your products/services) and NOT the original organic audience you worked hard to get before you started running competitions?
In many cases these competitions go viral reaching Facebook users across the nation and in some cases worldwide. Are these really your target audience? This question is aimed at those businesses that have a localised or niche market (including those with a products/services in a higher price band).
Do the competitions work?
I'm not saying that these promotions won't work for your business you simply need to weigh up the potential risks you take. I recently clicked on a Facebook page that had run a competition like this (a caravan park in North East England) and I could see on the posts on their timeline that people were making enquiries, so in that sense it has probably worked for them. Their page now has over 14K fans which I would confidently say would be on Facebooks radar, therefore the risk of being caught is now much larger. (In fact I can't find the evidence of their competition on their page - maybe Facebook has removed it?)
OK, so some of you will be saying that your audience is much wider reaching and you'd welcome the added exposure - so I'll leave you with one last question - Is it worth taking the risk to have your page removed?
Don't forget that Facebook can be almost impossible to get in touch with and if you've broken the rules, then I can't imagine they'll be wanting to negotiate!
TOP TIPS FOR RUNNING COMPETITIONS ON FACEBOOK
So for those of you wanted to run some sort of competition, here are some tips:
- Run the competition on your website with full terms and conditions on how to enter and how they will be informed. Maybe consider that the way to enter is to email a photo through which will then be uploaded to Facebook? How you judge this competition should be outlined - maybe give a hint that if a photo has likes & comments this will help the judging decision perhaps? ;-)
- Create a Facebook app where you will host your competition (and all of the important terms and conditions) If you want to run a competition to get likes - look up a 'fan gate' where the person has to like the page in order to enter the competition first (Or take a look at this entry) - you will still probably consider running Facebook advertising in order to direct people to the competition.
- Invest in Facebook advertising where you can really target your audience based on age, location, interests and relationships and even target the friends of your existing fans via sponsored stories.
If you've run a competition on Facebook and had some sort of success or maybe Facebook caught up with you, please leave a comment or pop me a Tweet!
No comments:
Post a Comment