Thanks to a recent announcement on the Facebook for business blog, running a promotion or competition on Facebook just got a lot easier.
Now, assuming you follow the rules (which, let’s be honest, not a lot of Facebook users do) up until now, if you wanted to run a competition on Facebook you had to set up a third-party app.
You’d think that would be good for people like us who can build Facebook apps exactly for this purpose, and we’d be disappointed by this news. But, from the perspective of trying to help someone grow their business, it’s a pain because apps are not currently supported on the mobile versions of Facebook. Besides, it’s a tricky “sell” to a client when so many people, including their competitors, don’t follow the rules.
Promotions on Timelines now allowed
However, Facebook have updated their terms and have “removed the requirement that promotions on Facebook only be administered through apps.”
So you are now allowed to ask people to enter competitions by doing things like clicking Like on a photo, posting on a page or adding a comment. No third-party app required, just your timeline.
You are still not allowed to run a promotion on a personal profile – you have to have a Business Page.
In exchange for one rule being relaxed, another is being tightened…
New rules for Tagging
You are now not allowed to tag people or ask them to tag themselves on content, such as photos, that doesn’t actually contain them. So for example, you cannot ask people to enter a competition by tagging themselves in a photo that they are not actually in.
Any ideas?
I always love to hear ideas for Facebook promotions or competitions – do you have any planned now that the rules have been relaxed? Please share them in the comments below!
A Microsoft Certified Professional with many years of large corporate experience and training, he now focuses on helping small businesses make the most of their IT.
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