Facebook recently updated their policies for running promotions on their site. These changes, announced on the Facebook for Business news page, are meant to “make it easier for businesses of all sizes to create and administer promotions on Facebook.” It’s important for you to look at these changes because promotions are a great way of increasing social engagement. Let’s go over the terms and see what it means for your campaigns.
No More App Requirement
The most prominent change that Facebook made is to remove the requirement for promotions to be run through a Facebook app. Now, you won’t have to develop an app to run contests and other promotions that boost your social engagement – you can simply run a promo on your clients’ Page Timelines. In line with this, the social network now lets you:
- Use Page comments / Page post likes for collecting contest entries;
- Use Page messages to collect entries;
- Use likes as a voting mechanism
Facebook still prohibits brands from running contests and other promotions on personal timelines.
Tagging Accuracy Required
While the first part of the changes removes restrictions, the second part implements one. The updated policy also prohibits you from tagging people or asking people to tag themselves on your image posts if they are not on the image itself. This, according to Facebook, is done “in order to maintain the accuracy of Page Content.”
The example Facebook gave on their page is this: it’s okay to ask people to suggest names for a new product to win a prize, but it’s not okay to ask them to tag themselves or their friends in an image of the new product for them to win a prize.
What It Means for You
The removal of the restriction to apps will make it easier for you to devise and run simple Facebook contests for your clients. This is particularly beneficial if your clients target niche markets, and if they are smaller local establishments that do not have the time nor the resources to develop a full app for their campaign. The lower cost makes it easier for you to run contests with minimum monetary investment involved.
This could also mean increased engagement for your Pages. With the removal of the app requirement, you can run contests easily on Pages, which your target audience can access easily. Allowing you to use likes, comments, and messages to collect entries makes contest mechanics easier for your market, encouraging and possibly increasing participation. Additionally, it removes the concern of users who may be reluctant to share their personal information through contest apps.
The downside is if you are using contests as a lead generation tool, you won’t be able to collect data about your target audience if you run Page Timeline contests instead of app-supported promotions. Another negative effect it has on your campaigns is tracking difficulty. It’s more difficult to track entries, likes, comments, and messages if you are running a Page promotion. On the other hand, some contest app providers offer a complete tracking system in their solutions that makes monitoring entries and getting results easier.
Page Promotions or Contest Apps?
Having looked at the pros and cons of these changes, it’s time to ask: Which is more appropriate for your campaigns, the new, lighter Page promotions or the more comprehensive contest apps?
The answer depends on your requirements. Check out the comparison below:
Page Promotions
- Ideal for short-term contests / promotions with low-volume participants
- Your goal for promotion is simply to increase engagement / activity on your Pages
- The contest / promotion involves simple elements, like uploading one picture / video to your page as an entry and having people like that content
- Limited budget for promotion
App Promotions
- Long-running contests with high-volume participants
- The contest / promotion involves multiple submissions from participants that may require a special content management system
- Your goal for promotion is to collect data from your target audience, get new leads, or increase your followers on Facebook
- Your client has a dedicated budget for promotions
- Your client has a requirement for contest / promotion tracking and accurate data analysis
Through our SEO reseller services, we can help you determine which promotion method is more suitable for your campaigns. Talk to your account manager today to get started.
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