This week, Facebookannounced changes to its promotion and contest guidelines that have huge implications for brands using Facebook to connect with their consumers.
The most significant change is that Apps and Page Tabs are no longer required to run a promotion on Facebook. That means that companies can run contests on any native Facebook Page timeline — including permitting entering a promotion by simply posting or commenting, and using Comments and Likes as a voting mechanism.
Promotions are still prohibited on personal pages and Facebook will still police mis-tagged images or share-with-your-friends-to-enter violations. Since you won’t be collecting user emails, winners should be notified by replying to their Post/Comment and/or tagging them in your winner announcement Post. And, of course, companies are still responsible for complying with Facebook’s other requirements and any other legal regulations.
So now that your brand can create a contest simply by publishing a post to your fans asking for text and photo comments, what does this mean for your brand marketing?
The most significant change is that Apps and Page Tabs are no longer required to run a promotion on Facebook. That means that companies can run contests on any native Facebook Page timeline — including permitting entering a promotion by simply posting or commenting, and using Comments and Likes as a voting mechanism.
Promotions are still prohibited on personal pages and Facebook will still police mis-tagged images or share-with-your-friends-to-enter violations. Since you won’t be collecting user emails, winners should be notified by replying to their Post/Comment and/or tagging them in your winner announcement Post. And, of course, companies are still responsible for complying with Facebook’s other requirements and any other legal regulations.
So now that your brand can create a contest simply by publishing a post to your fans asking for text and photo comments, what does this mean for your brand marketing?
-
This is now the lowest barrier to entry for brands curate and promote user content on Facebook.
-
This fits perfectly with the growing paradigm of #UGC, in which user-generated content is automatically fetched from organic interactions on Twitter, Instagram, and other social networks, as opposed to forcing the user to visit a brand page and go through numerous steps to create a submission.
-
News Feed is more important than ever for your brand’s Facebook presence, since it can act as a high-reach channel for distributing Posts containing your contest to your fans. Likewise, Promoted Posts can be used to increase the reach of these contest-specific Posts.
-
With Comments as an entry mechanism, every new user submission automaticallyincreases your contest’s virality, since a comment action exposes that post to their friends outside of your fan population.
Hashtag Like.
(*Legal nerd note from Thismoment Legal Team: While Facebook will permit companies to use the Like button to cast votes in a contest, courts are still deciding whether the Like button has First Amendment protection).
