No one wants Facebook to give their contest or sweepstakes the ax. Alas, examples of Facebook enforcing its promotion guidelines are out there. Just ask Scandinavian Airlines.
Click the pic to download our whitepaper on Facebook promotions.
Here are three questions to ask yourself before launching your promotion:
1. Am I seeking virality? If the premise of your promotion is to go viral without an ad budget, step back and assess your campaign. Very little on Facebook is free. Game and application developers like Zynga used to rely on virality. Facebook reigned in their go-to tactics in 2009 to protect the fan experience.
A creative concept and well-built technology can drive huge organic growth. Just don’t expect to spam the news feed and get away with it. Be mindful of the difference.
2. Am I using Facebook functionality? Be careful here! Facebook does not want the legal headaches of its technology facilitating contests and sweepstakes. You cannot require fans to use Facebook functionality other than liking a fan page, checking in to a place, or connecting to an app.
Do not ask fans to post, like or comment on content on your wall or photo albums. Do not use “like” buttons as a voting mechanism. You must run your promotion through a third-party application.
3. Am I collecting contact information? At the end of your campaign, you’ll have to contact your winners to distribute prizes. Remember to collect their contact info in your promotion app, because you cannot contact them using Facebook messages, chat, or posts on profiles (timelines).
Besides, your Facebook contest is a good opportunity to feed your email marketing program. Be sure to grab those email opt-ins!
Want more information on Facebook contests and sweepstakes? Download our “10 Facebook Promotion Myths” whitepaper.
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29. November 2011
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