NB: This is a guest article by by Anthony Rawlins, CEO of Digital Visitor.
Facebook has relaxed its rules requiring third party apps to be used by brands wishing to post competitions or promotions to their Facebook page.
Hurrah! Cheaper Facebook promotion, especially for travel brands, many of which use Facebook to plug offers or run competitions for fans!
Or so you may think...
Although this will no doubt be seen as a positive step by some, if you are serious about social media engagement, you need to consider this change in guidelines carefully, before discarding your campaign apps.
So, five reasons why relaxing the Facebook competition guidelines is a bad move
By relaxing the competition rules, Facebook is showing wavering commitment to the purity of the excellent brand it has created. This move will encourage more spam, lower quality of "likes", lower engagement scores and an exodus from your Facebook page after your campaign has ended.
1. Spam spam spam spam
I witnessed a competition the other day run on a small business Facebook page where it asked entrants to comment under the post with the number of beads in a bracelet, in order to win the bracelet.
At the time, this was against guidelines, but not anymore. This is an awful campaign mechanic because once someone had commented on the post, their newsfeed then got clogged up with everyone else commenting on the post and the comments were simply numbers, 1234, 6792, 4769.
This is not meaningful engagement and I suspect that many people simply "unliked" the page the next day, to stop this spamming of their news feeds.
2. Pointless interaction
The great thing about the third party Apps we would select for a client’s social media campaign, is that they are interactive, engaging and fun.
They drive more sharing, more likes and give a much higher quality of interaction than simply "like this page" – something which, quite frankly, is dull.
Additionally, they deliver better commercial value for our clients, enabling the capture of email addresses, market research data, customer content and more.
3. Facebook are doing this for the wrong reasons
I feel that Facebook hasn't done this because it wants to open up the network and empower small businesses. Rather, because it probably doesn't have the resources (or inclination) to penalise the businesses that have been doing it the wrong way.
Rather than safeguard the quality of interaction brands can have with their fans, Facebook has watered down its previously effective guidelines simply because it can’t police them.
4. If someone gives you something for free, you think it’s worth nothing!
This mantra rings true for Facebook campaigns. There is a balance to be achieved in acquiring new "likes". Asking your entrants to design a car (as one brand we have spoken to did) is way too much of a time investment.
At the same time, if you oversimplify access to your brilliantly managed, content-rich and engaging Facebook page – you are underselling what you are offering them on the page.
Put another way, "like our page to enter" is far too simple a mechanic to inspire anyone to explore your brand on Facebook more.
5. Sharing
Most good third party Facebook Apps give the option for entrants to share directly with their friends and post to their timeline.
This is essential.
When your campaign is shared on the entrant's timeline or direct on their friends, your brand is presented in a more attractive way than if they simply "like" the page.
Using a good campaign App therefore drives more click-throughs to your Facebook Page. This is a better way of making your campaign go viral, rather than your fans connections seeing that they simply ‘like’ a page.
My two predictions as to what will happen to brands that solely use Facebook’s native features and functions to run campaigns is as follows:
Credibility
- Using a third party App Vs using Facebook functions for your campaigns will subconsciously become a defining feature of new users measuring the quality and credibility of your brand.
Exodus
- Campaigns using Facebook-only features will see a significant drop off of "likes" after the campaign has ended, as less relevant fans become connected with your communities and people will get fed up of seeing random people’s comments in their own timeline.
NB: This is a guest article by by Anthony Rawlins, CEO of
Digital Visitor, a social media and marketing agency for travel and tourism organisations globally.
NB2:Blah blah blah image via Shutterstock.