Facebook recently implemented a set of strict promotional guidelines, making it much more difficult (but not impossible) for companies and organizations to run promotions through the Facebook platform on their individual pages.
Although the new guidelines might have been disconcerting to some, we feel that this is a smart move on Facebook’s part, and an earnest effort to ensure the platform’s integrity.
Facebook has seen incredible growth from personal relationships and viral message-sharing; it was never conceptualized as a platform for doing business. As companies continue to create pages and take advantage of the platform’s features, it’s imperative for Facebook to continue to manage and regulate how their platform is used.
The new guidelines indicate a major but not debilitating change in how organizations can utilize the Facebook platform for their business, and have left some in a lurch with their current promotions, frustrated and confused.
To make it easy for you and your organization to understand these guidelines’ impact, we’ve pulled the main points:
Things you can still do
- Run a promotion (under the following conditions)
- With written consent from a Facebook account representative
- Through an application—specifically on the canvas Page of an application, or on an application box in a tab on your Page
- Run a promotion through a third-party application, such as your own website or Twitter
- Publicize a promotion on Facebook that you’re running through a third-party application, as long as you’re not using any Facebook features as part of the promotion (posting to the wall for entry, etc.)
- Offer coupons and other company discounts, as these are not “promotions, contests, sweepstakes, or competitions,” all of which include a prize and a winner
Things you cannot do
- Condition entry in the promotion upon a user providing content on Facebook, such as making a post on a profile or Page, status comment, or photo upload
- Consider a person a “participant” in a promotion under the condition that they become a fan
- Notify promotion winners through Facebook tools such as messages, chat, or wall posts
- Market promotions to individuals under 18
- Market a promotion who’s objective is to promote any of the following product categories: gambling, tobacco, dairy, firearms, prescription drugs, or gasoline
- Administer promotions if the prize includes alcohol, tobacco, dairy, firearms, or prescription drugs
We believe that a large concern for businesses is Facebook’s required written approval for any promotions; the question looms over this approval process’ length of time (and could liken itself to Apple’s often chastised App Store approval process).
Organizations will no longer be able to run a spur of the moment promotion, as they now must be submitted for review and approval “at least 7 days prior to the start date.” And in the end, Facebook reserves the right to remove any such promotion materials—regardless of whether the promotion was approved.
Our advice? If you haven’t forged a relationship with a Facebook account rep (and especially if your page is promotion-heavy), it would be wise to reach out to someone as soon as possible.
We’d like to hear your thoughts on the new guidelines, as well as answer any questions you may have. Why do you think Facebook implemented these standards? How will this impact your page or others you fan? What are you doing or plan to do differently?
[Photo from Arthur Chapman on Flickr / CC BY 2.0]
{ 1 trackback }
{ 0 comments… add one now }