The (Facebook) Rules They Are A’Changin
Rules. From our earliest recollection as a toddler, we were taught to “obey the rules.” I’ve always been a do-gooder (yep, I was that kid) so this has been easy for me. However, if rules are written in legal-ese, it takes a bit longer for me to figure out how to do right.
In our industry (marketing, and in my case in particular, PR) we have a responsibility to be current on the rules set forth by the mediums we use in order to best serve ourselves and our clients. For example, there are rules to using Twitter. Some are common sense (don’t say anything inappropriate while representing your brand), some are best practices (RT people whose work you admire and you found helpful), and some are set forth by the medium itself (follow, update, and API limits) .
Today I want to highlight a very important “rule change” the happened in November one of our most popular mediums: Facebook.
Do you have a business Page on Facebook? Have you ever thought about giving away a t-shirt to your 1,000th fan? Think again. Facebook changed its promotion guidelines on November 9, 2009. Now, before you do any “promotional activity” on Facebook you need to ask permission. And they need to grant you permission. This could take a week or so – make sure you budget in the time. When Facebook approves you have to give them credit too. Maybe this will help them police the promotions? Lend credibility to the contest?
Oh, and Cabot Cheese? Sorry, but you can’t give away a block of your oh-so-yummy cheddar via Facebook anymore. Dairy is excluded, as is tobacco, gambling, firearms, prescription drugs and a few other things.
You can no longer win a contest by becoming a fan. OK, this one isn’t that bad – it just means we have to be more creative. So maybe I’ll hold a best photo contest and have fans post to the photo page! Nope, disqualified as well. You can no longer have a winner post a comment, post to the Page’s wall, or several other ways – all using Facebook as a medium. Creativity, here we come. Third-party aps can help overcome this hurdle. My favorite radio station gave away a trip to an awards show a few weeks ago and all I had to do was fan the page to qualify (no, I didn’t win). That can no longer happen. I’ll have to work harder as a fan.
Now, if you make it though all these steps and you are a legitimate promotion you may need to contact a winner. Get this: you cannot notify the winner through Facebook. This one makes me say Hmmmmm…
Finally, if you chose to give away a gallon of milk to the 28th person to post a comment about why they love milk, Facebook can banish you. They may just remove the offending material, but they do warn of their ability to disable your account or page. Yikes.
So, without passing judgment on every little decision Facebook makes, I find myself wondering how I can best capitalize on the new rules set forth for my clients. These rules will definitely reduce the amount of spam that is on Facebook. But from a personal standpoint, I am left wondering how much effort will it now take before I can win Kohl’s gift card before Christmas?
What do you think about the new rules? Fair or impossible? How will you creatively combat a system desperately trying to monetize itself?
Tags: Facebook, Social Media
