Business Monitor


How to run a competition on Facebook (without breaking the rules)


Now that Facebook has relaxed its rules about competitions on its platform, going down that marketing route looks like a no-brainer. Indeed, in some ways it is just that. Marketing expert, Paul Clapham, explains more.


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customers. Add a promotional competition to that and you can really build the benefit.


sing Facebook is a great way to build awareness and engage with potential


But it is not idiot simple. In the first place, Facebook still has rules built into its terms and conditions which govern such promotional activity. They are reasonably benign, but woe betide you if you break those rules.


The rule of thumb is: do it right and follow the rules – the same as all other publicity activity. Failure to be responsible in that way can result in your business page being closed down. If Facebook is an important business source, that would be like having your phone disconnected – forever.


Terms and conditions


The bottom line is that Facebook does not want to be associated in any way,


shape or form with any competition or promotion, and you as a promoter are not allowed to use Facebook, its functions and features as a mechanism through which to run your competition. Facebooks T&Cs cover any type of promotion that involves the awarding of a prize based on specific judging criteria or a sweepstakes (aka a free prize draw) where winning is down to chance. This means that: l You cannot select at random one of your Facebook fans to receive a prize.


l You cannot ask your fans to vote for a particular post or picture that appears on your Facebook page.


l You cannot use Facebook to inform someone that they have won a prize. In order to fully comply with the rules you are required to use a third party app on the Facebook platform, such as Wildfire. Thats fine if youre a large corporate, but if yours is a small business, the cost of this can prove to be prohibitive and so negate the


There can be no doubt that there are plenty of businesses who are, by accident or design, flouting Facebook’s rules and may be getting away with it, but would you really want to chance losing your business page and the ability to communicate with your fans if you were found out?


| 20 | July 2016


whole point of running a promotion in the first place.


There are at least some 50 such apps available on the market. In the nature of technology they are all fairly similar but all individually different too. One notable way that they differ is price. The entry level appears to be $19 per month (after the free trial period they all offer) and, depending on what you want and the size of job you are aiming to do etc. that can escalate significantly.


Careful planning


I would recommend some careful planning followed by a trial making full use of that free period. If it works, you are onto a winner and the full fee is worth it. If not, you can walk away.


The best review of these apps which I have come across is at www.ventureharbour.com, written by Marcus Taylor. Im a grey-haired cynic and I didnt feel his recommendation – Wishpond – was based on, shall we say, inducements, as can sometimes apply in these circumstances. Taylors other shortlist choices from the 50+ were: Shortstack, Woobox, Heyo, (his personal favourite) and Agora Pulse.


There can be no doubt that there are plenty of businesses who are, by accident or design, flouting Facebooks rules and may be getting away with it, but would you really want to chance losing your business


www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk


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