Promotions Drive Traffic and Fans
Contests and sweepstakes are very effective means of driving traffic to Facebook Fan pages. However, Facebook has very strict rules for using Fan pages to conduct promotions.
Drive Traffic with Contests and Sweepstakes
Contests and promotions are a solid way to bring interest, traffic, and ideally loyalty to your brand. Contests can be as simple as giving a free product randomly to a user who Likes your Facebook page this month. Promotions can be a limited sale, a new product line, or any major marketing push exclusive for the moment.
Companies can easily use third-party tools to create contests and promotions. For instance, the Sell Fine Art Facebook website (see Figure 10.3) has its promotion built right into its Facebook page.
Figure 10.3: The Sell Fine Art Facebook website.
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Wildfire is a third-party app provider that enables users to run 10 different types of promotions, including sweepstakes, group deals, photo/design contests, video contests, essay contests, quizzes, and trivia. They can be found at www.wildfireapp.com.
A few great app resources for contests, sweepstakes, polls, and more are as follows:
• Involver (www.involver.com)
• Votigo (www.votigo.com)
• Strutta (www.strutta.com)
• EasyPromos (www.easypromosapp.com)
• Offerpop (www.offerpop.com)
• Fanappz (www.fanappz.com)
The Rules
Facebook has some very strict rules for running promotions on Facebook. In a nutshell, they are:
• You can’t use Facebook’s features/tools for the promotions. This includes getting users to Like posts, videos, or images. The Like button is not a voting tool and cannot be used as one.
• Promotions must be administered through a third-party application on an app on a page tab or canvas page.
• You can’t use Facebook messaging—this includes chat, email, posts, and messages—to notify winners.
• You can’t use the Facebook name or trademarks except as needed to hold Facebook blameless. You must include a disclaimer saying that Facebook is in no way associated with the promotion; all entrants release Facebook of any such claim; and all data is going to the Fan page owner, not to Facebook.
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Here’s some sample language to use in your disclaimer: <Your PageName> does not endorse, sponsor, or administer this promotion. This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed, or administered by or associated with Facebook. By participating, you hereby release and hold harmless Facebook from any and all liability associated with this promotion.
Facebook’s legal rules can change at a moment’s notice, so go to www.facebook.com to read the latest guidelines.
People don’t always read the finer details of contest rules and inadvertently break a rule. Here are some frequently asked questions about running promotions on Facebook:
Can you have a drawing and select a random fan and give them a prize?
According to the rules, it’s a big fat no. Why? Because you’re using Facebook’s tools to do this.
How can I inform a winner that he or she won?
You aren’t allowed to email/comment/post on their Wall/chat to the winners from within Facebook to tell them they won. You have to make sure to collect their email and use your non-Facebook email to message them. Smoke signals work, too.
Can I get them to Like my page, and then present them with a contest?
Sure. You can get them to Like a page, check in, or use your app. But you may not use anything beyond these three things. (We discuss check-ins more in Chapter 18.)
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If you run a contest on Facebook without using a third-party service, it is probably against the rules and you could get banned. For example, you can’t use the simple act of a person Liking a page or checking in to a place to automatically register him or her for a promotion.
Check out the complete guidelines online at www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php.