Is your Facebook Competition Legal?

Is your Facebook Competition Compliant?

 Did you know that any competition run through your Facebook wall or timeline is ILLEGAL and might get your page shut down for not being compliant - meaning you need to start from scratch again building a new fan base.

 

Facebook competition rules clearly state: "The only way you can create this type of functionality is by using a third party application.”

 e.g. A Facebook developer can create a separate Facebook app and add it to your page.

 

“Your application must be registered with Facebook and include a disclosure adjacent to any promotion entry field: 'This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administrated by, or associated with, Facebook.”

 

Does your Facebook competition comply..?

 

  If not, the only solution is to create a Facebook Competition Application which is registered with Facebook as detailed above, or get someone to do it for you.

 Here at CDM, we ensure that all our clients are in full compliance with Facebook guidelines, and our view is simple - rules are rules, and must be followed.

 We can build a custom Facebook competition app which ensures you keep within the rules and have maximum impact in your social marketing.

 Our competitions are “custom 3rd party apps”, registered as such with Facebook, and we ensure we have a link on each page to terms & conditions – something else which few companies seem to do, without these you could be breaking Advertising Standards.

 

 You might ask, why are all these other companies ignoring the rules and getting away with it, or my competitor does that so why shouldn’t I..?

 

 Facebook has shut down pages without any notice, so is it really worth the risk…?

 

 We researched this further with other Social Media & Ad Agencies and received the following replies;

 “We understand it is frustrating when we/you see other companies or individuals flaunt Facebook guidelines unchecked. There has been a huge increase in the "like and share this page to win a prize" and "when we reach 5,000 likes - everyone goes into a draw" style of promotion which is completely against Facebook promotion rules.”

“I can confirm though that we have been approached by 5 businesses recently who have run promotions contravening Facebook rules and have been shut down, page removed without recourse. They have come to us in a panic looking for help and are surprised when we tell them that there is nothing that we can do except write an appeal letter / email to Facebook to apologise and plead for their page back (This sometimes works but it's becoming more rare that Facebook even respond).”

“Without naming individual companies - I can confirm that a large retailer in Blanchardstown with 9k+ fans had their page pulled, a bicycle shop in Naas, and numerous restaurants & pubs in various County Dublin locations all got the following from Facebook and had their pages removed/shut down.”

"Facebook’s security systems determined that you were repeatedly using the same feature or engaging in the same behaviors in a short period of time. Because you continued this behavior after receiving multiple warnings, your account was disabled. Facebook cannot provide any specifics on the rate limits that are enforced.”

Despite emailing Facebook daily none of them have received a response.
We've spoken to a few business owners/managers in Ireland this year that have had their pages pulled for flaunting Facebook's competition guidelines.

 There didn't seem to be any recourse and the pages are still down after several months. One of the companies, well known but who shall remain nameless, had around 15,000 fans one day and the next, their page was gone. They were getting people to 'like' and 'share' their competition wall posts in obvious contravention of Facebook's guidelines. Fair enough.

 There are a few other examples including a well-known Dublin Radio Station which had their page pulled for repeatedly flaunting the guidelines.

 So, there you have it, real world examples of what can happen if you continue to ignore or flaunt the Facebook competition rules.

 

 

The bottom line is clear for all

 

 Don’t ignore it simply because your competitors all do, be the first to do it properly and be assured you will not incur the wrath of Facebook and wake up one day minus your hard earned fan base.

 

 

 

You need to do this, or we can do it for you!

 

 Call us today, to arrange a consultation and ensure your next Facebook competition is legal. Contact Corrie-Dee Whaite on Tel 01294 559480 or Mob 07411 170758.

 

Facebook Announces Changes To News Feed from Menlo Park, California HQ

Facebook announced news feed changes on Thursday 8th March 2013, here's a breakdown of some our favourite soundbites from what is happening at Facebook.

Zuckerberg said the Facebook news feed aimed to create a "personalised newspaper" for the site. 

Facebook reported in January that 1.06 billion people were using its service at least once a month.

It also revealed that its profit for the last three months of 2012 was 79% down on the same period the previous year despite a rise in sales because of increased spending on research and development.

The new design brings a more visual look to Facebook, reflecting the fact that photographs now account for 50% of all content on news feed, up from 25% since November 2011.

"The design of your news feed needs to reflect this evolving face of who you're sharing with," Zuckerberg said.

Experts said the overhaul is the most significant in years for Facebook, which has been under pressure to increase revenue growth while keeping users on side since Zuckerberg made the company public on 17 May last year.

Facebook only began showing ads in users' news feeds in 2012, but it quickly proved a vitally important part of the business.

"The news feed advertising is where Facebook is having the success, both on mobile and on the desktop," said Ian Maude, an internet analyst at Enders Analysis.

"The trick is going to be managing the volume of ads people see in the news feed and getting the balance right between maximising revenue but also keeping users happy." 

The Guardian says "Maude said the reception from users to the changes would depend on how many ads appear in their news feed.

"It's not surprising that Facebook is doing a refresh as ads are now an integral part of news feed whether users like it or not," he said.

"But I think Facebook are quite sensitive to overloading people with too many ads. The site has been overdue a shave and a haircut."

The changes will allow marketers to develop more striking ads that will sit alongside videos, photographs and other updates in users' news feeds. Marketers believe the news feed is the most affective way to reach potential customers, attracting a higher click-through rate than sponsored ads on the right-hand side of the site.

According to research firm eMarketer, Facebook earned more US mobile display revenue than any other publisher last year, with an 18.4% share of the entire market, thanks to ads in the news feed. The move helped overall ad revenues rise 36% year-on-year to $4.27bn in 2012, according to the company's most recent full-year results. Says The Guardian.

In addition to the standard news feed, users can select their own unique "alternative" news feed layouts. These include one which shows all updates posted by friends as the ones selected by Facebook's algorithms; One dedicated to organisations & people the user "follows"; A page featuring only posted photos; A music-themed feed containing updates from artists the user likes, concert announcements & details of songs their friends are listening to through Music Apps e.g. Spotify.

The "facebook" logo has been replaced with the iconic "f".  A change already seen by selected group of users given early access to the Graph Search facility.

The social network already knows that engagement with ads in its main news feed is greater than with those that appear on the right-hand side of its web browser. This column of adverts is absent from its mobile apps altogether.

Enlarging the news feed now allows a sponsored post to become by far the biggest element on the screen, taking up roughly a third of the page when viewed on a 13in (33cm) laptop display.

Another business-friendly change is that if a user "likes" an organisation a horizontal banner photo is added to posts reporting the news in addition to the brand's logo, making the update more eye-catching.

The refresh also introduces topic-specific alternatives to its news feed. Adverts will now take up more screen space, making them harder to ignore.

Chris Struhar told the BBC the ahead of the official announcement the "focus had been on stripping back the amount of information being shown on the news feed to make each post more "engaging".

Continue reading the main storyan integral part of news feed whether users like it or not," he said.

"But I think Facebook are quite sensitive to overloading people with too many ads. The site has been overdue a shave and a haircut."

The refresh also introduces topic-specific alternatives to its news feed. Adverts will now take up more screen space, making them harder to ignore.

Chris Struhar told the BBC the ahead of the official announcement the "focus had been on stripping back the amount of information being shown on the news feed to make each post more "engaging".

"We aren't changing where adverts show up or what ads you see. We're just trying to take all the content that you do see and make that bigger and more immersive and more engaging."

He added that further amendments might be made once users had had a chance to provide feedback.

I think the design, which is a lot less cluttered, actually cleans up the whole thing quite a lot," he told the BBC.

"It's really a case of making sure you have high quality advertising content. Facebook will have to make that work because they have to make money. I suspect in the weeks to come they will unveil additional flexibility for advertisers.Hopefully that will bring a lot of new opportunities." Reports the BBC Technology Reporter Leo Kelion.

The changes will allow marketers to develop more striking ads that will sit alongside videos, photographs and other updates in users' news feeds. Marketers believe the news feed is the most affective way to reach potential customers, attracting a higher click-through rate than sponsored ads on the right-hand side of the site.

According to research firm eMarketer, Facebook earned more US mobile display revenue than any other publisher last year, with an 18.4% share of the entire market, thanks to ads in the news feed. The move helped overall ad revenues rise 36% year-on-year to $4.27bn in 2012, according to the company's most recent full-year results. Says The Guardian.

Facebook said the revamp means the social network now looks the same on smartphones, tablet computers and on the web.

The new design gradually be rolled out and made available to everyone, however users can sign up to a waiting list for early access here

We think it will be interesting to see how the alternative news feeds will affect marketers and businesses. What happens when users adopt there own "alternative news feeds" once its been rolled out? We'll split test a number of pages using various  news feed themes and ad campaigns and report our findings on these.

If you would like to discuss this further please contact Corrie-Dee Whaite on Tel 01294 559480 or Mob 07411 170758.