Facebook promotion rules are a game changer for brands
In this guest post, Tony Chilvers and Cameron Rambert of CHE Proximity assess the implications that Facebook’s recent promotional policy changes will have for marketers and consumers alike.
Facebook has just announced a revision in its Page Terms, which may soon prove to be one of the most significant changes to its promotional policy to date.
Until now, Facebook forebode the use of Likes, Comments, Photo-Tagging and Sharing as a mechanic to competition entry or as a form of voting. Promotions could only be run in Facebook approved apps, and these existed as tabs within a business page.
The new rules mean brands are no longer required to administer promotions through third-party applications. Now virtually any user action conducted via the platform, with the exclusion of ‘tagging’ and sharing, can constitute as a voting or entry mechanic for competitions.
The implications are enormous
Promotional competitions and contests have become a booming sub-industry within the wider social-media ecosystem. Other than the likely execution of a few dozen start-ups (whose business model solely relies on Facebook’s third party application policy), the doors have effectively been opened to a plethora of new opportunities.
Small businesses in particular have been notorious for frequently violating Facebook’s previous promotional policy. This wasn’t because they were cutting corners necessarily: most were simply unaware of the policy. In addition, businesses were hindered by the costly and technically challenging need to develop their own third party apps, which consequently leaves such service providers in an interesting situation.
Third-party apps generated by online platforms have not been, by nature, mobile friendly; and this has been a frequently documented issue given the rise of mobile consumption. Recent stats show that Facebook usage in Australia is achieving 7m mobile users every day and 12m mobile users every month. By this very nature the now historic approach to in-platform promotions has shifted direction and pace.
Before this, however, specialists were often commissioned to develop tailored mobile optimised campaigns for those who could afford it. It is likely that these changes will render such specialists partially obsolete.
To marketers these changes, whilst exciting from one perspective, tend to raise more concerning questions from another.
What is the end game for Facebook? It has been no secret that business pages have seen reduced levels of engagement since “EdgeRank” was first released, and their latest newsfeed changes don’t seem to be delivering as well as they had anticipated. Is this part of their attempt to close the engagement void? Perhaps we’re looking at the introduction of a new advertising product.
The Facebook apps approach might have been costly, but has been the only legitimate means for brands to harvest user data, predominantly by building a consumer database. The revised mechanic allows Facebook to keep all that IP away from the brand. The promotion happens in the newsfeed and timeline…no more apps that collect useful consumer data.
What will it mean to users?
The previous rules around promotion sharing through third-party apps shaped our expectations of promoter legitimacy and integrity.
The revised approach, however, leaves us anticipating that our already saturated news feed will become further congested with spam-like promotions, thus diluting quality content from brands.
A game changer
The new rules are a game changer for marketers. This ‘increased’ engagement is likely to enrich every user’s profile, especially where Graph Search comes into play. But, as with every other move Facebook makes, there will be a lot of complaining before we get used to the new way of doing things.
Brands who are creatively and logistically fast enough to capitalise on the changes stand to make an impact in the ensuing months. Those who are late to the game will be overlooked by users wanting to once again get more out of their newsfeed.
Tony Chilvers is the Head of Interactive Strategy and Cameron Rambert is an Associate Digital Strategist at CHE Proximity.
Brands have been breaking these rules since the dawn of pages. It just legitimises what they have been doing all along.
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when I see the word ‘gamechanger’ i reach for my gun
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I have no issue with the ‘legitimacy’ of promotions although I am interested in the legal status change -if any. I was told once by a Facebook employee that third-party apps moved the legal risk from Facebook to the Promoter (ie the competition is not being run by Facebook).
Has this changed?
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Can I make a small correction: tagging is not the only restriction. Sharing as a competition mechanic is also forbidden (clause (e) subsection 3).
I tend to sit on the fence with the policy update. On the one hand, it’s already prevalent (that is, ‘like to win’ posts even when it breached policy). On the other, big brands may now jump on the opportunity too which may indeed flood news feeds.
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That Facebook logo… is just way, way too big.
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Advertising: the antithesis of a good user experience.
Facebook is being killed off by marketers, which can only be a good thing.
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@Courtney – I don’t believe so. They still request you acknowledge that “the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.” Interested to see how this disclaimer will be used on direct timeline promotions.
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Yeah I remember being told that the reason you couldn’t do it was because you weren’t able to get someone to sign off on the T&C’s of a particular promotion.
How is someone going to be able to accept T&C’s when simply liking or commenting on the post?
Hmmm….
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Facebook isn’t being killed off by marketers. It’s just not cool and more with “the Kids”
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‘It’s just not cool and more with “the Kids”
ie. it’s full of marketing garbage, so they’ve migrated to new platforms that receive less attention (atm instragram, kik, snapchat etc). And will migrate again when this changes.
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@Junior — you can’t & these post-only mechanics are definitely not suitable for all competitions and promotions. Examples here:
http://www.insidefacebook.com/.....uidelines/
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+1 for comments that it won’t actually make it that much easier — brands will still often (especially in NSW, or where people from NSW can enter…) have to get a lottery / trade promotion permit, which necessitates a T&Cs, along with having to apply etc!
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Agree with a lot of what’s been said in the comments. I don’t think these rule changes will radically alter anything. Promotions were already frequently being run this way and bigger companies who can afford to develop custom apps will surely see the benefit in capturing consumer data and building a database anyway. The primary benefit for bigger brands is the ability to conduct small spot giveaways etc for engagement purposes while continuing to conduct larger promotions through apps.
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