Facepage Competitions - should we have them?

[fred]

OK - controversial I know, but:

There are a lot of people who like them.
There are a lot of people who hate them.

I do not believe that most of them adhere to the Facebook Rules.

www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php

E. Promotions

i. Promotions on Facebook must be administered within Apps on Facebook.com, either on a Canvas Page or a Page App.

iv. You must not use Facebook features or functionality as a promotion’s registration or entry mechanism. For example, the act of liking a Page or checking in to a Place cannot automatically register or enter a promotion participant.

vi. You must not notify winners through Facebook, such as through Facebook messages, chat, or posts on profiles (timelines) or Pages.

Furthermore, according to this blog

Here’s what happens when you host a Facebook ‘Like and Share’ competition:

1. As most people restrict viewership of their profile to family and friends, a Brand page cannot validate if the entrant has shared their competition post or not.
2. You cannot download to an excel file the names of those who have liked and shared your competition – so picking a winner requires you to be creative -if you know what I mean.

3. When profile privacy settings are locked down, a Page has no way of contacting the winner other than sticking a post on their page congratulating them and hoping they’ll see it and get in touch (another breach of Facebook rules). This has landed some Pages in hot water and led to public complaints.

So the nice easy ‘Like and Share’ competition means not only are you breaking Facebook rules, but it’s also impossible for you to be entirely ethical when picking out your winner. Think about the impact to your Brand if an ‘entrant’ discovers this, takes issue with it and decides to vent about it online and/or report you to Facebook.

So, these little competitions, that break the rules, may not be as fair as we may think!

Feel free to discuss...

[Perpetua]

Popped your thread into the Lounge Fred . . . personally I've no strong opinions as I don't enter any. . . anywhere.

Many of our Vendors run FB compo's, not everyone is on FB so they miss out. But it's their business to do as they choose.

[DiscoDes]

I too am not a fan of the "Like & Share" competitions on Facebook, I entered a couple when they first started appearing but I don't do them any more.

My feeling is I don't want to "Spam" my friends on Facebook, most know I vape and if they're interested they could always ask me for my recommendations.

[Kaaru]

I keep away from social media for data privacy reasons....interesting points though up top, and new to me.

[kurotoshiro]

My opinion is that if a business decides to run a competition at the risk of breaking FB's guidelines and having their page taken down, that's their own concern (as long as the people who enter the competition are not thereby being implicated in activity that breaks FB's terms and conditions - but, as far as I'm aware, that's not the case).

However, I do think there is an ethical issue surrounding the picking of winners.

For my own part, I'm fully aware that because I hide all my "likes" (they're all set to be visible to "Only Me"), no page owners can actually detect the fact that I like them - and, therefore, I understand that there is no point in me entering these competitions, as I couldn't possibly be picked out as a winner. But there are presumably some people out there who don't fully understand the privacy settings on their "likes" and may not realise that they do not have any realistic chance of winning these competitions.

Now, on the one hand, I don't have much sympathy for people who use FB without taking the time to understand its privacy settings and how they function. But on the other hand, I think the businesses offering the competitions should make more of an effort to be explicit about the fact that competition entrants will need appropriate privacy settings applied to their "like" in order to stand a chance of being picked as a winner.

As for the selection of winners, I don't see a problem, as long as the privacy issue is made explicit. As long as your "like" isn't hidden from the business in question, they can access a long list of names of "likers" - and I don't see the problem with having a random method for selecting a name from that list. The important thing is being clear about what people need to do in order to ensure they actually show up on that list, if that's what they want.

[rich64]

Jun 30, 2013 8:25:48 GMT DiscoDes said:

I too am not a fan of the "Like & Share" competitions on Facebook, I entered a couple when they first started appearing but I don't do them any more.

My feeling is I don't want to "Spam" my friends on Facebook, most know I vape and if they're interested they could always ask me for my recommendations.

That was my first impression and it has nt changed.
Really dont like facebook being used as a marketing tool(although i have signed up to some bands facebooketc so i can keep an eye on tours etc,but thats very non invasive to anyone else on my facebook)

[Todd]

I know I'm not a regular poster as such anymore but saw the topic and had to pitch in.

I despise facebook share and win comps with a passion, it's spam pure and simple and I can't begin to express my hate and contempt for it.........or maybe I just did

[jcol]

Jun 30, 2013 8:25:48 GMT DiscoDes said:

I too am not a fan of the "Like & Share" competitions on Facebook, I entered a couple when they first started appearing but I don't do them any more.

My feeling is I don't want to "Spam" my friends on Facebook, most know I vape and if they're interested they could always ask me for my recommendations.

I am not a fan of them, but do enter occasionally, but i have created a separate facebook account just for competitions