[INFOGRAPHIC] Timeline Contests vs App Contests? – Facebook Promotion Guidelines Update

Facebook often changes its terms, but they made a big change this time. They announced a Facebook Promotion Guidelines update that from now you don’t need to use third party apps to run any promotions, contests, giveaways and draws, but you can do it on your Facebook Timeline. With this infographic we would like to give you an objective guide to decide if Timeline contests or Third party apps are for you.

Facebook Promotion Guidelines Update

Should you run your contest on the wall of your Facebook Page or through a 3rd party app? Let’s see what changed.

 

 

So, let’s recap what the changes are all about practically.

 

The condition of entry might be the following(s):

 

1. fans liking a post

 

1. fans commenting a post

 

1. liking can be a voting mechanism, so fans can vote on images with a like

 

1. fans writing a post to the page’s timeline

 

1. fans sending a message to the Facebook page

 

 

These are still not allowed as a condition to entry:

 

1. asking fans to share your post

 

1. asking fans to post something to their own profile to qualify

 

1. asking them to tag your page in their posts

 

1. asking fans to tag themselves on your photos

 

 

 

What are the weaknesses of a Timeline contest?

 

1. No email addresses – you can’t access the email addresses of fans liking or commenting your post. The only way to have their email address is to run an app contest.

 

1. Can’t recruit new fans – The condition of entry can’t be to like a Page, so it is hard to enlarge your fan base in such way.

 

1. Increased cheating – Wall contests are open to abuse, and let people to buy or create fake Facebook accounts or do vote-exchange.

 

1. Fairness issues – There is no randomness in winner selection as it’s done manually.

 

1. Contacting the winner is hard on Facebook –  Your message will go to the “Other” inbox, in case of a liking contest you can’t tag people.

 

1. Can’t reach friends of fans – The condition of entry can’t be to share on a profile. Sharing a post, or tagging in personal posts or photos is prohibited. (Facebook wants to keep the personal profiles clean.)

 

 

Then how to decide?

 

Just answer this question.

 

Do you want to reach fans out of Facebook too in email to increase sales and grow your fan base?

 

If not, then run contests on your Facebook timeline.

 

If yes, then choose a third party Facebook contest provider, like Antavo.

 

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