In the fall of 2013, Facebook finally modified its guidelines and relaxed its rules to allow companies to run promotional contests on it’s platform — which is great news for companies. The reality of the situation is that most companies were either unaware of the previous rules or simply ignored the rules. Now with the new rules, Facebook doesn’t have to police contests on its platform. So for those companies that were running contests in face of the previously prohibitive guidelines they can relax and enjoy the “New Rules.”
There are numerous benefits for brands to run promotional contests on Facebook Fan Pages without accessing the services of 3rd party apps, and each company can assess the pros and cons for their team. Three (3) major benefits of using a 3rd party app are described below for your use in making your decision “to use or not to use a 3rd party app” for your promotional contest on Facebook.
1. Develop Marketing Database Through Building Email and Lead Data Info – Most 3rd party apps have the ability to minimally collect email information from individuals who enter your contests. If your company is not collecting emails from entrants and/or those participants who interacting with your promotion during the voting process, then you are missing out on obtaining valuable information because email marketing is still one of the top forms of marketing. Running a social media promotion for engaging purpose is important; however, to miss out on the opportunity to reach out to a user after the promotion is invaluable.
2. Engaging experience for users with voting mechanisms – Your company can maximize engagement through the use of a 3rd party app that has a voting mechanism. Many apps have a voting mechanism that gives extra points for sharing the votes in their personal timeline. Voting keeps the parties coming back to check the status and casting a vote is more exciting than “Liking” or “Commenting.”
3. Hosting Contest Rules – Even though this is listed as the 3rd benefit for using a 3rd party app, it’s probably the most important reason to use a professional app for any social media promotion. Many companies completely ignore the fact that there are laws related to running a promotional contest. Most 3rd party apps have reserved a section in the app that allows conspicuous posting of your contest rules.
So before jumping right into running a contest without a 3rd party app, gather your marketing team together and brainstorm the pros and cons. Good luck in your Facebook contest endeavors.
