Facebook promotions guidelines - and getting around them.

Late last year, Facebook announced new regulations on how brands could run competitions or “sweepstakes” through the site.

Within these promotion guidelines, there is a clause which states that:

You cannot: Administer a promotion that users automatically enter by becoming a fan of your Page.

Which was a bit of a pain for agencies and brands who saw contests as a quick way to get their fan numbers up. That easy road of offering a holiday to Las Vegas to one lucky new fan was no longer possible. (’What? We actually have to provide engaging content or good customer dialogue instead? Noooo!’)

But of course, where there’s a rule, there’s a way to work around it.

Ford are about to launch their new SUV, the Explorer and have decided to announce details of the car not at a motor show, but on the Explorer’s Facebook page. As part of the campaign, they are sort of, kind of, a little bit offering the chance to win the new car if yo become a fan. But not in a way that convenes the rules.

Would you “like” us to give away an all-new Ford Explorer on Facebook? Help us reach 30,000 fans and Ford will give one away via an enter to win sweepstake launching later this month…”

So becoming a fan doesn’t enter you into the draw; it just helps get the numbers up to the magic 30,000 - at which point Ford will then run the sweepstake.

It’s a pretty effective way to get around the Facebook competition rules. Until Facebook change them again.

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