Finally a Facebook Update Worth “Liking”

By now, we are all used to Facebook’s continuously changing rules and regulations. Recently Facebook has finally made some changes that have some of us in the social media world rejoicing.

A few weeks ago, Facebook announced that they changed their guidelines for running contests through community or brand pages. Up until recently, brands were required to use a 3^rd party application to accept votes or entries into contests. Now, brands can officially run those contests you’ve seen: “comment on this post and win a free pony” or “like this post and we’ll give you a car”.

What does this mean?

1. Likes and comments can now be used as entries mechanisms for contests.
2. Brands can run their own contests directly on their timelines without using 3^rd party apps that many fans don’t like.
3. Creating and running contests that are directly on the timeline are faster and easier then creating a tab every time. This means more contests and more engagement from fans.

What this doesn’t mean:

1. 3^rd party apps aren’t going to die. Large level contests and sweepstakes will still need the content tracking that right now only apps can provide.
2. Anyone can run a contest on his or her page. These guidelines are only meant for brand or community pages. So don’t try and run a contest to get rid of that old couch no one will take!
3. Require people to tag themselves in content as a means of a voting mechanism.
4. Require people to share photos or content on their own pages or a friend’s page.

Frankly, we have been waiting forever for Facebook to make these changes! We can’t wait to utilize these new rules for our clients.