Hilinsky Consulting Social Media Blog

As Facebook continues to grow beyond it’s current 400+ million worldwide users, it’s inevitable that the social platform will continue to solidify it’s efforts to monetize and ensure it’s future sustainability. Developers and marketing agencies were notified that starting November 2009, some big changes were in the pipeline.. new rules, new app specs and a new corporate attitude.

One of the most significant changes passed down from Facebook was to further regulate the fan page promotion guidelines and to restrict how businesses are marketing their products via the platform. As of 2010, businesses and brands are no longer able to give away coupons or promotional codes directly from the platform as they could do in 2009. This is primarily due to liability which is incurred by Facebook, which prompts them to require additional staff to research and approve the legalities of promoting within the platform. Facebook is making a strong effort to reduce their liability and to staff a stronger department of regulators who will monitor promotions.

This makes sense, but as of early 2010 – Social Media Marketing Agencies are noticing that in order to receive approval for a contest being operated within the platform a minimum $10,000 monthly ad buy (click to read more via InsideFacebook.com) which is required in order to receive approval. Your $10k monthly ad buy with Facebook ensures that you have a representative to communicate with, who can answer your questions and help you receive ‘white list’ approval for running your contest. The $10,000 ad buy does not cover the development cost for your application, Facebook will not build the promotional application for you – they are simply allowing you to pass.

According to Section 2 of the new Facebook promotions guidelines:

You may not administer any promotion through Facebook, except that you may administer a promotion through the Facebook Platform with our prior written approval. Such written approval may be obtained only through an account representative at Facebook. If you are already working with an account representative, please contact that representative to begin the approval process. If you do not work with an account representative, you can use this contact form to inquire about working with an account representative. If we provide you such approval, you agree to the following: (read more here).

Facebook doesn’t really publicize the minimum buy (unless you contact them directly) and unfortunately $10k is a significant barrier for entry for most companies looking to take advantage of the 400 million users who are interacting daily on Facebook. So… what if you’re a business who wants to try out Facebook as a marketing tool, without incurring an additional $10k monthly fee. Our team has shared some proven advice on best practices and tips on customizing your Facebook image, launching promotions and increasing your fan engagement without having to pay extra:

Inside Facebook (another great source for Facebook platform info) just published a great article titled ‘6 Tips for Running Promotions within Facebook’s Guidelines‘ which covers best practices for running promotions within Facebook’s new guidelines.  To summarize, here’s what they recommend:

1. Read all promotion guidelines – we recommend that you check out all the newest Facebook promotional guidelines (click to view).
2. Clear all promotions with Facebook is possible - this isn’t as easy as it sounds, but contact them to see if you can to get pre-approval if possible from one of their representatives. The ‘catch-22′ is that you must pay the $10k in order to have access to a rep who will approve your contest.
3. Don’t Call Facebook Your Partner – according to Facebook you can “not directly or indirectly indicate that Facebook is a sponsor or administrator of the promotion or mention Facebook in any way in the rules or materials relating to the promotion.” Be careful of this and know the boundaries!
4. Understand Local Rules, and How They Affect Your Facebook Promotion - this can be tricky but if you’re familiar with other local regulations in your area, you’ll ensure that it’s not a problem to operate your promotion without inuring liability on yourself.
5. Heed Facebook’s Formatting Requirements - Promotions can only be administered through FBML applications which reside on your fan page as a custom tab. It’s not allowed to strictly administer your contest using the standard tools Facebook provides. Read more about solutions for custom FBML application development from Hilinsky Consulting.
6. Don’t Require Facebook Actions - It is illegal for your application to require a fan to post a status update or send to a fan. The only action that you can require from a user when interacting with your app is to become a fan in order to receive a discount (conditional FBML based on fan status.)

Note: this guide is not written or endorsed by Facebook, we’ve researched and tested all the data below but please use this advice at your own risk – for more advice and strategies on how to build your engagement on Facebook without having to pay wild funds contact our team at solutions@hilinskyconsulting.com

How to promote your business on Facebook without paying $10k per month: talk about your promotion, but host it off of Facebook. It’s easy to do and makes a huge difference in the amount of liability you incur on them as a content host.

Imagine these 2 different scenarios:

1.) A company hosts a promotion on Facebook. The promotion is operated using a custom fan page tab titled “Free Offer”. In order to see the free offer, the user must become a fan. Once they’ve become a fan, a coupon will appear within Facebook that they can print or share with their friends. The coupon is given to the user while on Facebook.

2.) A company hosts a promotion on Facebook. The promotion is operated using a custom fan page tab titled “Fan Offers”. In order to see the free offer, the user must become a fan. Once they’ve become a fan, a link (URL) will appear within Facebook which, if clicked, will take the user to a landing page on the company’s website. Once the user has navigated to the website, they can access or print the coupon. The landing page is Facebook Connect enabled so that the user can still share with friends on Facebook and spread the word.

The 2nd promotion is legit, without having to pay $10k per month – while the 1st promotion causes Facebook to incur liability since you’re giving the user a coupon while still on the fan page. There’s a difference, and that difference costs $10k per month.

How to to promote on Facebook in 2010

Interested in learning more about marketing your business on Facebook?

Our social media team be posting more information and strategies for businesses looking to maximize their visibility and promote their brand on Facebook.

We specialize in FBML application solutions which can host custom welcome pages, contests and promotions for your brand all on Facebook. Please contact us if we can help support your project or design a customized fan page solutions or view our complete FBML application portfolio.

Hilinsky Consulting’s team is based is San Jose, California; we’ve advised and provided Facebook and FBLM solutions for clients worldwide. Recently we’ve supported Scion Motors, Polydor Records, The San Francisco Food Bank and True Religion Jeans. Our agency has partnered with Wells Fargo Bank to help advise small business owners on best practices for promoting their businesses on Facebook. For more information on our agency, visit our homepage or contact us today.

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