Facebook promotions are all the rage in the brand marketing world, and for good reason. Not only do those contests and sweepstakes reel in a swarm of new fans, they help re-establish ties with existing ones. Fans, of course, are far more likely to buy or recommend your product or service than non-believers. So it’s a real good idea to have a few of these loyal supporters on board.
Before brand marketers can launch their fan-building promotion, however, they must comply with a few ground rules as delineated in that great repository of wisdom – Facebook’s Page Guidelines. One of the golden rules of this treasure concerns use to be the app requirement. However, recently Facebook has updated their rules so that pages are not required to use an app for the promotion. You can advertise the contest on your Facebook page, without the required software; as long as you abide by the rules and clearly state that the promotion is not sponsored by Facebook. Only an app can collect entries, votes, and registrations, so if you don’t use that feature you will need other means to obtain your admissions.
So if you still want to take the app route, how does a brand marketer acquire the all-important promotions app? There are two basic methods.
Option #1 is pulling your resident web programmer away from the coffee machine and showing them the way to Facebook app dashboard. They’ll figure out the rest — or the setup wizard will.
An alternative is plucking a third party app from the worlds many offerings. Some mighty good ones are available for the low, low price of free.
Open the Gate
Once an app is operational, brand marketers can start gathering the likes. In fact, likes can be accumulated before participants actually participate. Setting up a fan gate will do this nicely. With a fan gate guarding the way, eager visitors must like your page before gaining admittance to the entry form page. Remember, however, these ‘fans’ were motivated by something other than loyalty. So brand marketers will want to cultivate these new connections to ensure long-term interest.
If you have any questions or comments about using Facebook promotions to build your brand, or about any other brand building topic, feel free to send them our way. You can connect with the Young Company team at 949-376-8404 #4033 or bart@youngcompany.com. And be sure to follow us for the latest brand marketing news and tips.