Say Good Bye to Fan Gating on Facebook

1340745_79430083-edited

Have you conducted a contest on your page? Did you make one of the conditions of that contest they like your page? If you answered yes to both questions, you will no longer be able to do that as on Nov. 5th (is the date I have heard). Facebook is implementing a new rule that game makers and contest apps can no longer make liking a page an incentive.

This has long been a procedure for most contests on Facebook. Even the ones I have conducted for clients in the past, we made it a requirement. My app of choice for contests has been WooBox. They made it super simple to fangate your contest/giveaway. So people must like your page before you allow them to enter the contest.

I have read the reasons for doing this is requiring people to like your page brought little value to the page. I could see how this would be the case. You would get a fan for the contest and they would un-like you or hide your posts. The new fans wouldn’t be after the information you have on your page but rather a giveaway or offer.

The whole purpose of a Page is to get engaged customers/fans who talk to you. Which is getting harder and harder, especially for small businesses. The new “pay to play” that is happening for pages. (Another post on that soon). I personally would rather have people who want to interact with the brand.

This makes me wonder one question. If you no longer can fangate a page, would you need an app to hold a contest? Earlier this year Facebook relaxed the rules for contests. You can now pick a winner for a “like the post” or “like the pic” to win. The only stipulation was, and this should come as no surprise, you couldn’t make it mandatory for someone to like a page.

I would say you don’t need an app if you don’t want to capture information from your entrants. However, I am of the school collecting data should be voluntary. Especially with email. I hate when I have to give my email to enter something or get information. If I like your company I will gladly subscribe to your email marketing. Doing a like to enter campaign is going to get you in news feeds of your fans friends and more notice. If people like the post they may check out your page and like you!

These are my thoughts, I would be curious to know what you think about the new policy.

Photo by Freepimages.com

 

Tim is the founder of Element33. A social media agency specializing in education, management and strategy for small businesses. He comes from a traditional marketing agency but has embraced all things digital. He considers himself a marketing nerd and believes that all marketing is tied together. This means no matter what silo you are in, social, email, seach, etc, changes in one will affect the other!

Leave a Reply