The Ridiculous Offer - Common Bond PR, Ad Agency & Developers

Has this happened to you?

 

 

 

Posted via web from Media Collective -Social Marketing, Advertising And Nerdy Things MindShare & Beyond

Are The New Facebook Advertising Rules - A Duck & Cover?

Continuing story...

At announcement the Facebook advertising rules changes seemed harsh and prohibitive leaving you to wonder why.

For many small and large businesses running value promotions through the Facebook platform incentives, rewards and contests were a effective method to draw in, reward and to create viral buzz. Facebook recently changed its advertising rules which alters the method and ease in deploying these commonly used methods.

Basically forcing any incentives, name collection into third party apps and prohibiting the perform a Facebook action to enter contests.

The Duck

Recent post by TechCrunch maybe shining a little light onto the reasonings for these changes.

The ScamVille Lawsuit, which in a nutshell is a class action lawsuit against Zynga, RockYou, Offerpal Media SuperReward and others and guilt by association include Facebook, Myspace. The suit claims that users of the online games or promotional landings were encouraged to complete offers in exchange for points or contest prizes and rewards.

Well, some offers, were not as transparent as they seemed leaving some with unexpected charges on credit cards for dubious services or products that they felt mislead into accepting

And Cover

Enter in "3rd party Application" collection terms as well as the new rules disallowing any "post to wall to win or Fan our Facebook to.." language use. Basically removing any language that utilizes the Facebook name as a condition to win, receive an offer or perform a interaction with.

Facebooks new advertising terms language seems to be a liability disassociation from 3rd parties utilizing Facebook in ways that may leave them open to situations such as the ScamVille Class Action.

It's Sad

That the ad networks in this case did not take the time to evaluate the advertisers offers within their networks. By not taking the time to do so, they it cost them their creditability and brand image but potentially financially as well. 

Ad networks that don't take the time to week out the "dubious offer-ers" could experience a  DUCK & COVER from their legitimate, transparent advertiser.

I for one would not place any client ads nor recommend that they do so within a network known to allow questionable ads that could possibly be associated or within proximity of their offer or brand .

Companies with bogus offers, hidden charges and intent  just alienated potential clients and effected the legitimate advertisers within their network.

Even Sadder

Ad networks and incentives can be a value tool in helping business attract and interact with their market place and also reward their client base for loyalty.

Facebook provided a venue for businesses to interact, engage and reward customers in a open social format that equalized the "its affordable to do" for many small, medium and even large business in todays challenging economy.

Now because of a few bad eggs, the Ducks are now covering,  making marketing, customer service and traditional drives to increase fan base on the Facebook network more difficult as well as effecting user trust and engagement within facebook as well as with ad network offers.

 

What do you think about this whole situation?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted via web from Media Collective -Social Marketing, Advertising And Nerdy Things MindShare & Beyond

Facebook Advertising Change & What's with the No Dairy, is Facebook Lactose Intolerant?

Facebook has provided a vehicle for many brands large and small to engage, reward and encourage "fanning" in a level playing field and for free fan, post to the wall or simply win by being a fan to win.

Now the rules have changed.

Regardless If its a Facebook move to limit their liability or diminish spam advertising, these restrictive rules with dire consequences to your page if you don't adhere to the rules - Page removal.

I think that there are additional motivations behind the "Changes" and that is "Income" Facebook has been working on deriving a revenue, so with the" Approval By Representative" could this mean a FEE, CPA or cost to interact or Imbed application FEE? 

The hardest hit by these changes will be the small businesses that have built a presence on Facebook whom might not have the depth of pocket to develop their own applications. Also impacted  the Fans of pages themselves.

Why?

Fans of non spamming legitimate brands and services,  love to be rewarded, they love their name in lights and sometimes they do see or find you though a promotional "Fan me for a Chance to Win"  or Thanks for being a Fan were giving you a free or a coupon etc. standard business is it not.  just like client appreciation

Now all advertising has to go through a "Approval Process" with a "Representative" Disclaimers added to text and common up to now methods for fan attraction and rewards are no longer allowed on the wall, or drives off of outside sites.  Such as Fan Us to Win post or contests on your blog.  No public stream notifications of winners, nor encouraging of post to wall as terms of entry. All Advertising has to occur within the Box Tab or a developed third party app

More so if contest is administered off the Facebook Platform your not out of the woods  "However, we may remove any materials relating to the promotion or disable your Page or account if we determine that you violate these Promotions Guidelines, the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities or any other of our policies.

Prohibitions

You may not publicize or administer a promotion on Facebook if:

• 2.1 The promotion is open or marketed to individuals who are under the age of 18;

  Interesting as there are many brands that cater to the teen demographic music, clothing, gaming.

• 2.2 The promotion is open to individuals who reside in a country embargoed by the United States;

  OK where's the list? Also, with ability to be anonymous in IP plus would be easier all around if this is Facebooks stance for them to simply block all "Embargoed" pages and profiles  from even appearing within the US displayed pages.

• 2.3 The promotion, if a sweepstakes, is open to individuals residing in Belgium, Norway, Sweden, or India;

• 2.4 The promotion’s objective is to promote any of the following product categories: gambling, tobacco, dairy, firearms, prescription drugs, or gasoline; 
  

      Can see the gambling, tobacco firearms, drugs or gas but Who knew Dairy was an issue???

• 2.5 The prize or any part of the prize includes alcohol, tobacco, dairy, firearms, or prescription drugs; or

      Again the Dairy,,, what? so no wine & cheese or Artisan Cheese & Cracker gift basket set if your a legitimate retailer?

• 2.6 The promotion is a sweepstakes that conditions entry upon the purchase of a product, completion of a lengthy task, or other form of consideration.
  Can see the purchase the product to win but whom decides task length, does this knock out the mom-penures who have blog & me warming campaigns?

Facebook Advertising Can's & Can Not's

Can Not's	Can	Thoughts
Condition entry in the promotion upon a user providing content on Facebook, such as making a post on a profile or Page, status comment or photo upload.	Use a third party application to condition entry to the promotion upon a user providing content. For example, you may administer a photo contest whereby a user uploads a photo through a third-party application to enter the contest.	What this means is no uploading to page wall via the photo button in status area Tip: flicker or other photo account could work esp. if you feed into your FB page.
Administer a promotion that users automatically enter by becoming a fan of your Page.	Only allow fans of your Page to access the tab that contains the third-party application for the promotion.	You'll have to develop or utilize a application embedded in your application Tab box |FMBL|
Notify winners through Facebook, such as through Facebook messages, chat, or posts on profiles or Pages.	Collect an address or email through the third-party application for the promotion in order to contact the winner by email or standard mail.	If you have a email marketing system such as Constant Contact which you can embed in a FMBL tab, to collect email addresses to use as notification method
Instruct people (in the rules or elsewhere) to sign up for a Facebook account before they enter the promotion.		Really don't know what to say about this, because either they are avoiding profile to enter creation that never get used outside of the contest entry or shot foot because FB has grown due to its users & page "join" referrals.

Facebook Promotions Guidelines Nov 4 2009

So what do you think? Good move? Another quick to jump regulation change that could result in backlash like the privacy issues?

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