Another day, another new Facebook update.
But don’t despair! Today Pages have been given a gift – the ability to post promotions without the need for a third-party application.
In other words, your Facebook Page Promotions can be administered directly by you. More control AND access to Facebook users that have liked your Page.
But before you head to your Page to start taking advantage of the situation, some advice.
Don’t.
The reason is two-fold.
Firstly, the downside of lifting restrictions on promotions is that you can post more through your Page (new products, contests etc), directly into your user’s newsfeed.
Why is this a ‘downside’? While your company may use this power for good, others might not be as controlled as you.
As with many company-friendly updates Facebook has made, this one has the potential to lead to a user backlash – how would you feel if suddenly your newsfeed was being invaded with more promotions and contests than before? A slow burning of annoyance around the current level of promotions (and their poor targeting metrics) may blow up.
The lesson here: wait and watch. Give the new updates time to set in, see if the backlash occurs. Be patient. The last thing you want is for your brand to be tied to the ones that were part of the backlash.
Focus on what you are currently working on in the space that doesn’t involve unnecessary intrusions into your audience’s newsfeed, just because you can.
Secondly, removing third-party app involvement in promotions adds more liability to your brand, clearing Facebook of responsibility of user backlash and competition blunders. While your brand may not be responsible for this (and may take out unscrupulous competitors), the changes open brands to possible confusion around how they can run competitions.
Take brand naming and tagging for example.
Facebook’s updates allow you to:
“ask people to submit names of a new product in exchange for a chance to win a prize”
But don’t even think of:
“asking people tag themselves in pictures of a new product in exchange for a chance to win a prize”
While these new changes aren’t social media world shattering, the measure won’t be how well they’re utilised by good brands but how badly by others, and the backlash that follows.
So, in a word: patience.
AVM Consulting 