I have noticed that not many people are aware of the Facebook Promotions Guidelines and most companies in Oman doing contests, promotions, prize draws, etc. on FB are not following the rules. Guys watch out please.
You should familiarise with the rules; while until some time ago promotions could be run on walls or photo albums now the new rules require all promotions to be administered only from within an App with either a separate tab on your page or on an canvas page. Basically you cannot use any FB features as an automatic entry or registration to contests; for instance, using the ‘Like’ button as a voting mechanism for promotions is against the rules.
In simple words you cannot:
- Run a contest on the wall
- Have fans to enter a contest by uploading photos directly to FB
- Select a fan randomly to win a prize
- Contact or announce winners on the wall, or through an FB message, or through FB chat.
Facebook surely does not monitor every page in the world so the risk of being caught ‘cheating’ is very low however there’s still a tiny chance to have your page shut down; is it worth the risk? Not in my opinion as you could lose all your loyal fans, photos, videos, etc.
So how do you run a promotion on Facebook? You need to rely on a third party. There are several apps you can use; the most popular is Wildfire but there’s quite a few around like Fanappz, Vitrue, BuddyMedia, Votigo, ContextOptional, BulbStorm, NorthSocial just to mention a few. Alternatively if you have programming skills you can do it yourself. Another alternative is to get in touch with me...:)
So next time you run a promotion it is important to review the Facebook Promotional Guidelines or, if you like, just drop me a mail.
Thanks for information
ReplyDeleteVery good post, thanks!
ReplyDeleteWhile we're on the point of rules and the internet, maybe you should write something about intellectual copyright in general...
In Oman to this day, do they even have a law for Intellectual Property (IP) ? I dont think so !!
ReplyDeleteThanks guys; i believe there is a law for Intellectual Property. Protection for ideas falls under the category of Intellectual Property, which includes copyrights, patents, trademarks and trade secrets. Not an expert on this but i found the following:
ReplyDeleteThe Omani copyright law, issued by Royal Decree No.65/2008 dated May 4, 2008, became effective on May 18, 2008.
The law grants protection to authors of literary, artistic and scientific works whatever the value, kind or purpose or way of expression of the work is. Generally, the protection will be provided for works whose means of expression is writing, sound, drawing, image or motion picture. It will also include creative titles and computer software, which are published, acted or displayed for the first time in the Sultanate of Oman or abroad.
The term of protection is the lifetime of the author plus 50 years following his/her death.
Copyright works may be deposited at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and shall be considered a presumption of ownership.
Oman is a member of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.
nice blog....
ReplyDeletethanks for information, you is the best
ReplyDelete