It’s now Easier to Administer Promotions on Facebook

In case you missed it yesterday. Facebook are making it easier to run promotions! Straight from the Facebook for business page

We’ve updated our Pages Terms in order to make it easier for businesses of all sizes to create and administer promotions on Facebook. Here’s what Page administrators need to know:

We’ve removed the requirement that promotions on Facebook only be administered through apps

Now, promotions may be administered on Page Timelines and in apps on Facebook. For example, businesses can now:

• Collect entries by having users post on the Page or comment/like a Page post
• Collect entries by having users message the Page
• Utilize likes as a voting mechanism

As before, however, businesses cannot administer promotions on personal Timelines.

Accurate tagging is required in promotions

In order to maintain the accuracy of Page content, our Pages Terms now prohibit Pages from tagging or encouraging people to tag themselves in content that they are not actually depicted in. So, for instance:

• It’s OK to ask people to submit names of a new product in exchange for a chance to win a prize
• It’s not OK to ask people tag themselves in pictures of a new product in exchange for a chance to win a prize

We hope these updates will enable more businesses to use Facebook to launch their promotions. For more information regarding the changes to our promotions policies, check out our downloadable Promotion Guidelines, which include FAQs and best practices for running promotions through Facebook.

Is Content Marketing part of your mix?

Marketing Directors are searching for that something that will help them measure things in a more scientific way, but don’t want data for data’s sake,  they want something that will actually start to shift the needle for business growth but that is clearly linked to ROI.  A big ask, but something the digital space is really starting to live up to, especially with the increased emphasis on content marketing.

There is a danger of getting distracted by the shiny ball and I don’t for one second subscribe to the view that content marketing is going to kill advertising. But it is certainly changing the landscape significantly. The funnel has become more complicated now and we all know how savvy consumers are these days. It’s no longer possible to put lipstick on bad business. As agencies we need to help our clients to do more and move people from being strangers to customers and ultimately promoters of their products.

Content marketing is an incredible tool in your armoury. It is not a shallow advertisement, a blatant self-promotion or an attempt to trick readers. It is about great content that is interesting and engaging. Content that people want to share with a friend, or that makes them feel differently about a brand. Many brands are engaged in a race to the bottom and competing on price, but this isn’t a strategy for the long term, it doesn’t make people feel anything, you are just something on their functional list of “to-dos”.

It is brining relationship marketing into the connected world and offers relevant scientific data that allows you to make informed decisions on.  The days of people saying that “50% of my advertising works, I’m just not sure which 50%” is over. Even the biggest of companies can and should now act like lean star-up’s, testing and tweaking and amplifying what is working to drive better leads and convert more sales.

Shiny Ball warning again. There is of course a danger of getting distracted by a creative shiny ball. As Patrick Collister, a creative director for over 25 years and now at Google says “Within some digital agencies, people tend to think platforms are a substitute for ideas, but you need both. Technology drives creativity, but it doesn’t lead it”.

These are interesting times and I certainly believe that a content marketing strategy should be forming a part of your companies digital strategy.

The Genius ‘Sugarpova’ Stunt

Yesterday social media, sports and news sites were buzzing with the news that Maria Sharapova was planning to legally change her name to Sugarpova for The US Open tournament. The Sugarpova story reminds me of the time Louis Walsh made up a story about his boyband boyzone being involved in a plane crash in Australia. It never happened!! But it made the front pages.

This was a genius piece of marketing/pr/content generation – call it what you will. It was practically free (bar the agencies hourly fee to come up with the idea and seed the news). It was all over the place and the brand awareness shot through the roof – globally.

I am sure distributors all across the globe are going to find it a lot easier to get the product in prime positions with retailers clammering to satisfy a demand and need that up to two days ago people didnt even know they had. Last year she sold 1.8 million bags of the sweets you can be sure that figure will double or treble off the back of this stunt.

Clearly this woman and her team get the new rules of media and created a story that people just couldn’t ignore, even if they wanted to. Sometimes less really is more

Cue tennis pun – Advantage Sharapova!