Facebook, yesterday, announced that promotions, aka contests, can now be executed on the Facebook Page using Page elements, for example the LIKE button. Prior to the announcement, you could only run promotions with a third party app and you are not allowed to use the Page elements.
Some in-house social marketing managers lamented that this should have come earlier so that they can save a few hundred to thousand dollars on creating a app. However, if they were really marketing folks, a contest app would be a better option.
1. How are you going to administer 100s or more Likes or manage 50 photo entries?
If you run a contest asking your Facebook audience to like a photo, or submit a photo via your Facebook Page, as a busy social marketing manager, how are you going to administer the contest especially if the numbers get very high?
For example, if your photo get 100 likes, how are you going to sieve through these 100 likes? It gets even scarier if this number increase.
Or if you have tons of photos submitted as a post. You need to spend time right clicking and downloading each single image, and then assign a name to it.
It is very unproductive.
2. You won't get the database of the contestants
A good marketer will understand the importance of a good database. A contest app, when designed properly, will not require the Facebook user to enter basic Facebook details like name and email address. In fact, when done correctly, a repeat visitor need not enter non-Facebook details again.
Running a contest off Facebook Page itself will not get you the customers database.
Even if you have the time to clickthrough every single profile of each LIKE entry, different privacy settings will not give you the details you need.
Avoid being penny wise and pound foolish.
Some in-house social marketing managers lamented that this should have come earlier so that they can save a few hundred to thousand dollars on creating a app. However, if they were really marketing folks, a contest app would be a better option.
1. How are you going to administer 100s or more Likes or manage 50 photo entries?
If you run a contest asking your Facebook audience to like a photo, or submit a photo via your Facebook Page, as a busy social marketing manager, how are you going to administer the contest especially if the numbers get very high?
For example, if your photo get 100 likes, how are you going to sieve through these 100 likes? It gets even scarier if this number increase.
Or if you have tons of photos submitted as a post. You need to spend time right clicking and downloading each single image, and then assign a name to it.
It is very unproductive.
2. You won't get the database of the contestants
A good marketer will understand the importance of a good database. A contest app, when designed properly, will not require the Facebook user to enter basic Facebook details like name and email address. In fact, when done correctly, a repeat visitor need not enter non-Facebook details again.
Running a contest off Facebook Page itself will not get you the customers database.
Even if you have the time to clickthrough every single profile of each LIKE entry, different privacy settings will not give you the details you need.
Avoid being penny wise and pound foolish.
Comments
We tried to look for your email contact but it does not seem to be available on your blog. So we are contacting you via a comment.
On behalf of the National Library Board (NLB), we would like to invite you to pledge your blog to the Singapore Memory Project (SMP).
We find that your entries would be a great addition to the Singapore Memory Project.
We think your blog would offer a different perspective. Whether your posts are an account of your daily life or an expression of your thoughts, our project hopes to find a home for these memories so that it can help build a ground-up understanding of Singapore.
If you believe memories are worth preserving, simply pledge your blog here: http://singaporememory.simulation.com.sg/Public/Pledge.
The SMP is a national initiative started in 2011 to collect, preserve and provide access to stories, moments and memories related to Singapore. For more information about this initiative, you may wish to contact Mr Patrick Cher at patrick_cher@nlb.gov.sg or read the FAQ.
Yours sincerely,
Krishna
[Simulation Software & Technologies (S2T) Pte Ltd. is the officially appointed vendor for SMP for the period Nov 2012 to Dec 2013.]