So many brands breaching Facebook’s T&Cs with their contests at the mo.
Years ago, the brands running ‘illegal’ contests had you tagging a friend in comments or sharing the post to enter.
(Facebook’s competitions and sweepstakes rules explicitly state, “Promotions must not be administered using personal timelines or friend connections”).
Back then, the problem of non-compliance was mostly the brands’.
Today’s wave of ‘illegal’ contests could compromise YOUR business too.
‘Illegal’ contests, 2024 style…
You will see a post in your feed, with a juicy prize on offer.
Example of this type of post
As you can see from the image, to enter, you type ‘@ Highlight’ in comments and select ‘Highlight’ from the drop-down list.
This is where it potentially becomes problematic for you.
When you type ‘@ Highlight’ on Facebook, it sends this notification to all your friends.
Image shows the highlight function on facebook
Many of your friends are already mighty fed up with being tagged by ‘@ Everyone’ and instantly blocking or unfriending anyone who is adding to the noise by highlighting irrelevant contests.
If you are posting content on your personal Facebook profile ✅, your friends include potential clients.
I.e. people you want to trust you, so they buy.
But here’s the kicker…
Many of those contests are FAKE!
The page that is hosting the contest in this email was set up in January 2023.
Since then, they have posted only four times.
That’s a 🚩 to me in terms of contest legitimacy.
As is the fact 🚩 they are celebrating their “1st birthday” 17 months after the page was created.
AND 🚩 that the page name is a Greek Island rather than a brand/company, and that island DEFINITELY existed before 2023!
It smells off to me.
But maybe the six friends who highlighted this contest to me and the multi-thousands of others who highlighted it know something I don’t!
Why should you care about legitimacy?
Page farming!
You’ve spent time building and nurturing trust with your audience.
If they’re interested in the prize, they will trust that you’ve done your due diligence on this contest and know it is all above board.
They’ll probably also like the page for good measure, perhaps set notifications to ‘All’ or add to ‘Favourites’ to make sure they don’t miss out on the announcement of winning that super-luxury campervan.
And when, in a few months’ time all the posts on the page about the contest have been deleted and the page name changed to something offensive, they’ll have upsetting content in their feed and will be judged for their connection to the organisation.
Because that’s what ‘farming’ is and it is why a lot of these contests are started; to build up a page audience and sell it on.
They rely on your impulsivity, desire for the prize and your naivety about what happens when you do what they ask, and that’s how they grow the page, rapidly.
My advice?
Scroll past!
Unless you are 100% certain that it is the GENUINE brand page running the contest (check spelling of the name and if it is a big brand, look for the blue tick) and none of my other red flags are flying.
And if you intend running a contest or sweepstake on Facebook, read the rules closely and don’t just model what you see others doing.
Because sadly. it will be you who gets shut down for breaching, not them! Grrr!
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Veronica Pullen
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