Facebook Offers – Follow up

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Posted on
May 4, 2012

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This is a follow up from our post on Facebook offers available in Down Under

With the dust settling on the Beta program for Facebook Offers it is becoming apparent that it can offer up more of a headache for page owners than they first bargained for. Already we have seen the fallout on a few pages able to create Offers.

In one example, Huon Bush Retreats in Tasmania ran the Offer “3 nights in a studio cabin @ $99 per night” which saw 90,676 people take up the offer in 6 days, which has the potential to turn into a customer service nightmare and has indeed prompted a post by the page today to assure Facebook users that they haven’t had their accounts “hacked”.

In another example we have seen how Latitude Travel Services has used Offers to run a competition that is being used to collect email addresses for promotional marketing. This offer has been claimed 36,600 times in 3 days. Note: it is against Facebook terms and conditions for competitions to be run using Facebook functionality like this.

So what does this mean for Offers

Pros Cons
  • Depending on the discount it can create word of mouth advertising.
  • It can add value to a sale or be used to up-sell a sale.
  • Another way to engage with your page community.
  • Can create a bad user experience or a customer service nightmare if the offer is over committed
  • Limited room for terms and conditions in the offer.
  • While you can set an Offer limit the offer doesn’t have unique numbering.

While we have seen some hiccups in the Offers beta it by all means does have it’s place but mostly for use as a token offer campaign, something that you would give to a regular customer. For example, “Get a donut for $1 with any coffee or tea purchased”. You aren’t actually giving anything away, but rather allowing the opportunity for an up-sell.

 

  • Adrian

    I’m curious as to why you say promoting the competition the way Latitude did is a breach of Facebook’s T&C. Looks like just promotion via Facebook (it doesn’t look like it was administered via Facebook). People needed to enter off Facebook and couldn’t enter via Facebook, so that should be fine. (Albeit the competition itself probably doesn’t comply with necessary rules and regulations, (is this the breach you are talking about?).

    Seems like Facebook Offers would be a great way to run a competition and build a significant list.

  • http://twitter.com/DeveloperSteve Developer Steve

    Hi Adrian,

    Offers isnt designed for competitions but to offer a page a way to offer extra value via a token discount be it a small discount on a product.

    We’ve seen examples where pages are using offers to promote competitions which is contrary to Facebook’s Terms and Conditions, Section E item 1…

    “Promotions (such as a contest or sweepstakes) on Facebook must be administered within Apps on Facebook.com, either on a Canvas Page or a Page App.”

    https://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php#promotionsguidelines

  • Adrian

    Hi Steve,

    I’ve actually looked at this again. The point you referenced mentioned “administered” which does not include promoting. The definition clearly indicated that “promoting” a promotion is different to “administering” a promotion.

    The old FB T&Cs made it clear that you could publicise/promote a promotion.

    Reading the new T&Cs again don’t really suggest that things have changed, except that they have made it more grey and harder to interpret.

    So long as a competition is administered OFF Facebook, then things should be okay. So the travel offer (using Offers) would probably be okay under FB rules, except for the fact that they may have breached other state based legal requirements (and therefore then breached FB rules).

    In effect all points i) through vii) of Section E relate to administration, not promoting.

    I’m interested in your further thoughts on this.

    Regards
    Adrian

  • Developersteve

     Hi Adrian,

    You can second guess Facebook’s meaning many different ways but at the end of the day they dont want you running competitions on a platform they are legally liable for, they even give pages a way to offer competitions (via Apps) which quite clearly outlines that in the TOS.

    There has been many instances of pages being shut down for breaching these rules so no matter how you look at it Facebook are quite clear on this.

    What it comes down to is how much you value your community, play by the rules or risk being shutdown.

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