Albert Lea businesses I’m talking to you. As the leader of the Southern Minnesota Social Media Breakfast, I would not be doing my job if I continue to let you run your giveaways the way you have without saying something. Now, I have to tell you there are a fair number of business owners who have taken their page seriously. You attend the breakfast or you have someone who knows the rules and regulations running your page. For that, I applaud you, well done.
The ones I am talking to are the ones who are either not aware there are policies in place or the the ones who don’t care. I am here to tell you there are policies and they do matter. You have gone through all of the work to build your business, now you are putting in precious time on your social media accounts. Please, don’t have your page shut down because you chose to not know or understand the rules about giveaways and platforms.
What is wrong with the above post? You cannot ask people to Like your Facebook Page or your post. You cannot ask anyone to follow you or ask them to share this post as part of the stipulations for entering your giveaway. There is one thing you can do. You can ask them to make a comment, but you cannot have them tag someone in the comment.
So, what can you do? Great question, businesses have been getting creative with their wording. They are suggesting people “like their page to stay up to date” but they do not make it a stipulation for winning. Most of the time people will still like and share, but is not required for winning.
Unfortunately Facebook and other platforms do not care if we like their rules. It’s their rule and if we are going to use social media, we need to follow their rules. The consequence of violating their policies is that you can get banned from using Facebook forever. I do have to say Facebook is usually good about sending you a warning first (I know from personal experience), but they don’t always. Running your business page well matters.
If you are wondering where you can find more information on Facebook’s policies you can find them at this link httpsss://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php.
Business ethics now extend to social media. If I see a page running an improper giveaway it makes me wonder where else they cut corners. I will not participate in a giveaway going against policies. It might seem like no big deal, but ethics matter, even on social media.
If you would like to know more about running your business or organization’s business pages we would love to have you attend the Southern Minnesota Social Media Breakfast. We meet the last Tuesday of every month in the Council Chambers at City Hall (third floor of the library building. We meet from 8-9:30am and we have had fantastic speakers. You will leave with tools to propel your business’s social media presence forward. You will also learn what you can do and can’t do on social media.
Power 96 just did a no-no with a ticket giveaway, simialar to what you posted.
Power 96 just did this
There are people with good intentions running business pages. They are unaware there are such things as policies. There are other businesses who know they are violating policies and don’t care. It’s their page and they can run it as they see fit. They may just get shut down.