In order to run promotional giveaways on Facebook, small business owners would have to create apps for their pages, but that requirement has recently been abolished. According to Marketing Pilgrim, the social network has announced that contests and marketing events can be held directly on company profiles as well as third-party apps.
Further, entrepreneurs can now use Facebook functionality for their giveaways. The news source points out that small business can collect contest entries via likes, comments and messages. Additionally, likes can be now used as votes for polls.
Of course, there are still some restrictions in place. First and foremost, promotions cannot be posted onto personal profiles. For instance, a restaurateur couldn’t put information about his or her giveaway on a non-business page. This rule may be in place to ensure that Facebook doesn’t become overrun with marketing messages.
What’s more, small business owners can’t encourage followers to tag themselves in content in which they don’t appear. This essentially means that customers have to be in pictures and can’t be tagged in photos of products.
Ultimately, these updated guidelines will benefit entrepreneurs who want to combine social media marketing and giveaways.