Before You Get Excited…

You Can Now Administer Promotions on Facebook without an App. Above Promotions Company Tampa, FL 2013

 

On Friday, August 27th, Facebook revised their Pages Terms in order for businesses to be able to run contests without an app and directly through liking or commenting on a post or via posting on a page.

This means those who were using likes as a voting process, posting pictures to timelines or comments as sweepstakes entries can continue on without worry about getting caught by Facebook.

Although Facebook and others are sharing this news as though it was the best thing Facebook could do for small businesses, I believe apps are still the best way to host any contest. Also, users are still liable for posting proper rules, eligibility requirements, compliance with law and a release of Facebook from any liability in case your contest goes wrong.

Perhaps there is something to be excited about, but below are my three reasons you should consider not using likes and comments to run contests on Facebook.

1. Apps save you time by organizing entry data. Using likes or comments as an entry for contests will require the business to manually complete data entry to save the information of the contestants for tax and regulation purposes. Wait. Does your state have any regulations on entry forms? What about advertising the contest?
2. Apps allow you to be able to easily market to those who participated in the contest at a later date. By having a way to market to them in the future through apps, you increase the chances of converting them to leads. However, if you’re just looking for a way to leer people over to your Facebook page, which you really have no proprietary control over, then using likes for popularity contests can still work. But do popularity contests help with long-term gain or short-term notice.
3. What happens if you’re locked out of your Facebook account, a user is reported for their comment in your contest, a user is locked out of their account or has no way for you to inbox them to inform them they’re the winner. With privacy settings how will you know the user is in the same country and can qualify to enter? Again, you do realize each state and even each country has various rules for contests. Contest Apps allow you to access data outside of Facebook and provide generic rules to help keep you out of trouble.

So before getting excited about being permitted to the run contests via likes and comments on Facebook, determine your short and long-term goals, how you can prove the legitimacy of the contest and the entrants to your state’s regulatory board. If after looking over these items and/or discussing with your experienced marketing consultant or attorney and you still desire to use these practices, brace yourself for the best results of the contest or the worst results legally.

If you still have any questions on running contests or ensuring you’re complying with FTC and other regulatory boards, please contact our office to schedule a consultation session.

What do you think of these three reasons? Leave your comment below and you may be featured in a future post.

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Above Promotions is a full service publicity, marketing and promotions company, founded with the purpose to serve an array of clients that are looking to expand their presence in the marketplace. From a local to international market, Above Promotions Company can provide the exposure that goes above your expectations. Visit Above Promotions Company today.

Because You’re Small: Effective Marketing Strategies for Immediate Implementation

 

Because You’re Small: Effective Marketing Strategies for Immediate Implementation. 2012

 

Over the next few weeks, well probably months, you will hear about the book Because You’re Small: Effective Marketing Strategies for Immediate Implementation written by Above Promotions Company’s Creative Director, Ebony Grimsley. The book is scheduled to release on August 28, 2012 via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBookstore as well as other online stores. These are exciting days at Above Promotions Company!

So what is Because You’re Small all about? Glad you asked!

Because You’re Small takes a hard look at removing excuses from small businesses and non-profit organizations and replaces them with free to low-cost tools and proven techniques for immediate implementation. Much of it is written in the voice of these blogs and gets right to the point.

Although a few of the tips within the book will seem familiar if you follow this blog regularly, however, there are many more which were reserved just for this book. There are tools contained within that will help you immediately begin the road to improving your marketing strategy. One business owner  who was able to read it before the official release date started using the tips within hours of completing the book!

If you have enjoyed this blog and learned anything from it, you haven’t seen anything yet! This book is a must-have-tool for your business or non-profit organization.

To be kept up-to-date on workshops, supplemental materials and the book release, please visit the Because You’re Small blog at http://becauseyouresmall.wordpress.com.

 

Please help to spread the word by sharing this post!

 

Any words of advice for the new author, Ebony Grimsley? Share them here.

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Ebony T. Grimsley is the owner of Above Promotions, a publicity, marketing and promotions company in Tampa and the author of the 2012 book titled, “Because You’re Small: Effective Marketing Strategies for Immediate Implementation”. Her instinctive business sense and passion for assisting others in achieving their dreams creates a perfect match for success for all of her clients and attendees at conferences and seminars.

She has been featured on MSNBC.com, the Retail Customer Experience, Mainstreet and other publications, panels, the emcee for events as well as appears as a monthly guest on WEAL in North Carolina. Invited to speak on entertainment industry topics, marketing strategies, crisis communication issues, leadership and organizational techniques and professional journalism, Ebony has educated those in the business and entertainment communities, locally and across the nation. Her expertise is well-respected in her field and her direct candor welcomed by all.

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Above Promotions is a full service publicity, marketing and promotions company, founded with the purpose to serve an array of clients that are looking to expand their presence in the marketplace. From a local to international market, Above Promotions Company can provide the exposure that goes above your expectations. Visit http://www.abovepromotions.com today.

Related articles

• Because You’re Small is Also on Facebook! (becauseyouresmall.wordpress.com)
• Top 5 Marketing Topics Businesses Cannot Afford to Ignore (abovepromotions.wordpress.com)
• Scheduling Social Media is Where to Start and Improve [Infographic] (customerthink.com)

 

OMG 100!

100 Blog Posts by Above Promotions Company, Tampa, FL. Image courtesy of HiredMyWay.com.

 

Well some of our faithful readers may have wondered why we haven’t posted all week.  Yes, our plates are full with two upcoming events (one of which sold out in 3 weeks, 2 weeks prior to it), plus the convention for the National Association of Black Journalists and three large projects for Above Promotions Company itself.  But that isn’t the reason for the lack of posts this week.  WordPress’ notification popped up last week stating we had one more post until we reached 100!

The internal pressure mounted.  What will we post for number 100?!  It needed to be something worthy of such a number.  Something that would revolutionize readers’ businesses.  Or maybe we should recap all of the posts with the most traffic?  The ideas ran around for days.  The Above Promotions Company’s promotional manager suggested a blog on how we can help people pack out their promotional or fundraising events.  However, that seemed like a bit too much information to giveaway.  But finally, in a place where most great ideas come from (morning traffic), it was decided.  We’ll talk about just a few of the posts we wished we hadn’t shared to land us to 100.  Yep.  This, the 100th blog, is a roast to ourselves.  OMG!  What were we thinking?

#3   Russell Brand and Steve Jobs Tribute???  https://abovepromotions.wordpress.com/2012/03/15/russell-brand-and-steve-jobs-tribute/

What were we thinking?  Not only is Russell Brand’s brand suffering, but his statement proved to be irrelevant to the masses as no one talked about his “tribute” of throwing an iphone at a window.  Although his quote was foolish, “Since Steve Jobs died I cannot bear to see anyone use an iPhone irreverently, what I did was a tribute to his memory”, the lack of views or response from that post was definitely a ‘doh’ moment for us.  Only write about relevant people.

#2   Top 10 Reasons to Love WordPress   https://abovepromotions.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/top-10-reasons-to-love-wordpress/

Although we received a large number of reads from this post, plus it had a few comments and likes, the number one mission of this post failed.  Yes, we really do love WordPress.  Yes, we love sharing the benefits to those who aren’t using it as a Content Management System or blog platform, but that was the goal of doing the post.  Call it narcissistic, but there was great hope in landing a position on the featured blogs for the day by doing the post.  Why wouldn’t the WordPress team not love to share a blog about their platform with their other users?  Well it seemed like a great idea.  Although, we’ll continue to share the benefits and will even talk about WordPress on the WEAL radio show on Saturday, June 9th morning at 11 am (www.1510weal.com), this was definitely a reality check to go back to the drawing board.  The goal to be featured will remain a priority.

#1  #SoldOutChat is back! Join us tonight Se  https://abovepromotions.wordpress.com/2011/09/14/soldoutchat-is-back-join-us-tonight-se/

This is the one that caused us to REALLY shake our heads.  Do you remember what it was like to use a shiny new toy?  Well that is what HootSuite was for us at the time.  Initially, the team was just using it to post to Facebook and Twitter.  Then, we discovered it could be used for WordPress as well!  Fabulous, right?!  Apparently this one, which was supposed to just be a Facebook post, ended up being marked to also post to WordPress.  Not a problem, right?  Can’t promote your own event in too many places, right?  Well the team didn’t realize how HootSuite would display a WordPress post that was shared with other social media sites.  Thus, you have the blog title which made no sense and one of the shortest blogs we’ve ever written.  Oh well.  You live and learn.

(As an honorable mention, the blog on Lindsay Lohan would have made the list too, but we wouldn’t want the mistake of making this blog longer on a topic no one cared about the day it posted.  And as you can see from #3, we’ve learned our lesson in that area.)

Whew!  Now that this post is up, we can breathe now and go back to sharing other topics with you. The pressure of 100 was bigger than we thought.

Thanks to those who have grown with us along the way and contributed to the thousands of views we’ve received thus far.  Stay tuned for more and please share with others.

Have a great weekend and wish you the best on your 100th or 1,000th post!

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Above Promotions is a full service publicity, marketing and promotions company, founded with the purpose to serve an array of clients that are looking to expand their presence in the marketplace.  From a local to international market, Above Promotions Company can provide the exposure that goes above your expectations.  Visit www.abovepromotions.com today.