Hello again everyone! How is your October panning out comping-wise, any nice wins to tell us about? Have had a few more wins here so we last spoke – a Doc McStuffins floor puzzle from Puzzle Club on Twitter, £100 of Smiggle Stationery from Closer Magazine, a Trex calendar arrived in the post and I have been allocated a football from the Capital One comp too. Spotting more Halloween competitions now too, will you be entering some this year? Will you be carving pumpkins, decorating your house and dressing your little ones up as ghosts and ghouls? Do let us know how you get on with the Halloween comps!
Will you be entering lots of Facebook comps this week? Do you love a Like & Comment competition, or do you tend to steer clear of Facebook when it comes to comping? Well, one change that Facebook are bringing in from 5th November 2014 may change your mind about how you interact with these comps. As it stands currently, although companies can’t officially ask you, under the rules set down by Facebook, to Share a competition to your own timeline, it can ask you to “Like” their page before it gives you access to certain content. For compers, this means that sometimes we are asked to “Like” a company page before we can see the competition or giveaway tab content. Also, those of us that do Rafflecopter and Gleam comps, one of the most common requirements for bonus entries is to “Like” specific Facebook pages (usually the blog owner and the promoter). However, from 5th November 2014, Facebook are removing the ability to “Like Gate” content – i.e. companies will no longer be able to ask people to “Like” their page on Facebook before they can enter a competition – hurrah! From this date, all Facebook pages that currently already have “Like Gates” will have the facility removed, and any future pages and competitions will no longer have the option to “Like Gate” certain content for page likers only.
So, what good points are coming out of this change, for us as compers?
- You won’t have to “Like” a company, who yo may have no interest in other than their comp, and fill your timeline feed with their status updates and photos.
- You will be able to enter comps more easily via mobile devices, as some “Like Gates” don’t work well on tablets and phones.
- There may not be as many Rafflecopter or Gleam options to enter, as “Like” won’t be a requirement that can be used.
And what are the bad points of this change?
- If you don’t “Like” a Facebook page, you won’t see their status updates, and unless you are tagged in you may not notice if you have won a comp..
- Will promoters still be able to tag, message and interact with people if they don’t “Like” their page – unsure as yet.
- Because you don’t “Like” a facebook page, you may miss out on future comps and interesting content.
- Because it will be harder for companies to get you to sign up to receiving their info via Facebook, there will be more email and newsletter sign-ups built into competition forms, so look out for the dreaded check boxes - make sure you tick or untick to say you aren’t interested in receiving further info – unless you are of course!
For me, I will probably continue to “Like” pages whose comps I enter, and for those comps I am desperate to win, I will “Get Notifications” for their page, so I can see who wins. Also, make sure you keep checking your “Others” messages box regularly in facebook, as if a promoter wants to contact you to inform you of a win there is a high probability it will end up in there!
So there you have it, more changes to facebook, and some consequences still up in the air, but on the whole probably a good change for us compers. Let us know how you get on when the change kicks in – how has it changed your comping habits, if at all? Has it freed up your timeline of irrelevant content? Let us know, we would love to hear from you.
Happy comping everyone, lots of Lucky Dust to you all!
Kirsty x
