Hello again everybody! June is already half way through, the World Cup is upon us and it won’t be long until the children are off school and summer is really here! When the weather warms up we invariably want to be spending more time out of doors doing fun things, and as such don’t have as much time to devote to comping! When this happens there are a couple of things we can do to try and make sure that our wins don’t dry up:
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Enter fewer but more skill-based competitions, such as photo contests, slogans, captions and writing pieces. These comps traditionally have fewer entries than standard prize draws, so the odds of winning are higher.
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Enter lots of easy, non-time consuming prize draws and social media comps. Comps that we can enter easily, preferably with just a few clicks of a mouse don’t take up too much time, so we can pack a lot into a short space of time.
It’s a good idea to do a mixture of these two, but when it comes to Facebook comps we have had some comments from members recently – mainly to do with Like & Share type competitions. Some time ago Facebook made it quite clear that they didn’t like promoters asking for people to “Share” their Facebook page or a particular post as a requirement to enter a competition – it was seen as free advertising for the promoter, and Facebook don’t like that. However, over the last 6 months or so Facebook have relaxed the rules regarding this, and as long as a promoter now states something along the lines of “this competition is not endorsed by Facebook”, they are not breaking any rules if they ask you to share to enter a comp. However, some promoters still shy away from overtly asking for Shares as part of the entry requirements and simply ask you to Like and Comment on a photo or status, and then add something like “you do not need to share or tag friends, but sharing is caring and we would be very grateful”. On this basis, it is entirely up to you if you share the comp or not. Some compers like to keep the comps to themselves – the less people that know about comps, the fewer entries and the higher the chance of winning! However, some compers are happy to share comps even if it isn’t a requirement, especially if the company is small, just starting out or has a very good customer service reputation etc.
Some members have suggested that as there is so much ambiguity about whether Facebook sanctions these type of comps, shouldn’t we just stop listing them on the site? This is a valid question and one we have seriously considered. What we have decided though is that there are so many of these types of comps at the moment, and Facebook don’t seem to be taking any action against the promoters or those who enter the comps, that we will continue to list them. It seems the majority of people who do Facebook entry comps do ALL the comps, including widget and app based as well as the Like & Share entry ones – if we stopped listing them, our members would be missing out on a very high number of available competitions – and no-one wants that!
So, it is up to you whether you choose to enter these Like & Share type competitions. If you don’t want to enter Facebook comps at all, remember you can filter them out entirely by using the tick boxes in the Customise Listings feature of The Prizefinder. Also, if you don’t want to enter specifically Like & Share comps, you can browse through the Facebook category (accessed on the left hand menu of the site), and scroll through and pick out the Facebook app based comps – we will always specify the requirements of all competitions, including Facebook ones, making it easier for you to see which you would like to enter. Likewise, if you search the website using the words “Facebook app” or “Facebook details” this will show you all the Facebook comps that don’t specifically require a Share for entry.
I hope that clears up why we have taken the decision to continue to list Facebook Like & Share comps, as well as giving you some tips on how to filter them out if you choose not to enter them.
Happy comping everyone, and lots of Lucky Dust to you all!
Kirsty x
Comments
I've won a couple of 'like &
I've won a couple of 'like & share' comps and don't have any real issue with them. Perhaps if folks have worries about their privacy or cluttering other friends' timelines they could just start a separate FB or TW account just for comps? It only takes a minute to switch between them and you can then have an account with minimal personal info on it and you can fill the feed with whatever you want! Your friends/followers can always hide or mute you too if the comp posts are annoying them.
Actually you are wrong when
Actually you are wrong when you state 'as long as a promoter now states something along the lines of “this competition is not endorsed by Facebook”, they are not breaking any rules if they ask you to share to enter a comp' as if you check Facebook terms regarding promotions you'll see it states 'Personal Timelines must not be used to administer promotions (ex: “share on your Timeline to enter” or “share on your friend's Timeline to get additional entries” is not permitted).' I dont like doing these comps due to the amount of spam and people have had their accounts frozen due to doing this. The Prizefinder always said they would never advertise these types of comps due to them breaking the rules but i've noticed that since Di left there are now loads on here.
Thanks for all your feedback
Thanks for all your feedback guys, this is why we wrote the blog in the first place - to get some feedback from users.
baddesley - completely agree re the Twitter ones - I don't enter these ones either, just regular follow and retweet one.
As for spamming your friends newsfeeds phyllgerry, they can always "Unfollow" you rather than "unfriend" you, so they wont see your comps but they can dip into your profile to read what's going on whenever they like.
zengintepe - Great to hear you have had some wins, but be careful having more than one Facebook account, as Facebook and compers alike get a bti touchy with this. If you are found to have more than one account, it could be seen as cheating, even if you only accidentally enter one comp with the account you don't usually use. Also, promoters like you to have some personal info on your profile to show you are real and not a comp-entering bot, so be careful about keeping it minimal too. I would just reiterate that people can unfollow you if their newsfeeds get a bit clogged with your comps.
lil_devil - You are quite correct in what you say re facebook official rules, but they don't seem to be enforcing it anywhere near as much as say 6 months ago. I don't know anyone who has had a temporary ban or a deactivation for quite some time, just due to Like and Share comps. Also, lots of comps these days that use apps to enter allow people to gain extra entries by sharing and inviting friends, and the rules around this are a very grey area. As per my blog, we decided to continue to list the Like& Share comps, an state quite clearly on each one what the requirements are to enter. If people decide not to do these type of comps, then they don't need to - there are plenty of other coms on the site to keep everyone busy, whether they enter Like & Shres or not.
Thanks again for all your helpful feedback.
Kirsty x
I'm just back on Facebook
I'm just back on Facebook again after getting a 7 day ban from 'liking' pages. Not only did they stop me for 7 days they also deleted the last 30 days worth of pages that I had liked so I effectively lost all the competitions that I had entered during this time. I'm now very wary about how many competitions I enter on Facebook as I don't know how many pages I'm able to 'like' before it's considered too much (I did ask them but have never had a reply).
That's fine, but what about the Twitter comps tat require you to give them posting access to your account? I refuse to enter these and believe they should be outlawed by twitter and not listed by you. Following and Tweeting is one thing, but allowing a 3rd party to post on my behalf - not on your nelly!