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Facebook Rule Breakers - Are You Guilty?

Written by Emily Wilson on May 14th, 2012. 0 comments

If your company is on Facebook, make sure you do your homework and abide by their ever-changing page rules; or you could be severely punished for failing to do so. Just ask kiwi brands Velvet Burger and Hell Pizza.

Velvet Burger, a gourmet burger bar started in Dunedin, built its loyal following of Facebook Fans to nearly 10,000. And just like ‘that’ they were “goneburger” when Facebook HQ deleted their page for breaking their rules.

You may have also heard Hell Pizza went the same way, losing its page and 20,000 fans along with it. Hell managed to get the page back through someone-who-knew-someone who worked at Facebook, but sadly, in most cases, if this happens to you, you’ll be starting at the drawing board.

These were both New Zealand companies, who yes do have a large following of fans, but that won’t stop Facebook from deleting your 200 or 800 strong fan page either. So how do you avoid the same fate? Well it pays to know the rules, and keep an eye on the rules too, as they can change as regularly as clockwork. And unfortunately for you, because you ticked a box agreeing to the terms and conditions, ignorance of the rules is no excuse.

As Facebook says: “We reserve the right to reject or remove Pages for any reason.” And they’re not kidding. Don’t think you’ll get a warning either! Poof! One day it could just be gone.

So what are the rules? There are Facebook rules that page admins break on a daily basis, included in the list of what you CANNOT do that follows are no doubt many rules you’ve been guilty of breaking.

Cover Photo

Facebook don’t want you to use your cover photo as an advertisement. Its premium real estate so it can be pretty tempting to use it as ad, but it’s a sure way to lose your page.

The Rules

Use a unique image that represents your Page. This might be a photo of a popular menu item, album artwork or a picture of people using your product. Be creative and experiment with images your audience responds well to.
Cover images may not contain:

Price or purchase information, such as "40% off" or "Download it at our website"
Contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your Page's About section
References to user interface elements, such as Like or Share, or any other Facebook site features
Calls to action, such as "Get it now" or "Tell your friends"

All cover images are public, which means anyone visiting your Page will be able to see the image you choose. Covers must not be false, deceptive or misleading, and must not infringe on third parties' intellectual property. You may not encourage or incentivise people to upload your cover image to their personal timelines.

Promotions

You might begin to feel guilty as these rules are broken all the time. It doesn’t mean that they were made to be broken though; it’s these rules that caused Velvet Burger to lose their page and their fans along with it.

The Rules

Promotions on Facebook must be administered within Apps on Facebook.com, either on a Canvas Page or a Page App. Do not use your page to create wall promotions (see below for more details)
Promotions on Facebook must include the following:
- A complete release of Facebook by each entrant or participant.
- Acknowledgment that the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.
  - It may pay to have a statement in your promotions terms and conditions on your website and on the app page.
- Disclosure about who the participant is providing information to and that they are not providing their information to Facebook.
You must not condition registration or entry upon the user taking any action using any Facebook features or functionality other than liking a Page, checking in to a Place, or connecting to your app. For example, you must not condition registration or entry upon the user liking a Wall post, or commenting or uploading a photo on a Wall.
You must not use Facebook features or functionality as a promotion’s registration or entry mechanism. For example, the act of liking a Page or checking in to a Place cannot automatically register or enter a promotion participant.
You must not use Facebook features or functionality, such as the Like button, as a voting mechanism for a promotion.
- This gets broken all the time, e.g. the most likes wins
You must not notify winners through Facebook, such as through Facebook messages, chat, or posts on profiles (timelines) or Pages.

These rules also apply when promoting your competition/promotion. So when you advertise (eg: Facebook ads) or reference a promotion (eg: in a wall post) you need to follow the rules.

Common “Wall Promotions” that break the rules, because you’re using Facebook features and functionality to run the promotion, are:

Share this (update /photo/video) to be in to win…
Upload a photo/video …
Every 25^th new fan wins…
Add a comment …
Invite your friends to like our page …
Answer this question …
Photo with the most likes wins …

Data Collection

If you collect content and information directly from users, you will need to make it clear that you (and not Facebook) are collecting it, and you will provide notice about and obtain user consent for your use of the content and information that you collect. Regardless of how you obtain content and information from users, you are responsible for securing all necessary permissions to reuse their content and information.

You cannot collect users' content or information, or otherwise access Facebook, using automated means (such as harvesting bots, robots, spiders, or scrapers) without Facebook’s permission.

If you are developing applications for Facebook make sure you comply with Facebook Platform Policies.

Page Name

Page names and Facebook Web Addresses must accurately reflect Page content. Facebook may remove administrative rights or require you to change the Page name and Facebook Web Address for any Page that fails to meet this requirement.

Page names must:

not consist solely of generic terms (e.g., “beer” or “pizza”);
use proper, grammatically correct capitalization and may not include all capitals, except for acronyms;
not include character symbols, such as excessive punctuation and trademark designations; and
not include superfluous descriptions or unnecessary qualifiers.

Facebook Ads

Before you run Facebook ads, have a careful read through the Facebook Advertising Guidelines here. There are so many that it deserves its own article.

You should also read through the guidelines for yourself and decide if you are breaking the rules; this post is just a guide and a mere tip of the iceberg.

Topics: Social Media

Subject Lines - The Key to Email Marketing Success

Written by Emily Wilson on May 14th, 2012. 0 comments

Email marketing is a great cost-effective way to get your message out to your clients. But there is no point in spending time building a database, creating a special offer or filling your newsletter with enticing pieces of information if no one reads your message.

That is where the all-important subject line comes into play. You need to craft your subject line. It needs to stand out from the clutter of the inbox; while still being relevant to the message in the email. Many a marketer has tried to use a trick subject line to increase their open rate; but with spam filters hot on the heels of unsolicited mail, you may find that your message goes directly to the trash bin.

To avoid this you want to consider making your subject line useful and valuable to your reader. This means you will have to know your target market. Like a trailer to a movie, be specific about what is coming in the feature: the email message. What you have said in your message should be interesting, so make sure your subject line reflects this. Your reader is often time-poor so you should create a sense of urgency so they feel compelled to read your message now. However if every message is perceived as urgent: none will be. So use urgency with care.

Beyond subject lines; the key to good email marketing is building a relationship with your customers. You need to earn their trust. They should know that what you provide is good content, exclusive offers or whatever they have signed up for. If you emails are constantly about selling your product and offering no other value you will soon have a long list of unsubscribes.

Over time, the most compelling thing about an email message should be that it’s from you. Even before they read your subject line, your recipient needs to know at a glance that you’re a trusted source. Some email marketers choose to put the same identifier in the subject line every email, for example [Zeald] Top tips for crafting subject lines. This can both help and hinder your message, as some people will set up a rule filtering you into another folder where your message will go unread and unheard.

Be mindful of trigger words. These are the words that prompt a spam filter to put you in the trash can. Below is a list of words that often set the spam filter off, however if you use some of the words sparingly, not paired together, not all in CAPITALS and your message is content rich then it is ok to use them in your subject line.

$$$	100% free	Ad
Affordable	Amazing stuff	Apply now
Auto email removal	Billion	Cash bonus
Cheap	Collect child support	Compare rates
Compete for your business	Credit	Credit bureaus
Dig up dirt on friends	Double your income	Earn $
Earn extra cash	Eliminate debt	Email marketing
Explode your business	Extra income	F r e e
Fast cash	Financial freedom	Financially independent
Free	Free gift	Free grant money
Free info	Free installation	Free investment
Free leads	Free membership	Free offer
Free preview Guarantee	‘Hidden’ assets	Home based
Homebased business	Income from home	Increase sales
Increase traffic	Increase your sales	Incredible deal
Info you requested	Information you requested	Internet market
Leave	Limited time offer	Make $
Mortgage Rates	Multi-level marketing	No investment
Obligation	Online marketing	Opportunity
Order Now	Prices	Promise you
Refinance	Remove	Reverses aging
Save $	Search engine listings	Serious cash
Stock disclaimer statement	Stop snoring	Thousands
Unsubscribe	Web traffic	Weight loss

With that said is there a secret formula to subject lines? It may sound simple but subject lines have to ultimately describe the subject of your email. You will often find that the simplest subjects such as May Newsletter, will win every time, over Get a free offer inside. When it comes to email marketing, the best subject lines tell what's inside, and the worst subject lines sell what's inside.

Topics: , Email Marketing

Set Goals and Discover Your Leads

Written by Casey Hartigan on May 14th, 2012. 1 comments

You are the only one that can tell which kind of goals are right for your business. This is why there are so many options for creating your own goals. Here are a few goals that you can setup right away that we think will be useful to a lot of businesses.

If one of the objectives of your website is to generate leads or enquiries then chances are you have one or more forms on your site that your customers are asked to fill out. We find that while these forms are useful they don't offer a true indication of how well your site is functioning as a lead generation tool. Often people can't be bothered filling out long forms, or they don't provide enough information and you can't reach a potential customer - subsequently your website records low enquiry numbers.

What your website doesn't record is the number of people who click straight onto the "Contact Us' page and give you a call or an email directly. Previously you had no way to know how many people were contacting you after seeing your website. By setting up a 'specific page was loaded' goal you can get a great idea how many people are going to your contact us page. If they visit this page chances are they're looking for your phone or email, so the number of visitors will give you a great idea how well your site is generating leads.

Tips to measure "contact us" page loads...