The plug has been pulled on Facebook’s policy for
Like-gating campaigns. Started on November 5, 2014 Facebook no longer allows company or brand pages to offer rewards, gated apps, or app content based
on whether that person has Liked their page or not. The reasoning behind this
change was to encourage people to Like pages based on whether they were truly
interested in the company offering the rewards and not solely Liking the page
to gain access to the content or prices.
Some people claim this is yet another push for Facebook to
force companies to use Facebook Ads, however with the elimination of
Like-gating, it will hopefully discourage fake fans and pages will see an
increase of genuine engagement from true fans.
Even if you did continue to run these campaigns behind the
enormous back of Facebook, their developers have changed their API to not allow
third-party apps to “read” whether a person has Liked the page or not. So what
do pages do now?
Moving on from Like-gated campaigns
If you have active Like-gated campaigns, take the time to
remove them. Although the campaign will continue to run, the “Like our page to
get this!” notion will be lost as Facebook users will be able to access the
content regardless if they Liked your page or not.
The point of your Facebook page isn’t to have the most Likes
on the block; it is to encourage people to interact with your brand, to
click-through to your new product, or to essentially turn into customers. To do
this it means sharing quality content that interests your audience. Don’t
always have a sales pitch running as your Facebook posts. Keep things light,
keep your fans interested, and continue to see your engagement increase,
although your page Likes may not.
Social media can be a great resource for your business to
communicate with your target audience and gain new prospects. Sales &
Marketing Technologies has a team of skilled Internet marketers and social
media marketers waiting to implement your next social media campaign. To learn
more about how we can gain your business new customers, contact us today.