Facebook’s new promo policy (read about it here) explicitly prohibits “any contests or promotions that require users to become a fan, interact with a feed story, or do anything else outside an application tab or canvas page in order to enter.”

In other words, unless you’re a paying advertiser who’s forking out tens of thousands of dollars for a bespoke Facebook application, we’re sorry, but it’s our ball and you can’t play.

The new policy comes hot on the heels of a number of high profile FB promotions which used simple (and free) in-built functions of Facebook to incredible effect, including the genius Ikea stunt which used photo-tagging to give away products.   While I appreciate the need to set limits – or we risk Facebook becoming nothing more than a virtual marketplace where every company under the sun is spamming our newsfeeds with promotion after crappy promotion – I would question the validity of banning competitions such as these while encouraging companies to create their own applications at the same time.

You’ve got to admit, it makes the argument that the policy is there to protect Facebook’s integrity look pretty flimsy.

What’s more, as both a PR and a Facebook user, I have nothing but admiration for those companies who are thinking laterally about how to integrate social media into their marketing campaigns.  And I’d wager that the thousands of people who were clamouring to be involved in the Ikea competition had no issue with it either.  The fact is, they are employing classic PR techniques where the concept is strong enough to stand alone,  requiring no cash to support it. They aren’t taking the easy route to success but are using creativity and innovation to get to their destination – something which should be championed, not stifled.

That said, there are a few notable exceptions where paid-for applications have been used to equally good effect. Westfield’s Christmas Facebook promotion which asked users to update their status to “All I want for Christmas is a Westfield giftcard” was another stroke of genius – despite being an application developed in conjunction with Facebook. Granted, there were plenty of complaints about the comp and it even spawned a number of protest groups on the site, but the vast majority of users were more than happy to take part and did so in their droves.  Unfortunately, even this application would now be unacceptable under the new Facebook rules as it interferes with users’ newsfeeds – talk about biting the hand that feeds you!

So where does this leave the marketing industry? In quite a bit of confusion, it seems.  Facebook doesn’t appear to be policing its new policy terribly well (many illicit promos are still up and running), nor has it communicated the changes clearly to marketers.  But with talk on the grapevine of charging monthly fees for profiles, there is a very real possibility that we may see a drop-off in users and a surge in the popularity of rival free networking sites clamouring to take its place.  Now that would really make things interesting.

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