Facebook wants you to stop begging for Likes!

The end of Begging and Baiting

You’ve all done it, like my post for a chance to win, or share this with your friends to be entered in my contest.  Facebook is now getting tough on people who beg for likes, shares and have one word comments.

People / Companies who regularly use this tactic will have to figure out new ways to get users to engage.  Over the next few weeks, traditional tactics like these will find the posts demoted in news feeds.

Engagement bait takes advantage of the algorithms in order to get a broader reach.  And the majority of facebook users hate these posts.

What you can’t do any more!

• React Bait:  “Think Sagittarius is best star sign, click to like!” – Guess which star sign the writer of this post is? 🙂
• Comment Baiting:  “Comment YES, if you love hot chocolate on a cold winters day”
• Share Bait:  “Send to 10 friends for a chance to win an all expense paid trip to Iceland”
• Tag Baiting:  “Tag your friends if they look like this guy in the mural eating a hot dog”
• Vote Baiting:  “What do you think is more likely to exist:  Bigfoot, Aliens or Ghosts”

Facebook claims it won’t demote posts that are public service announcements like ones that ask for shares for a missing person, etc.  It also says not all demotions will be equal, those who constantly break policy will be more heavily demoted then first time offenders.

What can you do about it?

Contests and Surveys

Host a Facebook contest or survey on your website (or a Facebook tab).  You can drive traffic through a Facebook post which functions the same as any product-promotion post.  This will allow you to get a higher quality engagement like generate leads, which you couldn’t do with a timeline contest.  Notify them of the contest, but don’t tell them to engage with it on your timeline.  By hosting off-site on your site or with a third-party contest platform like Wishpond, you’ll get better results than you possibly could have with a timeline contest anyway.

Use Video

Showcase your product using video to educate them and entice them to buy.   Use big bold splash screens that they can read.  Images within videos and stills to drive your customers engagement.

Use Customer Generated Content

Customers and Fans alike produce really great stuff.  You don’t need to beg people to share stuff if it’s really good to begin with.  Forget about shallow calls to action to get engagement, content is still king and people share good content without the cheap tricks.

Pay to Play

This is what Facebook wants you to do after all, Facebook only makes money when you pay them to advertise.  It will continue to get harder and harder to get organic results for brands unless you have superior content.  For the rest of you, there’s the pay to play option, boosting posts and creating custom audiences to try to get them to visit your site, buy your product or enter your contest.  It’s unfortunate for advertisers, but remember TINFL (There is no free lunch).

To view all of Facebook’s policies on news feed guidelines, visit the official page.

Need help creating content, running contests, boosting posts, or advertising on social media?  BrandNexity has a content creation team and social media experts that have proven track records.  Schedule a call today.