Facebook has long been a marketing playground for many businesses and entrepreneurs. It is no secret that many of our marketing friends try everything possible on the social network to attract the attention of targeted marketing prospects. From using page timelines to apps that could help them send out marketing messages, various attempts are made to generate interest from prospects and other Facebook members concerning their brands.Those who have been using Facebook business pages for marketing and brand promotion have probably utilized contests to create marketing buzz and compel members of the social network to interact more with a particular brand, whether promising a free give away or valuable information to winners.Running and administering contests has become easier on the social networking site. Facebook’s new update helps make brand promotion through contests easier to handle. Facebook has outlined a modest presentation of this update which you can read here.The latest news is that you can now create a contest and control it through your Facebook business page timeline. The only catch is that you would be forbidden to use your personal profile timeline to back up the contest. This is what Facebook has to say specifically about it.”What’s changing?We’ve removed the requirement that promotions on Facebook may only be administered within appsWith the change, promotions may now be administered on Page Timelines and in apps on Facebook, but not on personal Timelines.For example, Pages can now:Collect entries by having users post on the Page or comment/like a Page postCollect entries by having users message the PageAs before, clients must not administer a promotion on a personal TimelineWe updated our Page Terms to prohibit Pages from tagging or encouraging people to tag themselves in content that they are not actually depicted in.”Marketers now have a chance to create more events and contests through the business page timeline without having to use an app, but they may do so if that is their preference. The aim here is to help the business collect many fans, and conduct their business marketing efficiently and with ease. As stated by Facebook as to what prompted this change. “We want to make it easier for businesses of all sizes to create and administer promotions on Facebook, and to align our policies to better meet the needs of marketers.”
