The Secret To How JVC Gained 35,000 Fans In 30 Days

JVC U.S.A. is halfway through their Like It To Win It Facebook campaign, with a new giveaway each day for 60 days. Fans that “like” the daily giveaway post are entered to win that day’s prize– headphones, iPod docks, video cameras, speakers, and TVs. We sat down with RFI Studios, the digital arm of PR agency Ruder Finn, to understand how they were able to take a page that had only 1,000 fans to 35,000.

JVC Like Growth

The secret? Supercharging the JVC page’s Post Quality Score via likes and comments.

A post quality score is, according to Facebook, a “score measuring how engaging your content is to users,” within the last 7 days. Engagement rates primarily drive this figure—the proportion of your fan base that interacts and how frequently they do. Post Quality Score is the new PageRank, as it governs whether you’ll show up in the News Feed (the walls of other people).

JVC Interactions Chart

In addition to gaining 35,000 fans in 30 days, RFI Studios has kept them active. “We wanted to expand the fan base to have more people to talk to, but we also wanted spur brand evangelism. It’s more about just adding fans, we really wanted to get people excited about JVC,” said Andy Pray of Ruder Finn.

JVC has grown to a daily active user base of over 10,000 fans. “Our biggest goal going forward is to keep people engaged; the spirit and positive tenor is most important and we want to keep that fun, positive energy going,” said Pray. The Like It To Win It campaign consistently draws them back to the page every single day to “like” a post for a chance to win. When fans come back to the page to “like” or comment on a post, the Post Quality Score goes up because users are engaging with the content. (Editor’s note: This is against Facebook’s terms. See note at end of post.) A higher Post Quality Score means more visibility in the news feed, thus driving viral impressions via friends of fans. News feed exposure is often of far higher quality than general PR, since it leverages the recommendations of friends and can measure interaction rates. JVC was able to increase their feedback ratio to an all-time high of 6%, a result well worth thousands of dollars in the PR world.

JVC Post Quality Chart

An important thing to look at when evaluating the success of a campaign is the number of impressions a post gets compared with the total number of fans of the page. When you start getting multiples on your fan base, this means that the Post Quality Score is so high that the “friends of fans effect” is working. As one of the most powerful concepts in social media, this means that friends of your fans are seeing your fans interactions in their news feed, and viewing those posts as a result. “The contest has this viral loop built into it because when people like posts their friends see that activity on their walls and engage with it, and so on and so forth, so there’s been a nice organic pick-up,” Pray added. (Editor’s note: This is against Facebook’s terms. See note at end of post.) Facebook is all about seeing what your real friends endorse.

JVC raised their daily post views up to 210,000 impressions with a daily post feedback of over 4,100. From an earned media perspective, at a $10 CPM, that number of impressions is worth over $2,000 a day in PR exposure. Exposure in the news feed is of far higher quality than general PR, since you are leveraging the recommendations of friends and can measure the interaction rates. How much PR do you know of that has 6% of folks who see it interacting with it? If JVC can continue to maintain the page, $2,000 a day of earned media in perpetuity is quite a valuable base.

RFI Studios knows that grabbing fans to come back over and over to like, comment, and interact on the brand’s wall is what drives viral growth and make a brand’s fan base explode rather than merely climb. As the Like It To Win It campaign enters its second half, RFI Studios can count on continued viral growth with an engaged fan base and the “friends of fans effect” working in their favor.

Update
Facebook has explained to us that this campaign is a violation of the company’s Promotions Guidelines. You can read all of them here.

Dennis Yu is Chief Executive Officer of BlitzLocal, a firm specializing in the intersection of Facebook and local
advertising. Mr. Yu has been featured in National Public Radio, TechCrunch, Entrepreneur Magazine, CBS Evening News, and other venues. He is an internationally sought after speaker and author on all things Facebook.

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1702228 Comments2010-08-12+14%3A40%3A15Dennis+Yu »

Confused about this case study. Doesn't this violate Facebook's T.O.S. related to contests/sweeps being run through a Facebook Page? It's my understanding that having fans "Like" a post in order to be eligible to win is against the rules.

Did they get this one approved, or were they hoping it would fly under the radar?

Comment by Ryan — August 12, 2010 @ 7:20 am
Is this legal, according to Facebook's Promotions Guidelines?

Comment by Anonymous — August 12, 2010 @ 7:23 am
Their rules state: "During the Promotional Period, register for the Sweepstakes by becoming a fan of the JVC Facebook fan page, and then ‘liking’ a product given away on the Facebook wall. Entrants can ‘like’ a product, and thus be entered to win said product once per day, for the duration of the contest." Seems like that breaks not one, but two of Facebook rules – requiring people become a fan and requiring that they "like" something.

Comment by Ryan — August 12, 2010 @ 7:39 am
Hi there Ryan – Andy from Ruder Finn here. Saw your tweets, wanted to touch base. 100%, the promotion was done with Facebook's blessing, from start to finish. We play by the rules, and of course happy to answer any questions you've got…

Comment by Andy Pray — August 12, 2010 @ 8:15 am
Working as a Social Media Strategist on Kraft, I was able to get 50,000 fans in under a month using a similar incentivized acquisition strategy. At the time however, the technology wasn't available to have the "like a post button" trigger an entry into the sweepstakes. Here JVC is doing a great job taking advantage of this functionality as it fuels post quality score, as mentioned above, while also breeding sustainable engagement – at least for the length of the sweepstakes. The key to leveraging this newfound momentum, and this is why I only experienced 2% churn, is that you need to have interesting and engaging content that is being regularly updated. I coupled the sweepstakes with a strong offline activation plan to generate photo and video content that was updated to facebook in a time relevant fashion. Really the sweepstakes was used as a vehicle to get people in the door and once there, they saw the value and entertainment in the content. Acquisition campaigns like JVC's only work when the brand has the broader vision in mind. There will undoubtedly be some churn and other people will block JVC from their feeds, but it's really the next promotion, sweepstakes or challenge that is going to define the breadth of their presence in the social space.

Comment by Justin Chase — August 12, 2010 @ 8:20 am
It sounds like this is allowed. See the last line:

From the Facebook Promotions Guidelines
http://www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php

Section 4.2 In the rules of the promotion, or otherwise, you will not condition entry to the promotion upon taking any action on Facebook, for example, updating a status, posting on a profile or Page, or uploading a photo. You may, however, condition entry to the promotion upon becoming a fan of a Page.

Comment by Wes Williams — August 12, 2010 @ 9:16 am
Wes,

But what about the lines in their Guidelines that read:

3.1 You will only administer the promotion through an application on the Facebook Platform, as directed by us.

3.2 You will only allow users to enter the promotion in the following locations on Facebook:

3.2.1 On the canvas Page of an application on the Facebook Platform.

3.2.2 On an application box in a tab on a Facebook Page.

The entire sweeps entry process takes place outside of their application. The app only seems to verify that you're above the age of 18 and then collects your email. It then directs you to the Wall to use the "like" feature on posts.

Unless there's some back-end thing going on where JVC can see who provided their email address, "liked" the page, was over the age of 18, AND "liked" a post, it seems to violate those terms.

Comment by Ryan — August 12, 2010 @ 10:53 am
"Unless there’s some back-end thing going on where JVC can see who provided their email address, “liked” the page, was over the age of 18, AND “liked” a post"

That's exactly what we have – again, approved by Facebook.

And Justin, you are spot on. It's all about what is next, how we keep folks engaged when the contest wraps up (first week in Sept.)…

Comment by Andy Pray — August 12, 2010 @ 11:24 am
Hi guys– I'm the author of this article.

There is some confusion here that I want to clarify. Were any advertiser to just start running a campaign as we did, that would clearly be against the Facebook TOS, as clearly stated in their contest rules. You have to have explicit permission from their team in advance and spend at least $10k.

We had approval at every step of the way from our Facebook rep– Blair Thomson-Levin– and we spent $25k. Facebook has had some growing pains to keep up with the advertiser growth, so their team sometimes doesn't communicate as effectively. This is normal and expected– they have an amazing product, and anyone in their position would have trouble scaling and keeping communication flowing perfectly.

If you're not sure what is okay or not– get a rep. I can tell you that JVC and RFI Studios are above board blue chip companies. They are conservative and definitely play within the rules.

Comment by Dennis Yu — August 12, 2010 @ 11:37 am
@Andy Pray

Was the "Like" of the products posted on individual days prerequisite to winning the contest, or is it something being suggested that JVC hopes happens, but it isn't really the mechanism to get you entered to win a daily prize?

I was reading the contest rules and didn't see that explicitly (although I looked over them quickly).

Comment by Scott McAndrew — August 12, 2010 @ 11:48 am
Hey Dennis,

I'm still a little confused. Are you essentially saying that FB's T.O.S. go out the window once you pay a certain amount on advertising?

I thought the only thing FB reps were supposed to approve was the app that would be running to collect sweepstakes entries. Their T.O.S. state that even after you have Facebook rep approval you still have to abide by these rules:

"If we provide you such approval, you agree to the following:

3.1 You will only administer the promotion through an application on the Facebook Platform, as directed by us.

3.2 You will only allow users to enter the promotion in the following locations on Facebook:

3.2.1 On the canvas Page of an application on the Facebook Platform.

3.2.2 On an application box in a tab on a Facebook Page."

Your sweeps entry process, to the best of my knowledge, took place within the Wall – not within an App.

Not trying to argue Just trying to figure all of this out since FB doesn't seem to be giving clear answers.

Also, do you work the company that created the promotion (RFI Studios/Ruder Finn)?

-Ryan

Comment by Ryan — August 12, 2010 @ 11:54 am
Dennis – if I understand correctly, you're saying that one needs to inform Facebook ahead of time and then pay them in order for them to let you break ToS?

Comment by Joel Downs — August 12, 2010 @ 12:24 pm
Dennis, we've done some contests/promotions and it's a gray area with Facebook. Their ad team is growing in size and bringing in more experienced people. The IO process is simpler and we see their breadth of targeting options growing. In fact, when you approach them directly the access points to data is TOTALLY different from a retail advertiser. It's more focused, yet highly segmented by what you need. In other words, you can go through the data six ways from Sunday and present offers in many different ways.

Recently we approached seven folks that had 5000 fans or more who had some interest in paper products like stationery, which is what we sell. We placed a simple black textual ad on their welcome tab on a white background highlighed in yellow, somewhat like an old direct response ad from the readers digest. It worked like crazy simply because of the curiosity level was so high.

Ad agencies and implementations on their side have a tendency to confuse everyone to hell. I guess leave the jargon at the front door will do us all some good.

Comment by Mike Wanner — August 12, 2010 @ 1:08 pm
Violation or not, it's obvious that Facebook isn't policing its own policies. My personal pet peeve is the businesses who establish a user account, or the politicians who do so. Small potatoes in the garden of Facebook, but as one who plays by the rules….

Comment by Ginny Cooper — August 13, 2010 @ 4:46 am
Dennis – Your team clearly broke the rules here and it has been acknowledged. Play by the rules like the rest of us have been abiding by.

I assume JVC is not working with someone from the Preferred Developer Consultant list. I know that list has been brought up before, but there is a reason it exists. To ensure large brand advertisers do things right.

Facebook – will you be taking down this promo?

Comment by Jon — August 13, 2010 @ 5:26 am
I spoke with a contact at Facebook, and he confirms this is a violation of their policies. While it is an interesting case study, it is currently flying under Facebook's radar – thus is still up & running.

Comment by Scott — August 13, 2010 @ 6:05 am
Dennis replied to my comment on Facebook by saying:

"Ryan– to your question, it's not that Facebook's rules go out the window if you pay. The contest TOS clearly states that you have to get approval from Facebook in advance for contests AND spend at least $10k. So it's money and approval."

My response is as follows:

"Dennis,

I've gone ahead and copied/pasted a section of Facebook's Promotion Guidelines. I've capitalized all of the important parts:

""If we provide you such APPROVAL (the rep approval you are referencing), you agree to the following:

3.1 You will only administer the promotion through an APPLICATION on the Facebook Platform, as directed by us.

3.2 You will ONLY ALLOW USERS TO ENTER the promotion in the following locations on Facebook:

3.2.1 On the CANVAS PAGE OF AN APPLICATION on the Facebook Platform.

3.2.2 On an APPLICATION BOX IN A TAB on a Facebook Page."

Your sweepstakes collects entries through the 'Like' feature on individual Wall posts. Your application only collects email addresses and verifies that the user is above the age of 18. The actual sweepstakes entry takes place within the Wall post – not within the application, as clearly stated within Facebook's guidelines.

I'm not doubting that your rep approved the sweepstakes; I'm just saying that the sweeps entry process is in clear violation of the rules Facebook makes everyone else abide by.

Also, do you work for the company that created this promotion? I'm confused about your relationship.

- Ryan"

Comment by Ryan — August 13, 2010 @ 6:23 am
You seem to be slightly confused.

The sweepstakes takes place on the application tab. Here a user has to go through the three necessary steps in order to enter. All the eligible entrants are then put into a database. When JVC shows the prize on the wall those eligible entrants are encouraged to like the post (step 4) those that Like the post are put in a separate database and matched with the database of registered eligible entrants from the contest tab to make sure they have followed the rules. From there a qualified eligible winner is chosen. The Liking of the wall post is simply a way of picking a winner from the list of eligible registered entrants.

Secondly paying off a facebook rep is not only impossible, but also something neither parties would want any part of doing. Success never comes from cheating it comes from quality and intelligence. The logic behind your assumption makes no sense.

I hope win some new headphones!

Comment by Arron — August 13, 2010 @ 6:50 am
Hi all –

I’ve tried to clear up confusion here twice to no avail, I’m hoping the third (and final) time is a charm. Here goes:

The promotion featured here on AllFacebook.com was 100% the effort of RFI Studios and our client JVC. 100%. The campaign was approved by Faceboook before it ran. It was then approved when we launched advertising support. It was also handled several times in the past few weeks as there were some cache issues. In short, it has been around the block. We did receive several inquires thanks to the diligent efforts of the folks commenting here (awesome work gang) and I can say that they have since apologized for the hassle, recognizing that, in fact, this promotion was approved. I'm hoping that doesn't change. Perhaps the approvals were an error on their end. Perhaps we got lucky. I don’t know, or, quite frankly, care. The point is, we played by the rules we were given.

I had thought this opportunity was one to share with a community of marketers about a campaign that worked. When asked to share insights on the effort I was excited, I gladly handed over the playbook. Clearly that was naïve, as this quickly tuned into an exercise of raising pitchforks that I find equal parts baffling and disappointing. Didn't see that coming, I admit.

But a great lesson learned. Folks, if anyone, anyone at all, has a question about the campaign, please feel free to email me. praya@ruderfinn.com.

Have a great weekend -

Andy Pray

Comment by Andy Pray — August 13, 2010 @ 6:54 am
Andy, I think the pitchforks came out because all of us would love to build a fanbase of 30k in one month, but don't necessarily have $25k to drop on a campaign with Facebook. My website runs a giveaway every day as part of our social media promotion of different companies, and it sure would be awesome to have people like our posts on FB as the method of entry! But I am pretty sure that we would get in trouble since we don't have enough cash for a Facebook rep…I think that's probably why most people are bothered – they wanna do it too!

Also wondering if FB unintentionally opened up a can of worms. It will be interesting to see if they allow similar campaigns, since it seems that the liking of posts on the Wall as a method of entry is against the ToS that they advertise.

Either way, great job!

N

Unicorn Booty

Comment by Nick Vivion — August 13, 2010 @ 8:04 am
Hi guys,

Sorry if I've come across as trying to stir up trouble – not the case. Andy, your answers have been very clear and have made total sense. Dennis' comments, on the other hand, have left me somewhat confused, as it does not appear he has ever addressed the issue of the entries taking place outside of the application.

Arron:

Per the Official Rules of the sweepstakes, users are required to complete three actions: 1) "Like" the Page (no issue there – Facebook is cool with this), 2) verify their age and insert an email address (no issue there – takes place within an approved application), 3) "Like" a Wall post (this is where there confusion sets in).

The "Like"ing of the Wall post, to the best of my understanding, IS the entry into that individual sweepstakes. Simply inputting your email address and age does not enter you into the sweeps. That just verifies that you're eligible to win. You must "Like" a post to be entered to that daily sweeps. That "Like" entry is then matched up against email addresses and age verifications. So the actual sweepstakes entry does not take place within the app – it takes place on the Page's Wall.

According to Facebook's Guidelines, "[Pages] will only allow users to enter the promotion in the following locations on Facebook 1) On the canvas page of an application on the Facebook Platform, or 2) on an application box in a tab."

Because the actual daily sweeps entry takes place outside of an application or a tab, and actually takes place on a post within the Wall, it seems to go against the Guidelines, as I understand them.

Once again, just want to emphasize that I'm not trying to question JVC, RFI Studios, the campaign, or its results. Simply calling into question Facebook and its rules. I hear conflicting reports all the time about the promotion guidelines and how they are enforced.

I completely understand that the campaign was approved, and that's the only issue I'm confused about. How could it get approved if it seems to go against some of the clearly defined rules.

Personally, I feel Facebook's rules are incredibly limiting and tend to favor big businesses with big ad budgets. That's why I've opened this debate.

Thanks for the comments back,

Ryan

database. When JVC shows the prize on the wall those eligible entrants are encouraged to like the post (step 4) those that Like the post are put in a separate database and matched with the database of registered eligible entrants from the contest tab to make sure they have followed the rules. From there a qualified eligible winner is chosen. The Liking of the wall post is simply a way of picking a winner from the list of eligible registered entrants.

Comment by Ryan — August 13, 2010 @ 10:43 am
First, really nice case study. Not enough marketers are sharing their Facebook success stories and I applaud Andy's team and JVC for making this data available and being so transparent.

Secondly, I think there's a lot of displaced anger towards Andy and the ad agency. They did get the promotion approved as required. It achieved their client's objectives, quite spectacularly, which is probably why they were so willing to share it here. PR agencies aren't known for publicizing their clients failed marketing campaigns.

JVC didn't write the rules. They're playing within them. The problem lies in Facebook's guidelines. Not surprisingly, they favor marketers who have made a minimum investment of $10K in Facebook advertising. Those are the rules. If you don't like them, run your company contest on MySpace.

Richard Krueger,

Co-Author of Facebook Marketing for Dummies,

and Facebook Advertising for Dummies

Comment by Rich — August 13, 2010 @ 2:54 pm
How do you link the "likes" on the wall posts to the email from the entry?

There is no tool given to any page administrator to do this.

The JVC rules state:

"Winner selection/notification: Winners will be chosen at random daily. JVC will conduct the drawing and its decisions on all matters pertaining to the Sweepstakes are final. Potential winners will be notified by email."

Step 3 is just an arbitrary step put in there to drive fake engagement and make the users think that it constitutes an entry, when in reality, the email address is the only factor used to pick winners.

Technically they are not violating TOS in the Terms, but they are tricking the users into the "like" interaction.

Shady.

Comment by Rich — August 14, 2010 @ 1:24 pm
@Andy Pray, you say in your post above that "I don’t know, or, quite frankly, care.".

You actually should if you want to build true engagement with your base. You could have quite a few upset fans if there were to find out the truth.

You are clearly going against your own rules where it states that winners are drawn randomly. Just 5 hours ago a user posts on your wall and says:

Pablo Lugo: "I made a mistake on my email address on the official sweepstakes entry. Does anyone know how I can edit my email address??"

Offical reply:

JVC U.S.A.: "Pablo, no worries man. You can enter by 'liking' the posts and if your name is pulled we'll reach out to you through Facebook, asking you for your email address for the shipping details. In short? you are good to go! Good luck…"

The entire reason Facebook does not allow a "like" to constitute an entry is that you simply cannot link the like to the email address you are collecting.

I'd love to see the engagement numbers after the promotion is over in a follow up post.

Comment by Rich — August 14, 2010 @ 1:44 pm
What's wrong with you people? Ah you are USA citizens right? Still unawares you live in a completely totalitarian capitalist police state ……. let me enlighten you = In Europe we have Culture, in USA you have CA$H. If you have cash you can do anything, if you don't you're screwed. Simple really. Don't complain about it. Surrender or leave that's all p.s. If you leave however note, another exclusive perk of being an USA citizen is you will continue to be liable to pay Uncle Sam Income Tax too.

Comment by John Lee Blackwell — August 14, 2010 @ 1:51 pm
Hi there,

How to interpret the stats of my fan page ?
http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/5215/statsb.gi...

Many thanks

Comment by milkiway — August 17, 2010 @ 1:19 am
Milkiway– thanks for posting your question and sharing your stats with the audience. Your page stats look like a normal contest or viral campaign at launch– high engagement at the start, which trails off.

Your next step is to consider an engagement campaign targeting existing fans. You might want to look at the licensable apps at webtrends.com which are designed specifically for this.

You can also ask questions at community.blitzlocal.com, where our folks are moderating.

Dennis

Comment by Dennis Yu — August 25, 2010 @ 2:48 pm
To me none of this gets to the heart of this post, which says that Post Quality Score has an impact on how often you show up in the news feed of others. I have never heard this to be true, and have heard the contrary. Your news feed is determined by you and your friends interactions between the pages, not the pages overall fanbase and interactions. I don't know how JVC got so many fans, but there is no proof that it was because they increased their Post Quality score. Their updates are still only seen by people that have "liked" their page already. Someone please inform me if I am wrong.

Comment by Nate — September 16, 2010 @ 6:44 pm

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Confused about this case study. Doesn't this violate Facebook's T.O.S. related to contests/sweeps being run through a Facebook Page? It's my understanding that having fans "Like" a post in order to be eligible to win is against the rules.

Did they get this one approved, or were they hoping it would fly under the radar?

Comment by Ryan — August 12, 2010 @ 7:20 am

Is this legal, according to Facebook's Promotions Guidelines?

Comment by Anonymous — August 12, 2010 @ 7:23 am

Their rules state: "During the Promotional Period, register for the Sweepstakes by becoming a fan of the JVC Facebook fan page, and then ‘liking’ a product given away on the Facebook wall. Entrants can ‘like’ a product, and thus be entered to win said product once per day, for the duration of the contest." Seems like that breaks not one, but two of Facebook rules – requiring people become a fan and requiring that they "like" something.

Comment by Ryan — August 12, 2010 @ 7:39 am

Hi there Ryan – Andy from Ruder Finn here. Saw your tweets, wanted to touch base. 100%, the promotion was done with Facebook's blessing, from start to finish. We play by the rules, and of course happy to answer any questions you've got…

Comment by Andy Pray — August 12, 2010 @ 8:15 am

Working as a Social Media Strategist on Kraft, I was able to get 50,000 fans in under a month using a similar incentivized acquisition strategy. At the time however, the technology wasn't available to have the "like a post button" trigger an entry into the sweepstakes. Here JVC is doing a great job taking advantage of this functionality as it fuels post quality score, as mentioned above, while also breeding sustainable engagement – at least for the length of the sweepstakes. The key to leveraging this newfound momentum, and this is why I only experienced 2% churn, is that you need to have interesting and engaging content that is being regularly updated. I coupled the sweepstakes with a strong offline activation plan to generate photo and video content that was updated to facebook in a time relevant fashion. Really the sweepstakes was used as a vehicle to get people in the door and once there, they saw the value and entertainment in the content. Acquisition campaigns like JVC's only work when the brand has the broader vision in mind. There will undoubtedly be some churn and other people will block JVC from their feeds, but it's really the next promotion, sweepstakes or challenge that is going to define the breadth of their presence in the social space.

Comment by Justin Chase — August 12, 2010 @ 8:20 am

It sounds like this is allowed. See the last line:

From the Facebook Promotions Guidelines
http://www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php

Section 4.2 In the rules of the promotion, or otherwise, you will not condition entry to the promotion upon taking any action on Facebook, for example, updating a status, posting on a profile or Page, or uploading a photo. You may, however, condition entry to the promotion upon becoming a fan of a Page.

Comment by Wes Williams — August 12, 2010 @ 9:16 am

Wes,

But what about the lines in their Guidelines that read:

3.1 You will only administer the promotion through an application on the Facebook Platform, as directed by us.

3.2 You will only allow users to enter the promotion in the following locations on Facebook:

3.2.1 On the canvas Page of an application on the Facebook Platform.

3.2.2 On an application box in a tab on a Facebook Page.

The entire sweeps entry process takes place outside of their application. The app only seems to verify that you're above the age of 18 and then collects your email. It then directs you to the Wall to use the "like" feature on posts.

Unless there's some back-end thing going on where JVC can see who provided their email address, "liked" the page, was over the age of 18, AND "liked" a post, it seems to violate those terms.

Comment by Ryan — August 12, 2010 @ 10:53 am

"Unless there’s some back-end thing going on where JVC can see who provided their email address, “liked” the page, was over the age of 18, AND “liked” a post"

That's exactly what we have – again, approved by Facebook.

And Justin, you are spot on. It's all about what is next, how we keep folks engaged when the contest wraps up (first week in Sept.)…

Comment by Andy Pray — August 12, 2010 @ 11:24 am

Hi guys– I'm the author of this article.

There is some confusion here that I want to clarify. Were any advertiser to just start running a campaign as we did, that would clearly be against the Facebook TOS, as clearly stated in their contest rules. You have to have explicit permission from their team in advance and spend at least $10k.

We had approval at every step of the way from our Facebook rep– Blair Thomson-Levin– and we spent $25k. Facebook has had some growing pains to keep up with the advertiser growth, so their team sometimes doesn't communicate as effectively. This is normal and expected– they have an amazing product, and anyone in their position would have trouble scaling and keeping communication flowing perfectly.

If you're not sure what is okay or not– get a rep. I can tell you that JVC and RFI Studios are above board blue chip companies. They are conservative and definitely play within the rules.

Comment by Dennis Yu — August 12, 2010 @ 11:37 am

@Andy Pray

Was the "Like" of the products posted on individual days prerequisite to winning the contest, or is it something being suggested that JVC hopes happens, but it isn't really the mechanism to get you entered to win a daily prize?

I was reading the contest rules and didn't see that explicitly (although I looked over them quickly).

Comment by Scott McAndrew — August 12, 2010 @ 11:48 am

Hey Dennis,

I'm still a little confused. Are you essentially saying that FB's T.O.S. go out the window once you pay a certain amount on advertising?

I thought the only thing FB reps were supposed to approve was the app that would be running to collect sweepstakes entries. Their T.O.S. state that even after you have Facebook rep approval you still have to abide by these rules:

"If we provide you such approval, you agree to the following:

3.2.2 On an application box in a tab on a Facebook Page."

Your sweeps entry process, to the best of my knowledge, took place within the Wall – not within an App.

Not trying to argue Just trying to figure all of this out since FB doesn't seem to be giving clear answers.

Also, do you work the company that created the promotion (RFI Studios/Ruder Finn)?

-Ryan

Comment by Ryan — August 12, 2010 @ 11:54 am

Dennis – if I understand correctly, you're saying that one needs to inform Facebook ahead of time and then pay them in order for them to let you break ToS?

Comment by Joel Downs — August 12, 2010 @ 12:24 pm

Dennis, we've done some contests/promotions and it's a gray area with Facebook. Their ad team is growing in size and bringing in more experienced people. The IO process is simpler and we see their breadth of targeting options growing. In fact, when you approach them directly the access points to data is TOTALLY different from a retail advertiser. It's more focused, yet highly segmented by what you need. In other words, you can go through the data six ways from Sunday and present offers in many different ways.

Recently we approached seven folks that had 5000 fans or more who had some interest in paper products like stationery, which is what we sell. We placed a simple black textual ad on their welcome tab on a white background highlighed in yellow, somewhat like an old direct response ad from the readers digest. It worked like crazy simply because of the curiosity level was so high.

Ad agencies and implementations on their side have a tendency to confuse everyone to hell. I guess leave the jargon at the front door will do us all some good.

Comment by Mike Wanner — August 12, 2010 @ 1:08 pm

Violation or not, it's obvious that Facebook isn't policing its own policies. My personal pet peeve is the businesses who establish a user account, or the politicians who do so. Small potatoes in the garden of Facebook, but as one who plays by the rules….

Comment by Ginny Cooper — August 13, 2010 @ 4:46 am

Dennis – Your team clearly broke the rules here and it has been acknowledged. Play by the rules like the rest of us have been abiding by.

I assume JVC is not working with someone from the Preferred Developer Consultant list. I know that list has been brought up before, but there is a reason it exists. To ensure large brand advertisers do things right.

Facebook – will you be taking down this promo?

Comment by Jon — August 13, 2010 @ 5:26 am

I spoke with a contact at Facebook, and he confirms this is a violation of their policies. While it is an interesting case study, it is currently flying under Facebook's radar – thus is still up & running.

Comment by Scott — August 13, 2010 @ 6:05 am

Dennis replied to my comment on Facebook by saying:

"Ryan– to your question, it's not that Facebook's rules go out the window if you pay. The contest TOS clearly states that you have to get approval from Facebook in advance for contests AND spend at least $10k. So it's money and approval."

My response is as follows:

"Dennis,

I've gone ahead and copied/pasted a section of Facebook's Promotion Guidelines. I've capitalized all of the important parts:

""If we provide you such APPROVAL (the rep approval you are referencing), you agree to the following:

3.1 You will only administer the promotion through an APPLICATION on the Facebook Platform, as directed by us.

3.2 You will ONLY ALLOW USERS TO ENTER the promotion in the following locations on Facebook:

3.2.1 On the CANVAS PAGE OF AN APPLICATION on the Facebook Platform.

3.2.2 On an APPLICATION BOX IN A TAB on a Facebook Page."

Your sweepstakes collects entries through the 'Like' feature on individual Wall posts. Your application only collects email addresses and verifies that the user is above the age of 18. The actual sweepstakes entry takes place within the Wall post – not within the application, as clearly stated within Facebook's guidelines.

I'm not doubting that your rep approved the sweepstakes; I'm just saying that the sweeps entry process is in clear violation of the rules Facebook makes everyone else abide by.

Also, do you work for the company that created this promotion? I'm confused about your relationship.

- Ryan"

Comment by Ryan — August 13, 2010 @ 6:23 am

You seem to be slightly confused.

The sweepstakes takes place on the application tab. Here a user has to go through the three necessary steps in order to enter. All the eligible entrants are then put into a database. When JVC shows the prize on the wall those eligible entrants are encouraged to like the post (step 4) those that Like the post are put in a separate database and matched with the database of registered eligible entrants from the contest tab to make sure they have followed the rules. From there a qualified eligible winner is chosen. The Liking of the wall post is simply a way of picking a winner from the list of eligible registered entrants.

Secondly paying off a facebook rep is not only impossible, but also something neither parties would want any part of doing. Success never comes from cheating it comes from quality and intelligence. The logic behind your assumption makes no sense.

I hope win some new headphones!

Comment by Arron — August 13, 2010 @ 6:50 am

Hi all –

I’ve tried to clear up confusion here twice to no avail, I’m hoping the third (and final) time is a charm. Here goes:

The promotion featured here on AllFacebook.com was 100% the effort of RFI Studios and our client JVC. 100%. The campaign was approved by Faceboook before it ran. It was then approved when we launched advertising support. It was also handled several times in the past few weeks as there were some cache issues. In short, it has been around the block. We did receive several inquires thanks to the diligent efforts of the folks commenting here (awesome work gang) and I can say that they have since apologized for the hassle, recognizing that, in fact, this promotion was approved. I'm hoping that doesn't change. Perhaps the approvals were an error on their end. Perhaps we got lucky. I don’t know, or, quite frankly, care. The point is, we played by the rules we were given.

I had thought this opportunity was one to share with a community of marketers about a campaign that worked. When asked to share insights on the effort I was excited, I gladly handed over the playbook. Clearly that was naïve, as this quickly tuned into an exercise of raising pitchforks that I find equal parts baffling and disappointing. Didn't see that coming, I admit.

But a great lesson learned. Folks, if anyone, anyone at all, has a question about the campaign, please feel free to email me. praya@ruderfinn.com.

Have a great weekend -

Andy Pray

Comment by Andy Pray — August 13, 2010 @ 6:54 am

Andy, I think the pitchforks came out because all of us would love to build a fanbase of 30k in one month, but don't necessarily have $25k to drop on a campaign with Facebook. My website runs a giveaway every day as part of our social media promotion of different companies, and it sure would be awesome to have people like our posts on FB as the method of entry! But I am pretty sure that we would get in trouble since we don't have enough cash for a Facebook rep…I think that's probably why most people are bothered – they wanna do it too!

Also wondering if FB unintentionally opened up a can of worms. It will be interesting to see if they allow similar campaigns, since it seems that the liking of posts on the Wall as a method of entry is against the ToS that they advertise.

Either way, great job!

Unicorn Booty

Comment by Nick Vivion — August 13, 2010 @ 8:04 am

Hi guys,

Sorry if I've come across as trying to stir up trouble – not the case. Andy, your answers have been very clear and have made total sense. Dennis' comments, on the other hand, have left me somewhat confused, as it does not appear he has ever addressed the issue of the entries taking place outside of the application.

Arron:

Per the Official Rules of the sweepstakes, users are required to complete three actions: 1) "Like" the Page (no issue there – Facebook is cool with this), 2) verify their age and insert an email address (no issue there – takes place within an approved application), 3) "Like" a Wall post (this is where there confusion sets in).

The "Like"ing of the Wall post, to the best of my understanding, IS the entry into that individual sweepstakes. Simply inputting your email address and age does not enter you into the sweeps. That just verifies that you're eligible to win. You must "Like" a post to be entered to that daily sweeps. That "Like" entry is then matched up against email addresses and age verifications. So the actual sweepstakes entry does not take place within the app – it takes place on the Page's Wall.

According to Facebook's Guidelines, "[Pages] will only allow users to enter the promotion in the following locations on Facebook 1) On the canvas page of an application on the Facebook Platform, or 2) on an application box in a tab."

Because the actual daily sweeps entry takes place outside of an application or a tab, and actually takes place on a post within the Wall, it seems to go against the Guidelines, as I understand them.

Once again, just want to emphasize that I'm not trying to question JVC, RFI Studios, the campaign, or its results. Simply calling into question Facebook and its rules. I hear conflicting reports all the time about the promotion guidelines and how they are enforced.

I completely understand that the campaign was approved, and that's the only issue I'm confused about. How could it get approved if it seems to go against some of the clearly defined rules.

Personally, I feel Facebook's rules are incredibly limiting and tend to favor big businesses with big ad budgets. That's why I've opened this debate.

Thanks for the comments back,

Ryan

database. When JVC shows the prize on the wall those eligible entrants are encouraged to like the post (step 4) those that Like the post are put in a separate database and matched with the database of registered eligible entrants from the contest tab to make sure they have followed the rules. From there a qualified eligible winner is chosen. The Liking of the wall post is simply a way of picking a winner from the list of eligible registered entrants.

Comment by Ryan — August 13, 2010 @ 10:43 am

First, really nice case study. Not enough marketers are sharing their Facebook success stories and I applaud Andy's team and JVC for making this data available and being so transparent.

Secondly, I think there's a lot of displaced anger towards Andy and the ad agency. They did get the promotion approved as required. It achieved their client's objectives, quite spectacularly, which is probably why they were so willing to share it here. PR agencies aren't known for publicizing their clients failed marketing campaigns.

JVC didn't write the rules. They're playing within them. The problem lies in Facebook's guidelines. Not surprisingly, they favor marketers who have made a minimum investment of $10K in Facebook advertising. Those are the rules. If you don't like them, run your company contest on MySpace.

Richard Krueger,

Co-Author of Facebook Marketing for Dummies,

and Facebook Advertising for Dummies

Comment by Rich — August 13, 2010 @ 2:54 pm

How do you link the "likes" on the wall posts to the email from the entry?

There is no tool given to any page administrator to do this.

The JVC rules state:

"Winner selection/notification: Winners will be chosen at random daily. JVC will conduct the drawing and its decisions on all matters pertaining to the Sweepstakes are final. Potential winners will be notified by email."

Step 3 is just an arbitrary step put in there to drive fake engagement and make the users think that it constitutes an entry, when in reality, the email address is the only factor used to pick winners.

Technically they are not violating TOS in the Terms, but they are tricking the users into the "like" interaction.

Shady.

Comment by Rich — August 14, 2010 @ 1:24 pm

@Andy Pray, you say in your post above that "I don’t know, or, quite frankly, care.".

You actually should if you want to build true engagement with your base. You could have quite a few upset fans if there were to find out the truth.

You are clearly going against your own rules where it states that winners are drawn randomly. Just 5 hours ago a user posts on your wall and says:

Pablo Lugo: "I made a mistake on my email address on the official sweepstakes entry. Does anyone know how I can edit my email address??"

Offical reply:

JVC U.S.A.: "Pablo, no worries man. You can enter by 'liking' the posts and if your name is pulled we'll reach out to you through Facebook, asking you for your email address for the shipping details. In short? you are good to go! Good luck…"

The entire reason Facebook does not allow a "like" to constitute an entry is that you simply cannot link the like to the email address you are collecting.

I'd love to see the engagement numbers after the promotion is over in a follow up post.

Comment by Rich — August 14, 2010 @ 1:44 pm

What's wrong with you people? Ah you are USA citizens right? Still unawares you live in a completely totalitarian capitalist police state ……. let me enlighten you = In Europe we have Culture, in USA you have CA$H. If you have cash you can do anything, if you don't you're screwed. Simple really. Don't complain about it. Surrender or leave that's all p.s. If you leave however note, another exclusive perk of being an USA citizen is you will continue to be liable to pay Uncle Sam Income Tax too.

Comment by John Lee Blackwell — August 14, 2010 @ 1:51 pm

Hi there,

How to interpret the stats of my fan page ?
http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/5215/statsb.gi...

Many thanks

Comment by milkiway — August 17, 2010 @ 1:19 am

Milkiway– thanks for posting your question and sharing your stats with the audience. Your page stats look like a normal contest or viral campaign at launch– high engagement at the start, which trails off.

Your next step is to consider an engagement campaign targeting existing fans. You might want to look at the licensable apps at webtrends.com which are designed specifically for this.

You can also ask questions at community.blitzlocal.com, where our folks are moderating.

Dennis

Comment by Dennis Yu — August 25, 2010 @ 2:48 pm

To me none of this gets to the heart of this post, which says that Post Quality Score has an impact on how often you show up in the news feed of others. I have never heard this to be true, and have heard the contrary. Your news feed is determined by you and your friends interactions between the pages, not the pages overall fanbase and interactions. I don't know how JVC got so many fans, but there is no proof that it was because they increased their Post Quality score. Their updates are still only seen by people that have "liked" their page already. Someone please inform me if I am wrong.

Comment by Nate — September 16, 2010 @ 6:44 pm

The Secret To How JVC Gained 35,000 Fans In 30 Days

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