Blue Helm

Facebook leaves us with...questions.

Facebook’s newly unveiled contest rules are, well, confusing. At least that’s the only determination I can come to today. That might change in the future as more information becomes available. But Facebook hasn’t released a lot of helpful instruction as of yet, so I’m left to ponder on the meaning and significance of the new guidelines.

In case you missed the announcement, administrators of Facebook fan pages can no longer host contests through their pages without written permission from Facebook. You can still use third party applications to host contests, but you can’t do anything now that requires 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 or win a contest.

So…what does all that mean? Facebook gives some examples of what you can and cannot do under the new guidelines, but many questions still remain unanswered:

• How are you supposed to contact Facebook to receive “written approval” to run a contest on your fan page? Facebook reveals very little, if any, legitimate contact information on its site. And even if you do contact Facebook through a message option, the company rarely replies.
• Can a business still give away products, promotions or coupons to customers that become fans of its page, even if no contest is involved? I think so, but Facebook doesn’t specify.
• Are there separate rules for contests on personal profiles? For instance, a blogger running a contest through her own profile page (as opposed to a fan page). Probably not, since a personal profile is part of the larger “Facebook Platform”. But the rules are still sketchy and open to interpretation.
• Why has Facebook changed the rules? Is it to protect itself from potential legal disputes arising from contest malpractice? Or does it just want more control over fan interaction with businesses on its site? Has a promotion gone wrong in the past?
• How will Facebook enforce these new rules?
• Doesn’t this just hurt small businesses? They can’t afford to hire large social marketing firms that specialize in creating third-party applications. Many small businesses rely on Facebook for promotions and contests that drive customers to their products.

Social media is like the weather–it’s always changing. So as always, Blue Helm will stay on top of Facebook’s new developments and rules. We live and breathe this stuff (so you don’t have to).

Are you using LinkedIn’s Answers feature? If you aren’t, you should be. If you are, you should be using it more.

But why is this tool so nifty?

1. Answer questions: Each time you log onto LinkedIn, glance at the right side of the home page and find the “Answers” box. You’ll see questions from other business professionals in your field. By responding to these questions, you not only help other business people with their problems or inquiries, you open doors to networking opportunities and positive personal branding.

2. Ask questions: This one’s obvious. Do you have a general query about sales, marketing, taxes or employment opportunities? Are you looking for a service in a particular city? Do you want to know what other businesspeople think about a news topic or current event? I’ve found that by asking good questions, you get good answers. LinkedIn is full of talented and articulate professionals that jump at the opportunity to answer a question. You can even categorize your question in a particular industry so the right people will see it. Asking questions has been very valuable in my personal experience, and I’m sure you’ll find it useful too.

3. Visibility: Like I mentioned in #1, you get a lot more face time by asking and answering questions. Other industry professionals and leaders will see you and perhaps look at your profile. LinkedIn users can label you an “Expert” if you give the best response to a question, thus giving your online expertise more credibility (and a nice green star goes on your profile). You can connect with other professionals that ask or answer questions, expanding your network in the process.