Interesting Article re Facebook Competitions

serenity2012

I have no real interest in what some blogger has to say about how I or others enter facebook competitions. Whether we choose to like and share or comment is a personal decision. I see no real evidence anywhere that he is correct in his 'assumptions'. And I question his motives. I also have my own company and have run a few comps and i disagree with a lot of what he is saying. That is as far as I will go on that.

I also don't understand how a small group can get so up in arms over comps asking you to like and share. How does it affect you? You can say "It's against fb rules". So what? Yet again how is that your business? This same convo has gone on and on here in various threads with some small group going onto the fb threads shouting "It's against fb rules to ask to like and share!! Whine moan whine." Again if you don't like it don't enter or stay off facebook. I for one will continue to enter fb comps and share if asked. Makes no difference to me. I've won quite a few of them and often haven't commented at all in the thread. It's very easy for the minority to try and dictate to the majority. Don't always take things you read as fact. I expect the truth is somewhere in between. And you know what? Even if it is fact (And i believe very little of what any blogger says. There are hundreds of thousands out there prattling on about their perception of the world) but even if it is fact it is STILL up to individuals to make the choice for themselves. Move on people there are far more important things in life to worry about.

ScottMcGready

serenity2012 wrote: »

I have no real interest in what some blogger has to say about how I or others enter facebook competitions. Whether we choose to like and share or comment is a personal decision. I see no real evidence anywhere that he is correct in his 'assumptions'. And I question his motives. I also have my own company and have run a few comps and i disagree with a lot of what he is saying. That is as far as I will go on that.

I also don't understand how a small group can get so up in arms over comps asking you to like and share. How does it affect you? You can say "It's against fb rules". So what? Yet again how is that your business? This same convo has gone on and on here in various threads with some small group going onto the fb threads shouting "It's against fb rules to ask to like and share!! Whine moan whine." Again if you don't like it don't enter or stay off facebook. I for one will continue to enter fb comps and share if asked. Makes no difference to me. I've won quite a few of them and often haven't commented at all in the thread. It's very easy for the minority to try and dictate to the majority. Don't always take things you read as fact. I expect the truth is somewhere in between. And you know what? Even if it is fact (And i believe very little of what any blogger says. There are hundreds of thousands out there prattling on about their perception of the world) but even if it is fact it is STILL up to individuals to make the choice for themselves. Move on people there are far more important things in life to worry about.

Hey serenity2012, thanks for your comments. I've got some feedback for you which hopefully might give you some clarification:

With regards to the "some blogger" quote, I'd like to correct you (slightly). I've had vast experience working in preventing scams, have appeared on multiple television series, regularly on the radio, speak professionally on the subject, work with police/trading standards/neighbourhood watch/private businesses/and other organisations, and was recently asked to take over Scams Scotland on behalf of a few organisations so I assure you - I didn't just write this on the back of a cigarette packet because it felt like a fun thing to do and I didn't have a clue what I was talking about.

On the subject of evidence, it's pretty clear. I made it clear in the post (and here) that pages don't see every like/share/comment like a personal profile does. I've shared screen caps, and I'm not the only page owner/admin that can confirm this. Happy to share more to prove this but if you run a page on Facebook, you'll likely see the same thing.

Thirdly, my motivations are crystal clear- to give everyone full transparency. I've said it multiple times to various members of the forum that I'm not trying to ruin anyone's fun, but I don't believe it's fair a business that runs these "competitions" doesn't disclose that they cannot see every entry. The fact that people are excluded automatically, without fair warning, is in my book a total scam.

Lastly, you're absolutely right that it's a personal choice as to enter these competitions but I still stand by my original point that it's totally unethical (forget about Facebook's rules for a second) for a company to run a competition where they know that a potentially large quantity of entrants will be disqualified when they could have done it the right way to begin with.

Disagreement is good, but I feel I may have touched a nerve somewhere...

mjm3346

ScottMcGready wrote: »

Lastly, you're absolutely right that it's a personal choice as to enter these competitions but I still stand by my original point that it's totally unethical (forget about Facebook's rules for a second) for a company to run a competition where they know that a potentially large quantity of entrants will be disqualified when they could have done it the right way to begin with.

Disagreement is good, but I feel I may have touched a nerve somewhere...

Some people also consider the same applies to TW and not all entries are seen but another way to look at it is to consider being seen is part of the winner selection process as there is nothing to show the same people are always overlooked, bit like 15,000th person to enter wins so the first 14,999 to enter have no chance (sony have/do run some like that).
In some ways L&S/Retweets are more open than many other competitions including Apps on FB where you have no idea how the winners were actually selected or if they had met the entry requirements.

JamboDP

This is all very interesting as over the last 18 months my wins on FB have dried up completely, I used to win roughly once a month and have won some great prizes. I only comment on a comp when asked to, and I refuse to grovel to try and win anything, so it looks like I will not be winning anything in the future. Also on twitter comps I have done thousands and thousands of RTs the only thing I have won is a Thong and it did not fit.

Moneybot

JamboDP wrote: »

Also on twitter comps I have done thousands and thousands of RTs the only thing I have won is a Thong and it did not fit.

:eek:

Well that made me spit my tea over the keyboard!

I will now have to spend the afternoon not thinking about Dave in a badly fitting thong.

serenity2012

ScottMcGready wrote: »

Disagreement is good, but I feel I may have touched a nerve somewhere...

And there we have it. A subtle yet obvious foot stamp because someone dares to disagree with you. You have joined this forum in the last few days to comment on this thread. How it must please you that this thread could possibly bring you some traffic. You are a blogger and saying "I've been on TV. I've dealt with other scams" means nothing. So has Jamie Oliver and he's a complete moron. Doesn't mean you have any qualifications to dictate to the rest of us. I don't know why you feel the need to proclaim anything. I also don't like your inference with the comment I've quoted. You obviously don't like being disagreed with but I can assure you that this forum is full of people with their own minds and thoughts. . I disagree with you. I will carry on with my own views and i resent your hint 'touched a nerve' that i am part of some conspiracy.

You have joined i presume because you are enjoying the attention here on this thread . Your 15 mins of fame as it were. I'm moving on because i have no interest in what you have to say. What i do and what others do is none of your business. Many of us have entered fb comps for years and won a lot on it. I just think the fact you jumped very quickly into this thread and forum dubious in itself. Remember, no matter how highly you obviously think of yourself, many of us are intelligent people with very high academic achievements. I won't feed into your attention seeking anymore. But to help your conspiracy theory devotion, Michael Jackson isn't alive, America did not orchestrate 9/11, Nasa didn't fake the moon landing and the Illuminati never really existed. Hope that helps. Now i'm moving on as I suspect you will do as you joined simply to speak on this thread and advertise your blog. You will disappear right afterwards. Good luck with your next project which is probably trying to prove Paul McCartney really did die.

brownhandbag

Hi Serenity Just wanted to say I thought the same about Jamie, but then (thx to comping) I met the fellow and he is really not a moron. Actually a really nice geezer xxx

kaya1991

I never ever enter these like & share FB competitions, mostly because I don't want to spam my friends' pages with competition posts. I'll only enter on Facebook if I can do it via an app, or occasionally if it's just a quick 'like this status' entry. I didn't actually realise that page owners can't see specific likes on these posts, so I probably won't even bother with those in future now!

I think once and once only, I got to the end of an app competition form and had to share a post to complete the entry. I just set the sharing status to 'Only me' and the entry went through - I'd gone through the mechanics of 'sharing', but I didn't have to bother anyone else with the post.

Interesting read, thank you!

serenity2012

brownhandbag wrote: »

Hi Serenity Just wanted to say I thought the same about Jamie, but then (thx to comping) I met the fellow and he is really not a moron. Actually a really nice geezer xxx

lol ok i'll take your word for it. At least you didn't say Paul McCartney really did die in the 60's You won a meet and greet in a comp? Wd hun x

Pinkzie

An interesting read, thank you. I have read some similar things said about like and share competitions.

I'm not a big fan of them as an entrant but agree they are quick to enter and harmless if they are genuine. A few years ago I did a couple of small facebook competitions on my craft page and just out of interest I just went back and I can still see all of the likes/shares on them from each person and can keep scrolling to see all of them. I'm not sure if this is the case when there is a lot more entrants as these ones only 150-200 or so but I can definitely see everything. Maybe things have changed since then?

I don't mind when people point out the rules to companies, I think they only have good intentions and want things to be as fair as possible although it does look like they're just moaning, maybe they want the prize being offered but want proper rules in place so they feel they have a fair chance? I'm just glad when the prize is genuine!

I won with the National lottery on twitter and I'm pretty sure the 50% tweet thing was part of the t&c's when I won because I remember wondering if I'd get my prize but they awarded me my prize even though I'd say my profile was mostly competitions at the time.