An open blog to the author of Facebook's promotional guidelines

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Okay, writer of the Facebook promotional guidelines, I’m issuing a definitive and official “WTFlip?” in your face. There, I said it. That just happened.
Said guidelines are convoluted, contradictory and confusing. Not to mention cryptic! Are you aware of that?
Exhibit A:
Entry 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.”
Okay, okay, I’ll concede here. I could interpret this as saying that it’s okay to drive ‘likes’ using a promotion on the page.
Not so fast, my friend…
Exhibit B:
Entry 6.4
“You cannot: Administer a promotion that users automatically enter by becoming a fan of your Page.”
So, 4.2 says you can. But, 6.4 says you cannot.
Exhibit C:
Section 3

Facebook says it’s a simple contact process to talk to someone about your promotional idea. So, I clicked the contact form in Section 3, as instructed.
Here’s what I got:

Yep, that’s right – they want to know how much money I’m going to spend before they even waste their time with me. As a business owner, I understand a bit where they’re coming from. Why waste time with piddly little companies who don’t want to spend tons of money with you. Oh, wait – NO, I DON’T UNDERSTAND THAT. That’s like a movie theater saying it’s going to turn away each individual ticket holder so that they can only entertain groups of 100 or more. If they did that, they’d be out of business.
Exhibit D:
Section 3 (again)
I selected United States and left the budget drop down at less than $10,000.
I got this screen:

Dear Katy,
Pound sand.
Sincerely,
Facebook
I know these guidelines have been out for quite some time, so I’m probably not the first to express frustration about all of this nonsense. Ultimately, we’ll have to decide whether we want to do what our competitors are doing and throw these guidelines to the wolves. I see advertisers doing it left and right, so why shouldn’t we?

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Chaney Given

Chaney is a talented and accomplished designer and illustrator, who has expanded his skill set to include motion graphics and video editing. With nearly a decade of experience, his client work includes Waterstep, Baptist Health, the Archdiocese of Louisville Catholic Schools, First Harrison Bank, and many more