Facebook recently announced an updated version of their promotional guidelines, with the biggest overall change being the removal of their previous requirement that all promotions be handled with third-party applications. To put it simply, now folks using Facebook can use the site to create and run their promotions.

Of course, there’s more to their guideline changes than just that particular requirement. So, please, make sure you familiarize yourself with the Facebook promotions guidelines before you attempt to run a new promotion. For the purposes of this article, however, let’s have a look at the one big third-party change and what problems it may bring up as a result. 

5 Potential Issues Involved with the New Promotional Guidelines

1. Like Inflation

It’s been a back-and-forth battle with brands, not knowing whether to focus on Likes or if they should attempt to achieve more depth. Now brands may get confused again (explained below) due to the Like inflation which may occur. With the ease and supply of contests, there’s a lot of potential for inflation due to people just stopping by to Like the contest with no real interest in sticking with the brand in any capacity.

2. Like-Chasing

Yes, the “Like” is rearing its ugly head again here, only this time it may be the brands chasing down likes. Potentially working as the “effect” end, with the causal agent being the Like inflation, brands may choose to focus less on depth and impact while instead focusing on the reach of their promotions and seeing how many Likes they can grab overall. This could lead to brands having a lot of Likes, and not much else.

3. Foregoing Assistance

The turning wheel in some people’s heads sounds about like this: “Well, Facebook said I no longer need a third-party, so, I guess I don’t.” However, third-party applications help you tremendously when creating ads, running promotions, monitoring your results, etc. Foregoing the third-party with your promotions may end in a bad way for you. Just because it’s not required by Facebook doesn’t mean it’s not required by good branding principles.

4. Contest-Heavy Branders

Another problem that could easily arise here is brands that put out far too many promotions. What’s the one biggest problem of being able to handle promotions through Facebook? It makes them seem easier. So, with promotions that are “easy” to conceive and launch, many brands may become very heavy-handed in this capacity. Even if you avoid this as a brand, the implication of a flooded market (niche dependent perhaps; time will tell) may damage your efforts.

5. Spam City

Number five on your list but number one in your hearts, it’s spam! That annoying stuff that, ah, well, you get the picture! Without Facebook deciding to act like an arm of the NSA and watch over the contests, letting the inmates run the asylum, there is massive spamming potential here, from worthless promotions everywhere to Like campaigns and a flood of page comments.

Listed above are five potential problems with brief explanations. The important thing for you in this situation is to stick firmly to solid branding principles. Push for depth with your promotions. Launch them for a real reason. Use third-party software to help you get more out of your efforts. Don’t fall into these potential traps.

This post was written by Simon Campbell