Background

Spammers can  tag you in Pins, meaning you get an email each time “Weight loss- how I lost 20lbs” or “Viagra special offer!!” over and over and over. Oh Joy. Oh Bliss. You can’t filter or block spammers, only send an email to Customer Service.

Impact – Customer Service

Customer Service will be INUNDATED. Instead of an automated message telling users how to block ex friends they have had an argument with, members that are trolling them or spammers selling them stuff, Customer Service has to deal with each request. How many staff do you need for 10.4 million members who see something they don’t like?

Impact: Loss of membership

I’m debating a) removing all email notification (not good) or b) deleting my Pinterest account (worse). For a network 80% women, to not be able to block abusive, intrusive or spammy messages is a massive oversight. Forcing users to turn off email to remove inappropriate communications will lose Pinterest an important distribution channel (no emails means less and less reason to come back to Pinterest). And when women delete social networking accounts they attempt to incite others to do so as well. Never a good thing to build an anti community as you build the Pinterest community.

Impact: Legal

This lack of social management tools is a lawsuit in the making. There just needs to be ONE harassment situation where Customer Service fails to respond (the “report this user” link on email is broken) and the Judge will cite Facebook & Twitter ability to block users as a tool to remove unwanted members from contacting you & Pinterest will face as big a risk as the copyright battles.

Conclusion

Helping members feel safe is Online Community Management 101 & apropos Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, functionally imperative.

NOT to include member to member management tools is costly in staff, time, risk, and loss of members. Add a damn Block button already! Sheesh

PS This is the kind of basic error that happens when too many geeky boys create a social network based around tech & don’t let the humanities/social psych peeps have a say. Typical of Google too …

Prerequisites: While the first part of each session is for beginners, this workshop is aimed at advanced users. A Facebook personal profile and a LinkedIn or Twitter account is assumed. Those who do not yet have any social media profiles online may struggle as this course is fast paced.

Lecture: Laurel was named in 2012 by Forbes magazine in the Top 50 Social Media Influencers globally, and Marketing Magazine named her “Head of Industry, Social Media”. She has consulted globally including with Singapore Government and Middle East Broadcasting, and in Australia, with Westpac, Sony, local, State and Federal Government. Laurel is the CEO of The Community Crew managing massive gaming and online communities including Facebook and forums for reality TV shows such as Junior Masterchef. Since 2005, Laurel has been teaching online community management at the University of Sydney, Australian Film and TV School, Metro Film School  and she has been managing virtual communities since 1989. In the last few months Laurel has appeared on Finance Quarter, Lateline, 7:30 Report, Midday Report ABC, and in the Australian Financial Review, The Australian, Radio National and other media channels. AdAge named in the Top 150 Media Bloggers, and she is on Google’s Plus Recommended List. SEE MORE on ABOUT PAGE

Dates:  June – Monday 4 to Wednesday 6th of June OR July Monday 9th to Wednesday 11th OR August 6th to 8th. 

My apologies ahead of time, there is very little likelihood of other dates becoming available and I expect these 3 to be taken by the end of the week. While I am based in Sydney, many of my workshops take place interstate or overseas. Please enquire.

Please contact Cheryll my assistant on pa@laurelpapworth.com for special 3-day pricing/invoicing, and testimonials, technical setup etc. Please note: I will be in Europe from next week for the month of May and then in Asia for most of June, so after Friday 4th May, please contact Cheryll via email pa@laurelpapworth.com

Social Media Workshop Outline

Three Day Class for the Advanced Social Media Specialist

DAY ONE
-Morning
8 ways to deal with negative criticism online – what happens when your brand receives negative feedback in social media? This section takes the student through 8 different options including best case and worst case scenarios with case studies. From Ignoring to Suing to Confessing, Fighting back and so on, each approach is evaluated with case studies.
OUTCOME: Students gain a comprehensive toolkit for dealing with negative criticism online. 
Computer Session: Build an social media monitoring station 

- Afternoon
The 7 steps of social media Engagement – understanding social media from an organisational evolutionary perspective. The steps include:  developing Social Media Policies and Guidelines for Staff, Building Viral Engagement for promotion in social media sites,  Collaborating with Customers in building Social Products and Services. This segment takes you through all seven steps that most organisation evolve through and prepare for the next session on Nine Steps of a Social Media Strategy.
OUTCOME: Students will gain an understanding of the 7 Steps of Social Media Engagement.
Computer Based Session: Build a social media press room with socmed press releases, blog and social objects. 

DAY TWO
- Morning
Nine Steps of a Social Media Strategy. Before you build a social media campaign, you need a strategy. This section takes the student through all nine steps of building a Strategy including: Purpose and Values and determining why and what customers will follow on social media sites, Influencer and Blogger Relationship strategies – how to determine who will help promote your products online and how to encourage Twitter users, and bloggers and Facebook users to connect  with you and the other 7 steps. Two steps (campaign and diary) will be covered tomorrow in depth).
OUTCOME: Students will have enough information to work on their own 9 Step Social Media Strategy.
Computer Based Session:  Build a business hub on emergent social tools such as Google Plus and Pinterest 

- Afternoon
This afternoon and tomorrow, we work in depth on two aspects of the nine step social media strategy covered in Day One -  5 step Social Media campaigns including building a hub and spoke practical demonstration session and Creating a Conversation Diary to facilitate in-depth, community building conversations. This afternoon, The Five Steps of a social media campaign will cover from how to Monitor social media through the campaign lifecycle to brief introduction to Social Media Measurement (covered in more depth on Day THREE). No matter whether your campaign is to promote a product or service, to recruit new staff or to offer online customer service, these 5 steps are the way to effectively engage in social media.

OUTCOME: Students be able to build a 5 Step Social Media Campaign.
COMPUTER SESSION: Maximise Twitter account, and apps to schedule, measure effect of tweets, auto tweeting do’s and don’ts and tools.

DAY THREE
- Morning
Creating a Conversation Diary – the importance of a calendar for working with staff, creating social objects for conversations, FBO (Facebook Optimisation) and SMO (Social Media Optimisation). Understanding Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn optimisation
OUTCOME: Students will gain a thorough understanding on how to create a Conversation Diary for better SEO, FBO and SMO rankings.
COMPUTER SESSION: Maximise Facebook Business Page and tools to ensure engagement and FBO 

- Afternoon
Six Key Performance Indicators in  social media – The Return on Investment (ROI) and the Cost of Inaction (COI) figures. Six points of measurement from Circulation (number of followers) to Reach ( number of Shares) to Velocity, Sentiment and so on. We look in depth at tools and analyse statistics and bottom line figures in social media.
22 Revenue streams in Social Media – by building a community, it’s possible to monetise the relationships with the customer through paid for services. We look at transactional based APIs (selling on Facebook) to Freemium (free and plus premium tiers) and marketing intelligence. What are social networks making money from and where is the money going? The Social Economy is the economy of the future and will change the way we do business forever.

OUTCOME: Students will know how to read or create a Social Media Measurement Report. Students will develop strategies on how to monetize their customer communities.
COMPUTER SESSION:  Analyse using social media measurement tools the six KPIs of a campaign.  Explore, identify and evaluate different social media revenue tools including Facebook shopping carts.

Note: If you choose NOT to have a computer based class, other exercises and case studies will be substituted.

Available Dates:

• May – not available
• June – Monday 4 to Wednesday 6th of June
• July – Monday 9th to Wednesday 11th
• August – Monday 6th to Wednesday 8th

Please contact Cheryll my assistant on pa@laurelpapworth.com for special 3-day pricing/invoicing, and testimonials, technical setup etc. Please note: I will be in Europe from next week for the month of May and then in Asia for most of June, so after Friday 4th May, please contact Cheryll.

Bottom Left, Cyclist Story

A woman gets run over by a car:

Around 10:30 on the morning of May 22, Jan Morgan was biking a stretch of State Highway 50 just a couple hours north of Jackson, Mississippi, when Robbie Norton, driving at 55 miles per hour, struck her from behind and carried her 200 feet before coming to a stop.

The journalist wants to raise money for:

I’ve been working on the research and reporting for this story since October, and am currently planning a reporting trip to Mississippi.The Oxford American, a national magazine award winner in 2004, plans to publish the piece. The story will focus on the accident itself and Jan’s recovery, the movement now afoot in Mississippi to amend the state’s three-foot law to include harsher penalties for drivers who violate the rule and cause serious injury or death to cyclists, and why the Morgans feel like the state court system has failed to bring true justice. In addition, the article will examine trends in cycling laws throughout the South, as well as efforts in several cities to improve conditions and safety for cyclists. Feel free to e-mail me with questions at andrew@andrewzaleski.com.

So far this amount has been raised: 

528.18 credits. Now Spot.Us doesn’t explain anywhere what that is worth and their video system halts when I try to review the FAQ videos. But let’s say it’s a credit for a dollar. Raising a $1400 bucks of which $528 has been raised. They are also looking for Talent donors – people to sift through documents and take photos etc. Nine donors so far…

What would YOU do to improve this social media campaign?

I can see a number of issues. Spot.us is not a very well developed site… Facebook share or Tweet this buttons are really basic and almost hidden, even their own videos are on their own site, not YouTube so I can’t embed them here. The @spotus on twitter account gets about 3 clicks for each promotional link. Maybe the journalist should move onto Kickstarter? Also, there doesn’t seem to be any Influencer seeding happening – shouldn’t the cyclists be getting behind this? And a tonne of other points. But. What about YOU? What would YOU do to improve this campaign, get more volunteers, more funds and more awareness? Lemme know.

If you like this “solve the social media mystery” type of post, I can do post up some more. We should also have a prize. What would you like to win? Make it cheap and cheerful!

The Banking industry is dead in the same way as Media is dead. I don’t mean gone, I mean changing at a subterranean level, and when it implodes it will be with a whimper not a bang. Of course we will still have Media: the need for one part of the community to find out News from another part of the community remains with us. But it’s CHANGED. And of course we will still have banks: one part of the community still needs to transfer assets to another part of the community. But the way it’s done, and how, is irrevocably changed already. And fundamentally, under attack.

Bank Transfer Day.

Kristen Christian was sick of Bank of America. The Los Angeles art gallery owner had both personal and business accounts with the big bank, and had had enough of ridiculous fees and poor customer service. So Christian created an event on Facebook called “Bank Transfer Day” and invited 500 of her friends to close their accounts at big for-profit banks and move their money to credit unions on Nov. 5. The movement spread — quickly.

The Facebook page has over 8,000 “likes,” and over 35,000 people have RSVP’d “yes” to making the move. (Interest.com October 15th, 2011)

Ok, so “liking” something on Facebook is one thing but. BUT. Do people actually switch banks, on a whim? Cos their mates are? Cos they are grumpy with the incumbents?

While Bank Transfer Day, and the dump-your-bank sentiment that serves as its backdrop, has earned a lot of media coverage and promotional dollars among credit unions, are people really switching?

The folks whose job it is to facilitate that move behind the scenes, who manage the so-called “switch kits” of electronic banking, say it’s so.

Several big credit unions and the vendors who supply their technology told Credit Union Times last week they have seen a surge of new memberships that began when Bank of America declared its $5 a month debit fee in late September.

“We’ve more than doubled our usual rate of membership growth in the past 17 or 18 days,” said Howie Wu, vice president of virtual banking at the $9.5 billion, 700,000-member BECU in Tukwila, Wash.

“We usually average about 6,000 to 7,000 new members a month, but from the date of Bank of America’s announcement to today, we’ve totaled 10,400 new members,” Wu said Thursday.

A half a nation away, “We’re on track to open more accounts in one month than we ever have before,”  said Mary O’Rourke, vice president of electronic services at the $4.4 billion, 357,000-member Randolph-Brooks FCU in Live Oak, Texas.

The Facebook page itself says:

Together we ensured that the world will always remember the 5th of November as the date American citizens stood in solidarity to advocate for local communities. In four weeks leading up to that date, 700,000 Americans shifted $4,580,000,000 in deposits alone from corporate-level for-profit banking institutions to not-for-profit credit unions that strive to promote economic growth in our communities. We sent a clear message that conscious consumers will support businesses that focus on people instead of profit.

We aren’t finished. Please take the opportunity to tell your family & friends about the benefits of doing business with a not-for-profit credit union. Don’t wait. Begin the process today. Every day is Bank Transfer Day! (see also NOTES on Facebook Page)

If you are not sure about Facebook Page statistics (now taken over by a credit union!) here are Reuters talking about Bank Transfer Day being accountable for 11% of bank moves:

More than 600,000 U.S. consumers have moved their money from big banks to community banks or credit unions, thanks to the much-publicized Bank Transfer Day last fall, according to an analysis released by Javelin Strategy & Research. (Jan 27, 2012)

and

Charlie Kroll … the founder and CEO of Andera Inc., a pioneer in online account opening who’s Providence, R.I., company now hosts the transfer activity, the heart of the switch kit, for more than 500 credit unions and banks.

“We saw a spike in volume the day Bank of America actually announced the fee, which is pretty predictable, but then it went up about 40% the next day and has stayed at that level ever since,” Kroll said.

“Open Banking” (like opensource) is on the rise:

Kilmer said his company is hosting those applications for online use by 106 clients and more in branches and that they’ve seen increases in recent days ranging from as little as 10% to as much as 40% “or even higher.”

“We’re seeing an average of 2.5 accounts in the average opening,” he said. “This is a relationship-building exercise.”

I also had a link for a 16% rise in small business loans at credit unions due to Bank Transfer Day- which I can’t find now. Blech. I can never find these statistics when I want them, so up they go on bloggy!  Based on the presentation I gave in Cairns at the National Mutuals Conference in October 2011 to a thousand bankers in credit unions and mutuals. Interesting to see that the Facebook Page is now being run by a Credit Union, not Kristen! (Which was my main call to action, if I remember rightly…)

I’m not even mentioning peer to peer currencies, bitcoin, peer to peer forex, peer to peer loans. Just showing the ground being ploughed and tilled before it gets seeded with peer to peer plants. And I hate gardening! Well, I like it, it doesn’t like me, brown plants for days.  What I guess I’m trying to say is that this revolution may or may not grow, but the soil is being prepared anyway…

Step by Step Social Media

You probably already know a little of Facebook, Twitter and social bookmarking. In this one-day course you’ll get a real taste of the marketing power of the new Social Media campaigns: creating managing and distributing social content through online communities. We’ll look at case studies of customers engaging with companies on social media sites and evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of various social media tools. An interesting day spent exploring a dynamic and challenging area. No technical or prior knowledge required.

social media training

Content
What is Social Media? and how does social media marketing compare to traditional marketing? Do you know the difference between a social media strategy and a social media campaign? What are the must-do steps of a successful campaign using Facebook, Twitter and other social networking tools?

The use of social networking tools has grown over the last 5 or 6 years to the extent that not only will we investigate Return on Investment (ROI) of marketing dollars in online media but also examine the Cost of Inaction (COI) of not being involved. By becoming familiar with case studies, statistics, influencer monitoring and measurement, marketing professionals can maximisie their online engagement with customers.

We specifically look at Listening and Monitoring, Creating Social Content, Blogger Outreach and Social Media Press Releases, Promotional Tools and Measurement. There are also opportunities to bring your questions

Outcomes
By the end of this course participants will:
• have an overview of the 5 steps of a social media campaign
• understand how to find and Engage social networks online
• know the do’s and don’ts of blogger outreach
• a business understanding of Facebook and Twitter and when to use them
• monitoring the web (overview) filtering comments
• measuring the conversation: Understand the metrics and what successful engagement looks like.

Booking information
• Date: 27th April,
• Venue: DigitalMe – Northbridge Piazza, Community room
• Timings: Morning sessions (9.30am-12.30pm), Afternoon session (1.30 to 4.30pm)
• Pricing: $175 per session (limited ticket availability)

Book online here

See you there!

When you do a search now on Google, Google checks your history and your friends’ histories and gives your results based on what you’ve looked at before and what your friends have shared on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr, WordPress, and so on. Which is great if your friends have awesome taste, and less great if they don’t.  SEO is a waste of money, or will be very soon. If my results look like this already (see below) what will our search results look like in a year? 2 years? 10 years? SMO (social media optimization) is in, SEO (search engine optimization) is out.

SEO vs SMO or Search Engine Optimization vs Social Media Optimization

SEO is where your website page is ranked based on links coming in, links going out, and keywords connecting the web of pages connected to your website.  It’s a numbers game.

SMO is where your website appears in front of a customer ONLY if that customers friends and family have been visiting, sharing, tweeting about that page. So a group of developers in India will get different search results than a group of partiers in Sydney.

To TURN OFF Google personalisation type in

&pws=0

e.g. apple &pws=0

CORRECTION as pointed out by @frankinguyen on Twitter  : Add it to the search results URL, not the field.  google.com/search?q=apple&pws=0

Two examples of SMO vs SEO

FIRST SEARCH: Search Term: Laurel Papworth (My History)

Notice my little smiley face all over search.  My own history has hijacked search.

SECOND SEARCH: Search Term: Laurel Papworth &pws=0 (Vanilla search)

Notice the lack of little smiley faces. Notice that my own searches and my friends recommendations don’t filter for me. It’s not hijacked by friends, it’s hijacked by the most trafficked sites with good SEO experts advising them .

If we try another search

FIRST SEARCH Search Term: online communities (SMO – my friends’ sharing history)

Notice my friends little smiley faces – SMO means you get a different search result cos you have different friends. Plus, I’m Little Miss Popular on social networks so have more friends to change the results. You will soon, too.

Search Term online communities  &pws=0 (straight SEO search, no SMO)

Notice again that search now has as it’s top return not a link from my friend Fred Zimny but from general sites.

Paying for SEO vs SMO

Don’t bother paying SEO clowns to tweet and Facebook your site. It will only hijack the results of THEIR social network, not bring you more clients. Unless your clients are friends with paid-for-tweeters? Pure SEO will work for some time to come, until all your friends and family and colleagues have built up a body of Shares between them.  Good sites will always have good SEO and good SMO. Make sure you get good advice on SEO and SMO – don’t buy links hoping it will help your rankings for years to come!

Interesting?  For my class tomorrow… *waves from yesterday* … CAVEAT I am not an SEO expert, just reporting as I see things changing that affects Social Media. 

NOTE: Just make sure Marketing/Public Relations realise that INFLUENCERS with networks that respond to call to action are heaps more effective than a dead Twitter and Facebook page with heaps of Followers but not Activity. I put INFLUENCERS in CAPS and RED because most social media activities FAIL because they don’t include them…

Boing Boing Blog, Corey Doctorow

50 Cent spent the weekend on Twitter pimping a company called H&H Imports; according to the SEC, he owns 30 million shares of the firm. Over the weekend, the shares gained $0.29, netting the rapper nearly $10 million.

From Business Insider, Joe Weisenthal

Earlier we noted that shares of HNHI added $50 million in market cap today thanks to tweets from 50 Cent aka Curtis Jackson.

Obviously he’s being compensated. How much? A LOT.

This SEC filing shows that he owned 30 million shares. Seeing as each one gained $.29 today, that’s nearly $10 million for one weekend of tweeting.

How soon do you think he sells?

Add this case study to the other one about Apple losing 4.6 billion dollars market cap in 11 minutes due to an Engadget blog post, and your on your way to CEOs heart through his/her wallet.

Apple’s stock promptly tanked on massive selling, going from $107.89 to $103.42 in six minutes (11:56 – 12:02). This wiped just over $4 billion off of Apple’s market capitalization. A lot of people lost a lot of money very quickly.

Nice Graphic to scare ‘em into paying attention:

Good luck – keep hitting them where the $$$ are, and you will get through. Eventually.

Just remember – it’s not Circulation ( number of followers) but Reach/Exposure (retweets, Shares) that make the Ripple Effect happen.

Good News (double the share price), Bad News (crash the stock), It’s all the same strategies in social media channels… are you riding the Ripples or are the Ripples riding you?

If capitalism was all about inflicting dodgy products and exploiting workers, the new social capitalism is about exploiting the members. That would be us.  After all, we are Google’s, Facebook’s, Twitter’s, Rockyou’s product. The only things produced in social media sites are members (members produce the rest). So Rockyou is fined $250,000 for:

• revealing usernames and passwords of 32 MILLION members
• due to a TEN year old hack
• fibbing about robustness of security
• keeping everything in plain text, not encrypted
• included all the other stuff they kept like your Gmail, Yahoo, etc accounts (3rd party credentials)
• 139,000 accounts were known to be for kids under 13 (against COPPA)

$250,000  - which is a lot of money – if you are me.

If you are RockYou…

… it’s a drop in the ocean. Who cares? It’s just our lives online that are put at risk. Our identity, our personal information, our family, our friends, our reputation, our banking details, our holiday plans, our shopping online, our credit cards, our whole lives.  Nothing important…

Ever get the feeling the courts have no clue about what’s happening out there? THE most important crime in the future will be theft of profiles, and at the moment, compromising the identities of 32 million people gets a slap on the wrist. Astonishing.

My identity can’t be stolen – I only have to Facebook, Tweet, blog or point to a YouTube video or Flickr photo to show who I am. UNLESS those accounts are hacked and stolen. And that is where the dark forces will gather in the future. We are not prepared… move over banks:  Facebook, Twitter and Rockyou thefts will be a lot more lucrative.

Crunchbase for the VC figures, Techspot for the news story.

Why do companies insist on doing dodgy “campaigns”? We call them community events, or viral spiked activities in online communities. Dodgy meaning completely unrelated to the community values or to the company brand message.

Finish this sentence…

here are the gaffes

• QANTASAIRWAYS: ”To enter tell us ‘What is your dream luxury inflight experience? (Be creative!) Answer must include #QantasLuxury.”
• COLES: “Finish this sentence: In my house it’s a crime not to buy _______”
• WOOLWORTHS: Happy weekend everyone! Finish this sentence: this weekend, I can’t wait to: ————,
• COCA COLA: “Add a word to the person above you to create a happy story!”
• SAFEWAY: “Finish this sentence: this weekend, I can’t wait to ____”

When NOT to do a Finish My Sentence Game

1. When you don’t know your community well
2. When random strangers can drop in
3. When it has no real purpose, and you don’t have a “mucking around” relationship with your consumers
4. When you have a big BIG negative brand issue e.g. supermarkets being seen as pushing around the little guy, or Qantas stranding passengers.

When you CAN do a Finish My Sentence game

@Woolworths_SA Finish the Sentence to win a case of Spier Light Merlot! Our Organic Laibach Merlot has won double Gold and Trophy for Best ….. #Woollies Wine

Much better.

• In the case above, while it’s still on Twitter so out of control (can’t remove comments or trolls like on Facebook) the question is focussed and relevant.
• Try putting rude words in and it doesn’t seem funny. That’s because you’ve targeted the first part of the “sentence” to a distinct audience.
• Engage influencers to set and lead preferred behaviour. It’s called behaviour management and they use it in schools with naughty kids AND in online communities. Very similar really
• Linked it to a reward. A decent one. QantasLuxury got you a pair of pajamas. People might have actually tried to win if it was two First Class tickets around the world.
• Link it to a relevant outcome e.g. a good story, a nice reward, a not for profit
• Link it to humour: know your community and your brand. Your community has value systems so does your Brand have a value system. “If I could save the world….” might get you a response better than “In my house…”. Condom companies could be playful and accepting of all responses: “if it’s not on it’s…..” Family supermarkets and banks less so.

Finish my sentence done well:

Last Words

You can’t run a competition on Facebook, on your wall, by asking fans to like your page. You just can’t. And yet, Today Tonight is running a competition where the first requirement is to “like” Today Tonight on Facebook.

Facebook Page Competition Guidelines T&Cs

I seem to be always telling random strangers on company Pages that they can’t run a competition to “like” them on Facebook or to “tag” a photo. They don’t believe me. I think they just think I’m being a smarty pants or something.  Here’s the proof:

Date of Last Revision: May 11, 2011

These Promotion Guidelines, along with the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, the Ad Guidelines, the Platform Policies and all other applicable Facebook policies, govern yourcommunication about or administration of any contest, competition, sweepstakes or other similar offering (each, a promotion) using Facebook.

If you use Facebook to communicate about or administer a promotion, you are responsible for the lawful operation of that promotion, including the official rules, offer terms and eligibility requirements (e.g., age and residency restrictions), and compliance with regulations governing the promotion and all prizes offered in connection with the promotion (e.g., registration and obtaining necessary regulatory approvals). Please note that compliance with these Guidelines does not constitute the lawfulness of a promotion. Promotions are subject to many regulations and if you are not certain that your promotion complies with applicable law, please consult with an expert.

1. Promotions on Facebook must be administered within Apps on Facebook.com, either on a Canvas Page or an app on a Page Tab.
2. Promotions on Facebook must include the following:
   a. A complete release of Facebook by each entrant or participant.
   b. Acknowledgment that the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.
   c. Disclosure that the participant is providing information to [disclose recipient(s) of information] and not to Facebook.
3. You must not use Facebook features or functionality as a promotion’s registration or entry mechanism. For example, the act of liking a Page or checking in to a Place cannot automatically register or enter a promotion participant. 
4. You must not condition registration or entry upon the user taking any action using any Facebook features or functionality other than liking a Page, checking in to a Place, or connecting to your app. For example, you must not condition registration or entry upon the user liking a Wall post, or commenting or uploading a photo on a Wall.
5. You must not use Facebook features or functionality, such as the Like button, as a voting mechanism for a promotion.
6. You must not notify winners through Facebook, such as through Facebook messages, chat, or posts on profiles (timelines) or Pages.
7. Ads may not imply a Facebook endorsement or partnership of any kind. Ads linking to Facebook branded content (including Pages, groups, events, or Connect sites) may make limited reference to “Facebook” in ad text for the purpose of (1) fulfilling your obligations under Section 2 and (2) clarifying the destination of the ad. All other ads and landing pages may not use our copyrights or trademarks (including Facebook, the Facebook and F Logos, FB, Face, Poke, Book, and Wall) or any confusingly similar marks, except as expressly permitted by our Brand Usage Guidelines or with our prior written permission
8. Definitions:
   a. By “administration” we mean the operation of any element of the promotion, such as collecting entries, conducting a drawing, judging entries, or notifying winners.
   b. By “communication” we mean promoting, advertising or referencing a promotion in any way on Facebook, e.g., in ads, on a Page, or in a Wall post.
   c. By “contest” or “competition” we mean a promotion that includes a prize of monetary value and a winner determined on the basis of skill (i.e., through judging based on specific criteria).
   d. By “sweepstakes” we mean a promotion that includes a prize of monetary value and a winner selected on the basis of chance.

They are the core principles. The rest are on the other guideline pages.

Today Tonight Competition

So my question? Does Today Tonight, Australian prime time TV viewing break Facebook’s rules on their Yahoo! 7 website?

First, “LIKE” Today Tonight on Facebook to enter…. hmmm.

I have often thought that just having all the details on the “hub” (branded site) and then tell the “spokes” (Facebook etc) of the competition was the best way to go but thought it was a bit sneaky. In this case, while the request to “like” Today Tonight is done off the Facebook page, there is no App Tab for the competition, no “complete release” and yes, Facebook clearly defines “administration”. Yet, again, the competition takes place on the TodayTonight website, not Facebook and the requirement to like the Facebook page takes place there, not on Facebook ads. What say you, O Blogosphere? Breaking T&Cs or not?