It’s been almost a year since I used Facebook pay-per-click ads to meet women … and received some fun media attention in the process.

As you may recall, I used Facebook’s demographic- and interest-based targeting to drive eligible bachelorettes to my Facebook page. Clicks cost about $.75. That’s 10 clicks for the price of a cocktail!

Creepy? Yes. Effective? Yes!

The project made a fun case study for DIY marketers seeking to stretch limited Facebook budgets. Here’s a presentation I gave on the topic last summer:

Facebook Campaign Overview

Facebook Ad Targeting and Bidding

Facebook Pages and Free Apps

Facebook Campaign Results

Click the image to watch ‘em all on YouTube.

I was recently interviewed by MarketingSherpa director of editorial content Daniel Burstein. The interview was in support of our whitepaper 10 Facebook Promotion Myths.

Click the pic to download our whitepaper on Facebook promotions.

Daniel Burstein: In reading Facebook’s guidelines, sweepstakes and contests seem like the biggest way to run afoul of Facebook, since there are some pretty strict limits. However, I see marketers violating these guidelines every day. How strict is Facebook at monitoring and punishing violators?

Matt Simpson: There are multiple examples of pages being shut down for violating the promotion guidelines. Scandinavian Airlines is a good one. Our Facebook rep says, “We have people constantly monitoring the site for promotion violations (…). If someone is caught, the page is taken down, and they are asked to reach out before we can re-enable to ensure they are clear on the issue.”

Obviously, it’d be impossible for Facebook to police every page. I tell social media marketers that shutdown is a risk, not a certainty. How open are you to losing your investment in the campaign? How open are you to seeing your page shut down? How open are you to telling fans that the rules of the contest or sweepstakes they entered just changed?

Of course, no one watches your page as closely as your boss and your competition. The latter observer has a vested interest in you following Facebook’s promotion guidelines … and in tattling when you don’t.

DB: How do you tell if you’ve been penalized by Facebook? What are the initial steps to getting your account reactivated? Do you lose all data and friends when it is deactivated?

MS: We’ve never seen a page shut down because we follow the rules! That said, I’ve had contacts verify our Facebook rep’s description that “If someone is caught, their page is taken down and they are asked to reach out before we can re-enable to ensure they are clear on the issue.” It’s my understanding that you don’t lose your data or fans. Your page is just invisible until you address the issue and earn reinstatement.

DB: What are three key steps every marketer can take to avoid getting penalized again (or in the first place)?

MS: Here are three questions to ask yourself before launching your promotion:

• Am I seeking virality? If the premise of your promotion is to go viral, it’s a huge red flag. That’s not to say that a creative concept and well-built technology won’t drive organic growth. But don’t expect to spam the news feed and get away with it.
• Am I using Facebook functionality? Be careful here! Do not ask fans to post, like or comment on content on your wall or photo albums. Do not use “like” buttons as a voting mechanism. You must run your promotion through a third-party application.
• Am I collecting contact information? At the end of your campaign, you’ll have to contact your winners to distribute prizes. Remember to collect their contact info in your promotion app, because you cannot contact them through Facebook.

DB: Given the need to follow Facebook’s terms and conditions, what factors should marketers weigh when deciding whether to hold a promotion on Facebook or not. For example, I see many print ads that used to send traffic to a brand website, instead sending traffic to the brand’s Facebook page to enter a sweepstakes or contest. Would they just be better off holding promotions on their own site? In the end, what value does a Facebook fan really have to a marketer?

MS: The concept of collecting fans with an iPad sweepstakes on Facebook is very 2010! It’s a snoozer. Plus, how many of those iPad fans stick around to engage with your brand after the sweepstakes ends?

As marketers, our objective should not be to build a Facebook promotion. It should be to create passionate bonds with consumers by delivering social and interactive engagements. Currently, Facebook offers the best platform for delivering that kind of engagement.

By social, I mean that the engagement should offer frictionless sharing and visibility into how my friends are engaging. By interactive, I mean it should be more than a contact form. For example, I should be able to submit content and browse, vote and comment on others’ content. Ideally, I’d also collect a marketing opt-in such as an email subscription or Facebook like.

Interactivity is easy to deliver on a website. However, no one delivers a personalized social experience like Facebook. Fortunately, the Facebook Graph API enables you to add Facebook-esque social elements to experiences – including contests and sweepstakes – on your website. We often see this referred to as “connecting with Facebook.”

The next frontier is to deliver social and interactive engagements on your Facebook page and on your website simultaneously, with or without Facebook Graph API.

Why force consumers to log in to Facebook.com or connect with Facebook on your website? These steps are barriers to engagement.

I ran into someone on Facebook the other day. Someone I hardly recognized. Someone from the past. That someone was Matt Simpson circa winter 2008.

Facebook recently unveiled its new layout for user profiles called Timeline. It’s pretty darn slick. The slickest feature is a menu of dates that lets users bounce quickly down the Timeline from recent posts to posts made in, say, winter 2008. Facebook’s algorithm initially sorts posts in a given year by importance until you drill down for a chronological view.

It's my new Facebook Profile! The menu on the right lets you quickly jump to dates in my past.

Now, a little back story. When I joined Facebook in winter 2008, I was not in a good place. Facebook reflects that. Some of my posts were angry jabs at the economy and Corporate America. Some were depressing lyrics from Pink Floyd, to whom I listened relentlessly as I tried to “figure things out”.

Of course, there was also joy. Facebook’s algorithm says my top story of 2008 was my engagement. The algorithm got it right. It was a special happening, despite its later dissolution.

When introducing Timeline, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, “Our job is to make this profile the best way to share everything you want and the best way to express who you are.”

Therein lies the rub with Timeline. It looks awesome and it’s super addicting. But it’s not a better expression of who I am.

The Matt Simpson of winter 2008 is not me. Heck, the Matt Simpson of last Sunday is not me. It’s where and when I was. It’s not who I am.

Reviewing one’s Timeline is like standing before the snow-capped peaks of Mt Rainier and admiring printouts of the map that got you there.

Zuckerberg described the old Facebook profile as a place where old posts “just fall off a cliff” after a week or so. What’s wrong with that? A list of short-lived posts is a much better expression of a person than random events of their distant past.

Old stuff falls off a cliff. That’s life.

Identification with distant milestones is living in the past. Not to say we should never look back and smile. Let’s just not get confused about who we are.

I’m not the guy who struggled through the winter of 2008. Nor am I the guy who excitedly held newborn nephews and nieces twice since 2008 or who overcame his fear to leave the stability of Corporate America in fall 2009.

A better expression of me is the guy who recently announced he was spending Friday night reading Moby Dick at a coffee shop, posted a photo of butternut squash sprouting in his fall garden, and expressed his gratitude to Bulbstorm’s tireless developers for launching another great product.

Wanna know where I was? Check my Facebook profile when Timeline goes live to everyone in the next week or so.

Wanna know who I am? Keep your eyes on my updates as they enter your news feed.

Or, poke me and we’ll get a coffee.

I know many will disagree with me. That’s ok! Do you think Facebook Timeline is a better expression of you? Let’s discuss in the comments.

Guest post by Bulbstorm jack-of-all-trades Grady Owen. Stalk, errr, follow him on Twitter at @gradyowen. He’s gonna be a lawyer, ladies!

Grady Owen says: "I'm not a player, I just crush a lot."

Admit it. You have a social media crush. Sure, some people call it Facebook stalking. Others judge you for your flirtatious tweets. But don’t let those haters get you down.

You, my friend, are a visionary. A man ahead of your time. Like the first caveman to wear a loincloth or the first dude to try yoga, you have found a unique way to pick up women.

Are social media crushes healthy? Absolutely! Just act more like Tom Hanks in You’ve Got Mail and less like Erika Christensen in Swimfan and you’ll be okay!

Here are five tips for turning your social media crush into something more…

1.       Manage Your Profile. Would you go to a dance club with bed hair, sweatpants, and a 1980s He-Man T-shirt? No! Then why would you have ‘em on your Facebook profile? Your profile is an extension of you and it’s important to remain presentable. Make sure to utilize the untag, delete, and privacy features. Also, avoid profanity and poor spelling.

2.       Drive Engagement. Your social media crush wants someone with a balanced and active social life. As a result, it’s probably not a good sign if you have fewer followers than the Washington Generals. Make sure to drive high levels of activity and engagement on your wall.  Who knows? You might even stir up some jealousy if other girls leave you comments!

3.       Be Selective with Check-Ins. Foursquare is a great location-based social networking tool, but don’t go crazy with check-ins! Only check-in at appropriate locations. Checking in daily at bars, strip clubs, and casinos is a deal breaker and will drive your social media crush away.

4.       Do Not Drink and Tweet. Consider this the golden rule. Alcohol and social media don’t mix! We’ve all seen it: The intoxicated man who is trigger happy with his cell phone. After a couple of beers, he feels he’s Hemmingway reincarnated, leaving what he assumes to be a lyrical ballad of tweets. The tweets are never as humorous or insightful the next morning.

5.       Meet In Person. Conversing over Facebook and Twitter will only take you so far. At some point, you will want to meet in person and see if you have real chemistry. Group functions are much less intimidating than meeting one-on-one. If the social media crush is hesitant to meet, it might not be meant to be. Time to find a new social media crush!

I know, I know. You’re skeptical. Can I really convert a social media crush into an IRL relationship? Of course! Just don’t get stuck in the Facebook poking rut, follow the five tips above, and don’t waste money looking for Ms. Right with Facebook ads.

Have you ever had a social media crush? If so, how did you close to the real thing?

Mashable had some fun with my Facebook advertisement.

It’s been a hectic few weeks since I first revealed that I was using Facebook ads to find a date.

So hectic, in fact, that the experiment is currently paused while I field media requests, enjoy my upcoming birthday, and, ya know, do my day job.

Honestly, I’ve been a bit overwhelmed by the interest from friends, industry contacts, and the media.

Media interest rolled in slowly, with Social Times syndicating the article and Valley PR Blog offering its take.

I realized that the campaign was of interest outside the marketing world when Fox 10 asked to interview me in front of the Love sculpture in Old Town Scottsdale. It seemed cheesy, but fun. The video of my interview with Kristin Anderson is below.

Media interest exploded after the lovely Jolie O’Dell covered the story for Mashable. That article led to over 2,000 tweets and over a dozen more blog posts. Some have called me brilliant. Some have called me desperate and sad. Maybe I’m somewhere in between?

Since the Mashable article, I’ve had interview requests from all over the world. Portugal’s top newspaper sent 360 visits to this website in two days. Crazy! Still no dates. But, as I like to say, with this product it’s going to be a long, complex sales cycle.

So, thank you to everyone who’s expressed interest in my story. I apologize to the many to whom I didn’t reply. And thank you to my Bulbstorm teammates who’ve been very supportive through the craziness.