June 2011 Archives

 

This is a guest blog post written by Matt Adams, managing director of Go Optimisation

As the MD of a digital marketing agency, I consume a large amount of data from numerous sources. In the last two years, the rate of change in numerous areas has noticeably quickened. The uncertainty and excitement this has created has been followed by a series of very large valuations of loss-making companies like Skype, Groupon, Spotify & Twitter (some commentators suggest this is the sign of another bubble).

With this background, I thought this guest blog would be a great place to provide a 'crib sheet' (of sorts) for senior decision makers in travel that highlights the latest trends and behaviours, with some insights that should help assist in better decision making.
 
Macro Trends

Online purchasing is very strong in the UK

In preparation for the first "Digital Agenda Assembly" in Brussels on June 16th 2011, the European Commission has launched a series of free to access measurements of internet usage across EU member states.

Although the EU data is limited to just a few data points, it confirms that the UK consistently out-performs the EU averages in almost every category and is second only to Norway for 'ordering goods and services online' at 67.5% of the population. Meanwhile, comScore  measured this at 89% in Jan 2011 (up 6.3% on Jan 2010).

Use of the internet is ever-increasing

Ofcom suggest that broadband penetration has now reached 75%.

The internet experience is quicker for more people

The EC data and Ofcom research suggest that UK broadband speeds continue to improve (the Ofcom research isn't entirely clear about 'real gains' because of changes in measurement).

Mobile computing continues to rise

Smartphone uptake and mobile internet usage in the UK is the highest in the world, outside of Japan.

Uncertain Economic Times - economic growth, jobs, exchange rates & interest rates

The IMF predicts slow economic growth and unstable commodity prices. Record highs in oil prices suggest the cost of air travel could increase further. Although the value of the pound would strengthen slightly should interest rates increase in the next 24 months, its beneficial impact on the cost of travel could be dampened by mortgage rate payment increases that could unsettle consumer commitments to large purchasing decisions (like travel).
 
Given the point above it's clear that the economic factors are likely to outweigh the technical factors in determining the overall performance of the travel market, but the pace of technical change is opening up greater opportunities to increase travel companies channel and frequency of interactions with their customers and potential customers. 
 
Micro Trends

Free tools for socialising, communication and expression

Sites like Friends Reunited, IM & Myspace have been pummelled by the success of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Trends in mobile computing, cloud computing, crowd-sourcing & open-sourcing have allowed sites like these to grow in to global phenomena. These social websites are essentially platforms for sharing user generated content and free communication tools (very compelling in these economic times).

More inactivity online

Users are seeking-out more information, finding better value services/products before making a decision. This explains the increased popularity of coupon websites, increasing number of searches and increased number of keywords used in search terms. A Nielson/Google study released late last year provides a comprehensive guide to these changes in behaviours and complex purchasing paths of consumers when purchasing travel products online 

Multiple devices

A comScore blog from earlier this year outlines numerous changes in the smartphone market through 2010. However, the astonishing rate of uptake of the Android devices (29% market share) hides the importance (in terms of usage) of devices on the Apple operating system.
 
The implications: the rise of information 'gathers' and value 'hunters'

The underlying economic uncertainties in the UK and technological advancements mean that consumers are reshaping how they spend their time online. They utilise free tools for communication (socialising & expression) and spend more time on researching important purchasing decisions (on multiple devices).

Overall, this suggests decreasing conversion rates (per website visit) and increasingly intricate online behaviours (per visitor) with numerous 'touch points' which open-up multiple opportunities for advertising and communications.

Mobile software and the cloud

Cloud hosting solutions have come of age and provide all sizes of companies with flexible, cost efficient solutions that help during their peak times of year, so festival & sporting ticketing websites now have no excuses for downtime. 

However, what cloud computing really enables individuals to do is to move almost seamlessly between their multiple devices and share even more information (again services like Google Docs, iCloud & SkyDrive are all free).

It looks as though emails, texts, posts, apps, social media, photos, documents, music & movie collections and bookmarks will all be accessible (to varying degrees). 

Search engines & browsers

The latest versions of Chrome, Safari, IE & FireFox all have elements that comply with the latest set of web standards (html5), but where their development is changing searching habits is with their usability. Chrome and IE9 have just one field for searching and URL entry (where traditionally they have been split). This means it's quicker than ever to search by brand rather than enter the full URL. But there's other functionality like Google Instant, Google Local, Bing, Facebook, Twitter.

Marketing opportunities

Localisation, personalisation and social media platforms

Attribution modelling

With these multiple devices measurement advertising opportunities are abound but also opens-up increasing levels of complexity for those people trying to attribute value to particular marketing channels. Attribution modelling tools and the Google/Nielson report help explain some of the complexity of behaviours and its value but don't fully explain the value of marketing channels.

However, if your company has with large volumes of travel products purchased offline, extrapolating your online sales to offline sales will ultimately limit opportunities for your company.

 

This is a guest blog post written by Nikolai Avrutov, Vision Verbalizer at www.Carsolize.com. In this post, Avrutov talks about the future of XML mapping.

When grappling with the array of different travel technologies, a single question repeatedly gets asked:

How can a travel agency effectively handle multiple suppliers on one hand, and multiple sales channels on the other?
The XML technology provided wholesalers and other content suppliers with the opportunity to provide travel agencies with rapid connection to their data. However, the fact the travel agencies need to access at least 3-5 content providers, the high cost of integration, and lack of quality standard - all pose a tremendous connectivity challenge.
Suppose you have 5 hotel wholesalers integrated. Simply aggregating those results in content duplication - and no one likes to scroll through a whole page, offering the same hotel - 5 different times, with 5 different descriptions, 5 different images, etc'. How can one effectively compare and analyze this information? What to do with content duplication?
Content Mapping - affordable, deliverable.
Content mapping refers to cross referencing of various parameters (geo location, listed address, phone number, and several other identifiers), and merging of them into a single, semi-automatically updating data base. Mapped content allows for advanced comparison, and control. Passing through a unifying tool, it is quite simple to translate various aspects of the information to any language needed, and most importantly - to be able to control product mark up down to a single property - across multiple suppliers.
XML aggregation and Mapping is an absolutely essential aspect of effective travel software. The proposed time and costs savings, enhanced mark up control, and above all the ability to distribute value added content across multiple sales channels (be it online or offline) - this is how technology can empower small and midsize travel agency to go online, and compete by providing unique, customized, and outstanding product to their customers.
XML Mapping - the new travel technology standard
While complex to establish, the benefits of XML mapping are quite clear. It is a matter of time until this becomes an industry standard, something travel agencies will come to expect of their technology. Ultimately, this bears the promise of better offering to us - the travelers, in a shape of better travel websites, and the ability to find exactly what you are looking for - be it a dream vacation, or simply a cost effective flight.

 

 

This is a guest blog written by Daniel Stephenson, Senior Director of Category Development at Specific Media. In this article he talks about the online visibility.

Despite concerns about the economic climate leading to a decline in holiday bookings for destinations outside of the UK, early indications show that the market is faring well. Inflation, VAT and job worries may have all increased this year, but so has the number of people booking holidays online. A recent IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index clearly indicated that the travel industry is doing its best trade online, with the sector seeing a 31% year on year increase in January of this year.

Wherever holiday makers choose to go, the Internet is now their first port of call for both researching and booking travel. The evolution of the Internet from useful resource to vital, mainstream tool has led to a migration from the high street to online, with everything from weekly food shops to wedding gifts being purchased online every day.

A recent study by TGI confirms that consumer habits are no different within the travel industry, with the Internet now the most popular research tool for consumers. This poses a challenge for traditional travel agents, once the only authority on holiday bookings, as they are now forced to compete with the limitless knowledge and instant access to information provided by the world-wide web. With face-to-face consumer interaction diminishing, savvy travel agents and tour operators must ensure that their online offering is as informative, engaging and accessible as possible.

The difficulty comes in making your offering stand out from the competition. How can agents catch the attention of consumers as they scour the web in search of their next getaway? With people now looking across many sites for the best deal, rather than selecting one agent to do business with, the stakes are high. Visibility is key to ensuring that your brand maintains and grows its market share, but to attract the attention of digital consumers, you must first be able to identify those most likely to be interested in your offering.

Understanding consumer interests is vital. For some holiday makers, the purchase cycle is a very simple one. But for many more, the process of deciding to book a holiday, investigating and researching, comparing prices and finally making a booking can be a long and drawn out process. This is why smart travel marketers are turning to audience addressable advertising to communicate with those showing interest in travel-related content.

Once viewed as a mysterious 'black box' technology, audience addressable advertising is the equivalent of looking at the travel stickers on a holiday maker's suitcase and using the information to deduce their travel preferences. If you saw a bag on a luggage carousel covered in stickers from Rome, Florence and Venice, it would be reasonable to assume the owner may likely be interested in a European city break. In reality, the techniques and analysis are more sophisticated than that, in Specific Media's case, utilising proprietary targeting technologies developed over more than a decade to determine what products and services a consumer is most likely to be interested in. However, the principle, based on wholly anonymous information about a user's browsing habits, remains the same - understanding and targeting users based on their interests helps grow businesses.

At Specific Media, we use this approach to not only identify users already showing interest in a brand, but also to seek out potential customers for brands that they didn't know were there, targeting these users throughout the purchase funnel to drive brand awareness and ultimately sales.

Waiting until a user is on a travel website before advertising them a holiday package is tantamount to trying to sell a plane ticket in the airport departure lounge. Instead, Specific Media looks further up the purchase funnel, analysing online media consumption for clues relating to user intent. If for example, a user is looking at swimwear, visiting travel review sites and checking weather forecasts for foreign destinations, these are often indicators that they may be in-market for a holiday. By spotting users early and serving them relevant adverts while still in the early stages of the decision making process, Specific Media is able to help savvy travel marketers put themselves front of potential customers.

TripAdvisor's recent Travel Trends Survey indicated that 66% of Britons were planning to take a long haul trip this year. The aforementioned TGI study suggests that nearly half of these people will be looking online to inform their decision. By making effective use of audience addressable advertising, marketers can make sure they connect with the most relevant online consumers, at the optimum points along their path to purchase.

 

 

This is a guest blog post by Geoff Galat, vice president of word wide marketing for Tealeaf. In this post, Geoff talks about allocation of marketing spending.

Travel companies need to know their marketing budgets are delivering return on investment but the fact is that, while few will admit it, they are often investing in the wrong place.

This is because many travel marketers are stuck using the 92:1 ratio, which illustrates the fact that for every £92 businesses spend driving traffic, they only spend £1 converting it.

There are clear reasons why there is such a gap between the £92 we spend driving traffic and the measly £1 allocated for conversion:

1. Stuck in a traditional offline marketing model

In the past, it made sense for travel companies to put the majority of their budget into expensive advertising campaigns. The more people that got to the top of the funnel, the more that made their way to the bottom and converted. We didn't have the measurability and visibility we have online today and so pushing all our money into the top of the funnel was the most sensible course of action. That's simply not the case in an era of online marketing, where measurability is at the heart of all that we do.

2. Ineffective targeting

The internet allows marketers to target campaigns much more effectively than offline campaigns. Reaching the people that are more likely to want to book their holiday with you, whether through behavioural targeting, SEO or even email is far easier and allows marketing budgets to work harder, bringing down cost per conversion (CPC).

3. A lack of customer experience analysis

It isn't as simple as making marketing spend work harder, it is about realising that investing in online customer experience is another vital way to improve CPC metrics.

4. Inability to identifying online customer struggle

The first way to make meaningful improvements to the experience visitors have when they come to your website is by understanding where they are struggling and the steps that need to be taken to eliminate these problematic areas.

There are many travel companies out there, of course, that spend the £92 driving traffic to their websites wisely. These companies genuinely attract customers that are well targeted and have a clear intention to book a holiday. But, because they struggle on the final checkout page, they drop-off.

By only spending £1 to drive conversions, the £92 investment is effectively wasted. Multiply that by the thousands of would-be holiday makers who log onto your website each day and struggle, it becomes a major problem.

Investing in customer experience

I've sat in meetings with CEOs of major travel organisations where they've been shown replays of actual page-by-page experiences their customers have had on their website. It is amazing how quickly they open the cheque book when they can see the daily struggles their customers are having on their website and the number of visitors that are dropping off, probably to a competitor.

Research we conducted with Econsultancy recently found that, of the UK companies surveyed, on average they said they were losing the equivalent of 24% of their annual revenue due to poor customer experiences alone. This equates to £14 billion in lost revenues each year. Calculating the impact of poor online customer experiences in terms of lost revenue will also speak very clearly to a CEO allowing you to make a very comprehensive case for further investment.

So, next time you start to plan your online marketing campaigns remember 92:1. Invest a bit more in truly understanding the experience of your customers when they hit your website. And identify the steps you need take to optimise your site and enjoy the very real revenue benefits that await.

The goal of an online marketer these days isn't just about driving traffic, it's about driving traffic that converts. And to give your traffic the best chance of converting, you need to invest at all stages of the customer journey.

Now why not go ask your marketing department if they can tell you what 92:1 is?

This is the Social Media Channel from Anthony Rawlins, managing director of Travolution's social media partner Digital Visitor.

Lately many reports have surfaced highlighting the importance of social media when it comes to the future of search engine optimisation (SEO).

Recently Bing in the USA confirmed that they will integrate social information from Facebook in their search results. This could mean that if you search for a hotel in New York; the results that appear will be prioritised according to the opinions of people in your personal Facebook network.  So if one of your friends had posted about how they were staying at Hotel123 on Madison Square, this post would appear at the top of your search results, making it more specific and personal to you. To take advantage of this new tool, you will need to be logged into Facebook before you search. 

Google made a similar move also earlier this year, firstly challenging the Facebook 'Like' button with the introduction of their '+1' button.  Now they've made a move that directly challenges Bing, by using results from Twitter, Flickr and other social networks to help users make decisions on content based around the recommendations of their friends.

Essentially, this means that in addition to crawling traditional content of a company's website and blogs for relevant keywords, search engines will now also pull results from social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

A recent  report by L2 Think Tank, the Digital IQ Index for travel, highlighted the sheer importance of social media for the travel industry specifically, finding that social media is a significant source of traffic for 78% of travel websites.

So we decided to look at the social media presence of 100 top travel companies in Google.

This is what we found:

 Conclusions

• The best ranking social media site in Google for the travel industry is Wikipedia. 
• Of the travel companies we researched that had a Wiki page, 70% appeared on page 1 (average position of 10).
• The Facebook page of companies appeared on average at position 17, closely followed by Twitter with average position of 18 and YouTube with average of 20 (however it had a higher overall number of appearances).

So what five things should your organisation do to enhance your social media rankings?

1) Have an active social media presence

Adding content to your social media channel is what drives it. It can't be left unattended for too long and the more engaging and useful content you add, the greater the ranking and interactivity with your fans. This does not mean adding every bit of news you can think of such as the fact that you now have hand driers installed in the bathroom facilities in your head office - you need to be selective. However, it does mean try and post something useful at least once a day.

The bigger you are - the more active you need to be.

In addition, we found that generally, the larger your company, the more you have to work to elevate your social media presence.

This is because more often than not, larger companies have more online articles about them which must be overtaken by your social media presence. Some of the other sites that will appear for your company name may be very well established such as national newspapers etc...

2) Share your content out via your social media channels

Shares, tweets and likes are being factored in by search engines as a way to determine the degree of importance for that bit of content.

3) Include links to your social media profiles on your marketing material

Ok so you have your Facebook page and you are posting all your important marketing on it BUT if you don't have any engaged followers, then who is going to promote your content via shares and re-tweets? Make sure you include links to your company Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn or various pages of your website.

Include sharing tools on your website as well, so your online visitors can share any content they find interesting with their friends.

4)  Think about timing when publishing content on social media

A recent study found that companies that post content on their Facebook pages outside normal business hours see engagement rates that are 20% higher than average.

5) Make it short

The aforementioned study also found shorter is better.  Posts with 80 characters or less have a 27% higher engagement rate. Certain words also encourage engagement, particularly instructions such as "like," "post," "take" and "comment," as does asking a question at the end of a post.

Social media and its influence on search is only going to get greater, and the opportunities that it will bring to your marketing seem limitless.  Now is the time to ensure that your company has a long-term social media marketing strategy and is building a great search engine presence through these channels.

To find out more about what Digital Visitor does, visit www.digitalvisitor.com or contact Anthony on Twitter (@antrawlins). You can also find him on LinkedIn.

The brains behind a revamped Travel.co.uk website has claimed it will revolutionise how people search for travel product online.

Simon Powell, co-founder and former chief executive of Comtec, came into the Travolution offices last week to reveal his vision for a site described as "what the next generation of online businesses will look like".

Powell has owned the domain name for over a decade but admitted it had never been properly exploited.

The website, combining bespoke technology and ideas from other sectors such as mobile-phone retailing, will emerge gradually over the next year having initially relaunched offering cruise and luxury holidays.

Customers will be presented with a simple single field Google-style search box that will return "intelligent" results based on their request, generated by new intuitive, algorithm-based technology.

Powell said the technology would seek to mould the best attributes of the successful
travel search models prevalent in Europe's two biggest markets, Germany and the UK. 

"The German travel market has always been about attribution and catalogue-based searching, while in the UK mainstream it has focused on price and availability.It is how you mix those two together that's the secret," said Powell.

"Not a lot of people are able to mix both mainstream and specialist product. The domain name, invested in correctly, is going to be a great brand."

Publicity for the website claims the display of search results that mix price and multiple search criteria will be a key selling point and "will allow the bias of certain products via layout positioning".

"The objective of bringing together key information, data and content into a single screen is to simplify the experience and move the customer to a potential booking position in the shortest possible timeframe," it states.

Travel.co.uk will include social media content, user-generated reviews and feedback to refine results. It will use modern technologies to present them in more user-friendly ways than lists.

"The success will revolve around the community," said Powell. "We see it as a good information site as well as a booking site."

This will allow Travel.co.uk to develop an Amazon-style suggestive selling technique displaying what like-minded customers have bought.

With video and other rich content fully integrated into search results the website will be ready to exploit the next generation of web-enabled televisions.

Powell said the other key differentiator over rivals would be its human touch - customer relationship management delivered by highly trained travel PAs assigned personally to customers.

 

A call centre in Travel.co.uk's Cwmbran office has capacity for 30, and homeworkers will also be recruited.

"We want to be different. The PA is there to service that client; they may not sell the holiday. The concept is ownership of the client for the lifetime of that booking - one point of contact for anything to do with that booking."

Pages will also look to inspire customers into booking certain types of holidays through  imagery showing the types of activities they might get up to, like kayaking, ice-climbing, heli-skiing and sailing.

The website has also agreed commercial relationships with specialist operators who have been lined up to handle queries applicable to them.

Unique phone numbers will direct calls to them and their consultants will answer the phone as Travel.co.uk.

Powell said he accepts the website cannot be expert at doing everything and so was looking for forge partnerships in areas and with third parties that add value to the offering. 

Agreements have also been struck with charities enabling customers to nominate a charity to receive a donation when they book.

A reciprocal agreement will see the charities benefit when they refer customers from their websites.

 

This is a guest blog post written by Steve Richards, MD of Yomego. In it, he compares the social media campaigns of Virgin Atlantic and British Airways.

Recent research by US software and services company, MarketTools, has revealed that 10 per cent of respondents had used social media platforms to complain about an airline that they had flown with, but that only 24 per cent of those complaining received a direct response from the airline concerned.

It's important for brands to realise that customers will be doing more that searching for them online. It's not enough to advertise and market to the online audience anymore, brands must provide customer service on all the major social platforms, as well as provide an engaging environment where customers can come together and have conversations with and about the brand.

One of the things we do at Yomego is to chart the impact of social media on the reputation of brands. By analysing 'reach'(how many people are talking about a brand online) and 'satisfaction' we produce an overall social media reputation (SMR) score out of 100. (To put this into context, brands such as Apple and Google, who either have strong social media presences or committed brand advocates on social media sites, have SMR scores well into the 90s.)

We looked at two major rival airlines, BA and Virgin Atlantic, to see how they are faring in social media.

Our analysis of BA's social media activity revealed that the brand had a total SMR score of 50.47, and that while 'reach' was a relatively high 66.69, 'satisfaction' was a poor 35.73. BA has a Facebook page with almost 60,000 likes, but the page sat unused until April 2011 and the about section states that BA doesn't deal with customer service issues on the Facebook page, referring people to the company website instead.

However, BA does deal with customer service issues on the brand's Twitter accounts, as well as offering deals and publishing marketing messages. The UK account @British_Airways currently has over 80,000 followers and the American account (@BritishAirways) has 126,000 followers.

With a growing following on Facebook it's been clear that there has been a strong demand for BA to actively engage with its Facebook fans for some time. It has now started to do this by opening up the wall for fan comments and by responding to them - basically using Facebook as the platform for conversation it is meant to be rather than a pure marketing tool.

BA could take a leaf out of Virgin's customer service book and appoint named customer service representatives to handle customer queries on Facebook. If a customer decides to complain over a specific platform, especially one where the brand has a clear presence, they expect to have their issue dealt with by someone there - not to be told to go somewhere else.

At the moment, BA has a very low social media satisfaction score, but this should start to improve now that the strike issue has been resolved and the price fixing scandal has been settled.

Virgin Atlantic is a couple of steps behind BA as far as its overall SMR score is concerned, achieving a total of 48.57. But - importantly - whereas BA had a high reach and a low 'satisfaction' score, Virgin Atlantic had a low 'reach' at just 32.37 and a high satisfaction figure of 63.32.

Unlike British Airways, the Virgin Atlantic Facebook page sends fans straight to the wall, putting conversation centre stage. However, the brand could engage more with its 81,000 fans. It does post messages to its wall to create discussion, but it doesn't interact regularly with the subsequent conversation in the comments, which can result in an upbeat post by the brand with a stream of negative comments by fans underneath. This changes when there is a customer service or travel issue reported.

Virgin has its own travel social network, V Travelled, which is a great community platform, although has a relatively low engagement rate. Virgin Atlantic also has a YouTube Channel, but no new content has been added in 2011 and this is a missed trick. The Twitter account, @virginatlantic, has just over 38,000 followers and is used to address customer service issues and answer questions.

Virgin Atlantic clearly 'gets' social media, and is doing some good basic work in managing its reputation over social media (though there is clear scope to increase the level of engagement). BA is the more talked-about brand, but its issues have clearly impacted its reputation, reflected by its low satisfaction score. However, it has a read-made audience there if and when it decides to do more to improve its social media reputation.

 This is the Social Media Channel from Anthony Rawlins, managing director of Travolution's social media partner Digital Visitor.

Since it was launched, Facebook has changed a lot of functionality and the rules behind how businesses interact with many of their features.

Fans are now 'Likes', Polls are now Questions, and Competitions are now.... Well they're no longer allowed through Facebook alone.

This can and has caused confusion with many who promote their business, products and services through this channel and recently, Facebook have made it even more difficult for organisations to run a competition.

For any brand large or small trying to engage with new audiences via social media, competitions can be great. They allow you to shout about your products and services in a much less 'salesy' fashion. Competitions can bring fresh new fans, ready to be exposed to your products and services, and they can equally encourage loyalty and build brand equity with your existing customer base.

But before you put your competition into gear, stop and think.

Are you running your Facebook competition legally?

Here's a rundown of the main obstacles you can face when running a competition on Facebook and here is a link to Facebook's official guidelines...

Rule 1: You can not run your competition on Facebook alone

Previously, you could use Facebook in many ways to run competitions. This was a highly cost effective if not FREE way of running a competition however as this channel of promotion has become more and more popular Facebook have changed their rules.

Now you'll need to create your own competitions solution or license a third party application. This will need to be integrated into your Facebook page via an iFrame (i.e. it must be hosted elsewhere) and not on Facebook.

To integrate a third party competition application within your own Facebook page via an iFrame isn't expensive and most people with a bit of IT savvy could do this. However, creating a decent competitions application in-house is difficult, so we don't suggest building one yourself unless you are a large enough organisation that would incur heavy costs using a third party application.

For those of you who aren't interested in creating your own, why not choose from some existing third party applications? There are quite a few available, each offering a similar service at a similar cost. 

Here is a brief overview of three popular applications:

Wildfire offer a variety of contest applications, from simple data capture to user generated content (UGC) contests. Prices range from $32 for a 1 month basic campaign, up to large white label campaigns that must be negotiated with Wildfire on a case by case basis.

OfferPop provide several contest options, from simple sign-ups to photo contests (no video contests yet, though). Their price structure is based around the number of Facebook 'Likes' the Page has at the start of each time period. Pages with 2,500 or less 'Likes' will pay $50 a month, whereas larger businesses with 100,000 'Likes' will pay $2,000. Massive Pages (1 million + Likes) must negotiate directly with OfferPop.

NorthSocial offer a variety of applications to enhance your Facebook Page but their options for competitions are limited to a simple 'signup' sweepstakes application. Their pricing plans are monthly. You can use any of their applications, but you are limited by 'Like' counts. The more 'Likes' a Page has, the higher the monthly charge.

Rule 2: Your users can't enter your competition using Facebook

Well, not exactly. We did find the rules a little hazy on this matter and quite confusing.

One of the Facebook guidelines states that users may only 'like' a page, 'check-in' to a place or connect with your competitions application to enter or register for the competition.

Other Facebook actions such as commenting or 'liking' on a wall post, uploading a photo on a wall and so on - are NOT allowed to be used as part of your users entry or registration process for your competition.

Confusingly, in the Facebook guidelines, the Preceding rule mentioned that 'liking' a page and 'checking-in' to a place CANNOT be used to automatically enter or register for the competition.

This leads me to believe that you can 'like' a page and 'check-in' to a place as PART of the entry or registration process but this can not be the only action the user takes to enter your competition.  There must be another entry requirement such as the entrant providing their email address to you.

So, to allow the visitors to enter your competition, I propose the simplest way is to use a third party application to install a competitions tab on your Facebook Page. You can then specify in your rules that users must 'Like' a Page AND enter their details on your competitions tab.

o the best of my knowledge, this keeps everything above board and gets you that all-important data capture too. Please of course feel free to translate this rule yourselves. Facebook's official guidelines...

 

Rule 3: You can't contact your winners through Facebook.

This is simple enough but it does reduce the exposure that your competition winners receive on Facebook.

You cannot use Facebook messages, Facebook chat or make posts on profiles or pages to notify the winner they have won.

Now presumably this is so businesses don't tell the entrants that they have to visit their Facebook page every day to see who the winner is, however it does take some of the sparkle away from running the competition on Facebook as you can't shout about your winners as effectively.

This rule also means that if your competition entry is via 'liking' a page or 'checking-in' to a place - you will also need to make sure the entrant provides their contacts details so you can let them know if they have won. (This fits in nicely with the above rule).

Using a third party application, this should provide the functionality to contact your winners through it's own data capture system. If you are building your own competitions application - I know its obvious but make sure you do provide some kind of appropriate data capture to be able to contact winners yourselves.

To win back some exposure through the winners of your competition, in any communication with the winner it's always advisable to remind them to come back to your Facebook page and share their experiences so they can do a little shouting for you - they should, after all, be very happy.

Rule 4: Get a disclaimer, and make sure your competition is legal.

It's important to have the legal aspects covered off when running a competition on Facebook. Trust me, Facebook have themselves covered so make sure your organisation is too.

Facebook allows you to run your competition on their site through an application, however they require that you indemnify them from any legal issues and that you take responsibility for all legal aspects of the promotion. You'll also need to specify that users are sending their data to you and not Facebook and basically that Facebook has nothing to do your competition.

As well as your own legally upstanding rules and regulations for the competition - you will need a disclaimer.

An example of the content of such a disclaimer is below, however your third party application provider should supply these to you. If you are creating your own, please seek independent legal advice for accurate, up-to-date information and it is important to keep up to date with the rules on Facebook itself as these do change regularly:

This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. You understand that you are providing your information to (Company name) and not to Facebook. This information will only be used to send subscribers updates from the (Company Name).

Clearly this is a skeleton to a wider piece of legal copy but it's a start.

Is there an alternative?

There's always an alternative. In this article so far we have looked at how you can run competitions ON-CHANNEL i.e. on social media channels and namely, the most popular social media channel - Facebook.

However one way of avoiding these kinds of rules and regulations is by running competitions ONSITE i.e. on your own website and communicating this through Facebook and other social media channels using plugins such as Facebook Connect.

Using an ONSITE social media solution such as those offered by www.digitalvisitor.com, www.offexploring.com and www.freshnetworks.com, you can communicate the competition through your social media channels but direct the entrants back to your own website. Using Facebook Connect (which most decent onsite social media solutions have), you can take advantage of the viral nature of Facebook to increase this exposure. 

Running your competition on your own website can be good for a number of reasons but here are a few to begin with:

1) Lower cost

The investment into an onsite competitions application can be a one-off spend whereas using a Facebook application, each and every competition can have a cost.

2) It's easier to re-use the content

If you are running a competition to gather videos or photos, it's easier to re-use this content on the pages of your website or in other marketing materials. Using Facebook, content needs to be downloaded and the quality will suffer, plus you are duplicating effort in doing this.

3) Traffic

You are driving new traffic to your own website and could capture more personal data from every entree - potentially an easier ROI to sell to your board than Facebook 'Likes'.

4) Brand awareness and loyalty

Maintaining traffic on your own website drives your all-important brand awareness.

There are more benefits to running a competition on your own site however, there is one main drawback.

The fundamental reason many people run competitions on Facebook is the opportunity to interact with a huge audience and the viral nature of content on Facebook i.e. your competition entry appearing on your friends wall, which then encourages them to enter and so on....

Using a Facebook competition application, the viral effect is a slightly easier process than using an onsite social media solution. Why? Because the entrant is already on Facebook, therefore for their entry to be communicated across Facebook is slightly easier than if they had to login in to Facebook via Facebook Connect on your own website.

This can translate into a wider viral spread of your competition when using a Facebook competition application rather than your own onsite competition solution.

Conclusions and take homes
 
 - There are rules and regulations that need to be adhered to when running a Facebook competition and these have changed considerably over the last few years. Make sure you are up-to-date with these changes and this article will probably be outdated in 6 months time, (written June 2011), as the rules change again so please do keep your eyes peeled.

 - It is in breach of Facebook rules to run your competition on Facebook alone - therefore you must use a dedicated application and invariably you will need to pay for this.

 - If you are paying to run the competition it may be worth using this spend on your own website and exploring an onsite competitions solution with social media plugins for a clearer ROI.

 - With a good prize, and good application your Facebook competition can be successful. But, if you're a small brand who can't afford this type of expense, you may need to reconsider whether a Facebook competition is right for you.

 - Onsite competitions are a clearer way of demonstrating a ROI as each entrant could provide you with more personal data and they would have visited your website. You can take advantage of some of the viral capabilities of Facebook with an onsite solution, however these are slicker when using a Facebook application and running the competition within Facebook itself.

 - Whichever way you choose to run your competition, this needs to be supported by your own marketing. Communication through Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, your email database, blogs and competition websites,  your own website and more, to give the greatest  chance of success.

 - Finally - Competitions are one of the very best ways of capturing new audiences. Why not trial both types of competition, Onsite and On-channel - to see which gives you the best results and a better ROI?