Thanks to Toni George for prompting this question. She asked about how she can donate $1 for every new LIKER she gains over a certain period to a charity, without breaking the Facebook rules.
The idea behind donating $1 per person that LIKEs a page is that the page gets to increase the number of LIKERs, really by “buying them”. Some examples of pages that have done this are:
However, it is something to be wary of. Many businesses have been accused of using the situation to increase awareness for their business over benefiting the charity. In the Bing Lee incident there was backlash saying that they were bribing people into joining their page to raise money for the Queensland Flood victims and using the disaster as a PR stunt.
I know many people think that the more LIKERs they have, the more people they can market to, and the more people will buy.
But this is wrong.
You want people to LIKE your Facebook page because they are interested in what you are talking about, not because they get a free gift or $1 donated to charity.
I have fallen into the “get as many people on your page as possible” trap with Mocks, and yes it is awesome to have 16,000+ LIKERs, but do they all interact? No. Do they all buy? No.
Yes, I did achieve results with bribery, in that I doubled online sales, but it certainly wasn’t that an additional 16,000 people bought a Mock, it was a very small percentage of them – the ones who were actually interested in the product.
If you have people who love your product or service on your page they are the ones who will buy or refer their friends. The others won’t interact and may even hide your updates in their newsfeed.
I am not saying don’t offer to donate money, but be aware as to why you are doing it. Is it a marketing stunt? How will your page visitors see it? How do you want people to perceive your business?
Knowing your reason behind it will make it much easier to explain it to people. For me, when I bribed people with Mocks to join the page it was about increasing brand awareness, generating trials (by giving Mocks away) and creating something memorable that people would tell their friends.
Donating to charity isn’t a competition or sweepstake, so it does not violate Facebook’s rules. But I would advise that somewhere on the page you clearly explain how it works.
What do you think of donating money for each person who LIKEs your Facebook page? Good idea? Bad idea?
Lara Solomon is the founder of Mocks, mobile phone socks www.MyMocks.com, founder of Social Rabbit – your guide in the world of social media www.Facebook.com/SocialRabbit and author of ‘Brand New Day – the Highs & Lows of Starting a Small Business’. Lara’s business LaRoo was the winner of the NSW Telstra Micro-Business Award in 2008.
James was the editor and publisher of SmartCompany and LeadingCompany for five years. He is now the Australian Financial Review‘s companies & markets editor, and a former BRW editor.
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