Move on Facebook Like-Gate: Time to Engage, Not Incentivise

Just when you found the perfect incentive for your beloved fans, what does Facebook do? It plays social media big brother and puts up a giant road block to wipe out your slate.

Yes, we are talking about your forced break-up with the like-gate. Now that you can no longer incentivise fans, let's take a look at what goes in your favour in the apparently unimpressive deal!

Facebook plays disciplinarian for brands that bribe fans:

“You must not incentivise people to use social plug-ins or to like a Page. This includes offering rewards, or gating apps or app content based on whether or not a person has liked a Page. To ensure quality connections and help businesses reach the people who matter to them, we want people to like Pages because they want to connect and hear from the business, not because of artificial incentives.” — Facebook

As an online marketer how does this new development affect you?

The downside:

1. You are likely to shell out advertisement dollars to reach your fans2. You can no longer boast of a huge fan following piggybacking on Facebook's like-gate

Now here's the bright side:

1. You can still ask users to like your page2. You can run contests, just not make it mandatory to fulfil certain conditions to qualify3. Your fans will connect with your brand for your products, services and not simply to win random contests4. You can switch to form-gating instead5. You can craft quality posts that build genuine engagement6. You can opt for action-gating to generate better ROI

Facebook's new platform policy will be implemented from November 5, 2014. However, the like-gate demise can be that forced sabbatical which works wonders for your brand. In fact, life after like-gate is not as depressing and might just transform your social media standing.