Eeep! It’s 9:30 at night on Sunday
and I only just remembered I have a
blog to write! Okay, so the big question is, what do I write about? Good
question. Let’s see, what did I do this week?
Surprisingly enough, it actually has been a pretty busy week for me. The
reason I say this is surprising is because I'm a bit of an introvert (which is
something of an understatement) and, as a result, my brain usually shuts down
entirely right after a show, making me rather useless for about a week. Luckily
it wasn't nearly as bad as usual this time around; I recovered in two days and,
even on those two days, I wasn't as comatose as usual. I'm hoping this means I'm getting used to these things so we’ll be able to go them more frequently in the
future.
Among the many things that I
surprised myself by accomplishing this week, the most eventful would be my
first Facebook giveaway. In fact, it’s still going on right now! Though, it hasn't gone anywhere near the way I planned.
You see, the whole point of a
Facebook giveaway is publicity – it’s a great way to draw extra attention to
your page. So, what I had planned was to have people enter the draw by sharing
a picture of the rainbow chainmaille dragon I was giving away. In addition, the
more shares the picture got, the more dragons I was going to give away. Seems
like a good scheme, right? Except it’s illegal.
That’s right – every time someone
runs some sort of free giveaway on Facebook and asks you to “Like” or “Share” something
to enter – or use any other Facebook feature – they are risking having Facebook
delete their page. Plus Facebook could sue them. Oh, and on top of that, it
turns out that if you want to run any sort of free giveaway on Facebook, you
need to use a third party application.
This whole system achieves two
things – one, it protects Facebook from any sort of liability (something I
completely understand and have no problem with) and two, it makes it far more
difficult for page owners to encourage their followers to share their pictures
and posts, which means it’s far more difficult to get any publicity without
paying Facebook for it. The whole point in a lot of these smaller pages using
Facebook in the first place is to get free publicity – we can’t afford to pay
for advertising, otherwise we’d be doing it! It was extremely frustrating.
So, my plans were completely shot
down until about half an hour before my usual posting time when my brain
finally discovered a way to circumnavigate the rules. I found a free
application to run the draw for me and set up a picture that, for half a week
before the draw opened for entries, people could share, with more shares
meaning more dragons being given away in the draw. That way I got my free
publicity, my followers got to increase the number of dragons in the pot and I didn't break any laws.
I like it when bad situations work
out well in the end. Incidentally, the draw opens today, so if you want to
enter, hop over to Facebook and find the Ringcrafts page...
The funniest thing about all of this
is that, with my original plan, I was going to pay Facebook to boost the post
promoting the draw. With this new method though? I didn't see the point. It
turns out that trying to squeeze the little guy for all he’s got only gets the
little guy to find more ways to go without feeding the big guy. I wonder how
much money Facebook could make if they helped us little guys get big enough
that we could afford to pay them.
If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.
If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.
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