Facebook Bans Like-Gating

Effective November 5, 2014, “like-gating” will be removed from Facebook applications. Like-gating is a method used by business pages to gain fans while running a promotion. With like-gating, users are required to “like” the page in order to enter the promotion. The removal of like-gating raises questions regarding the effectiveness of future promotions hosted on Facebook.

One of the main reasons for this change is Facebook’s goal to create quality connections to business Pages. Forcing a user to do something because a Page requires them to and not because they want to is a tactic Facebook is working to eliminate.

Like-gating has been possible due to the Facebook API that allows app developers to “read” Facebook’s information about the user and determine if the person is a fan of the Page. On November 5, Facebook will remove this ability from the API.

What does this mean for the future? It’s hard to determine how this will play out over time. For app developers, they will need to adjust the structure of the apps. For page administrators, promotions should not be viewed as the main way to drive fan growth. However, this doesn’t mean promotions should be ignored; they just need to be viewed differently.

To learn more about this recent Facebook change and how you can still run a successful Facebook promotion, contact us, at info@digitalbrandexpressions.com.