Tearing down the Facebook like gate

Facebook is making another change, but this one isn’t so bad. In fact, this Facebook change is rather thoughtful. Facebook is removing the like gate on contests and plugins to make sure that page likes are more meaningful.

The Facebook developers explained the removal, “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.”

What is a like gate?

Whether or not you know the term, you have probably seen a like gate before. A like gate prevents users from entering a page’s contest or using a plugin unless the user likes the page first.

What does this mean for marketers?

This is a good change. Forcing people to like your page is counterproductive. Many of the likes gained from like gates had no value because people were interested in a prize, not your page. A lack of interest translates to a lack of engagement. Likes mean nothing without engagement. In fact, your engagement stats will fall if you get new likes, but no new engaged followers.

Jim Belosic, CEO of Facebook contest developer ShortStack, shared a new trend he has been seeing marketers using to replace like gates:

Instead of like-gating, we started to see people doing what we’re calling action-gating. “Hey, if you want to enter my contest or promotion, sign up for our newsletter or give us your email address or give us some feedback on this new product.” They would actually still get likes, but the likes weren’t forced. They were getting actionable and valuable feedback.

Facebook like gates are officially banned starting November 5, 2014. Make sure to check all your contests and plugins to ensure you are in compliance with Facebook’s rules.

What do you think of the new rule? Did you rely heavily on like gates for contests and promotions or do you like the change?