If you are a blogger or business owner you have probably heard about the recent changes to Facebook regarding Branded Content. If you haven’t, you can read all about it here.
From Facebook,
Branded content is a growing and evolving part of the media landscape. On Facebook, we define this as content that features a third party product, brand, or sponsor (“marketer”). It is typically posted by media companies, celebrities, or other influencers. Verified Pages (with the blue checkmark) can share branded content on Facebook as long as they follow our updated branded content policy and ads policy and use the branded content tool to tag marketers in their posts.
Like many, I was extremely confused about the changes and what it meant for me and my blog. At first, I was smacked with the realization that I had been breaking the Facebook TOS all these years. It was just something that they haven’t really enforced.
Being someone who wanted to play by the rules, I figured I better get my page verified and start using the new Branded Content Tool. Only one problem. My page category wasn’t eligible to be verified at this time. This led to even more confusion.
With a plethora of articles floating over the internet about what this new policy meant and a lot of interruption and misleading advice, I decided to go straight to the source, Facebook.
How Does Facebook’s Branded Content Affect Me
Q. I would like to comply with the new Facebook changes, but can’t verify my page. How can I make that happen?
A. Although currently, we’re only accepting verification requests from Pages that represent celebrities, public figures, sports teams, media and entertainment. Our Pages Team is extremely backed up with Brand Requests at the moment and need some time to catch up, that is why we are unable to accept them at the moment.
Q. If I wanted to share a friends’ post or another article on my page, does that violate the branded content rule?
A. No, you and your Brand are free to ‘Share’ any friends Posts or article.
Q. So while I am waiting to be verified, am I allowed to share branded content on a non-verified page?
A. Yes, you are allowed to do so.
My friend Lindsay of See Mom Click also spoke with Facebook and got a really good explanation on things!
Q. My business is a website that partners with brands to market their products to my readers. If I do a post for, say for example, Kraft, and I write a recipe for them, am I permitted to share that content on my Facebook page? Or is that considered branded content and I’m prohibited from sharing it because I am not blue checkmark verified?
A. As long as you have the relationship with them, that’s fine. It’s the Pages that are sharing other companies content for their own gain that will be affected.
Q. If I saw something cool I wanted to share with my readers on a brand’s website, like a neat project that Lowe’s featured, I wouldn’t be permitted to share that?
A. Correct. If that content is branded.
Facebook Representative Breaks It Down
Under the updated branded content policy, media publishers and influencers must tag markerters in a branded content post, whether appearing on a Page as an organic post or as an ad. The Policy in addition to the tagging requirement, the policy restricts some types of branded content from our platform. People have told us that branded content that is more promotional in nature is less engaging. Based on this feedback, our policy guidelines prohibit overly promotional executions, such as persistant watermarks, pre-roll advertisements, and banner ads in branded content posts. For ads content, there are no creative restrictions beyond regular ad policy.
But what about the Lowe’s scenario. In the example Lindsay gave above about Lowe’s that kind of looks like I could share as long as she tagged them. But she can’t use that new handshake tag because she doesn’t have a blue checkmark.
Q. What about sharing a post from another page that is NOT branded? That would be ok? For example, if I have blogger friend that wrote a great recipe, I could share that without worrying about it.
A. That would be fine. Non-branded is business as usual.
After a phone call with Facebook, I understand!
I was still confused so I asked the representative to call me. My major issue was “What if I can’t get blue verified? What do I do?”
And it’s pretty simple. You can’t flat out ask your readers to make a purchase in a Facebook post. You can’t say “This is the best Mac and Cheese in the world. You should go buy it now. Here’s the link.”
You can, however, say, “I made this awesome recipe featuring Kraft Mac and Cheese.” And don’t forget to disclose!
And, I am sorry to report, this includes affiliate links. You are breaking the rules if you share an affiliate link on your page encouraging your readers to buy something. However, if you wrote a post featuring affiliate links, that is ok to share since you are directing readers to your site.
Update: This article from Amy Lynn Andrews explains even more about Affiliate sharing on Facebook.
So when can we expect to be able to be blue checkmarked verified?
According to Wayne, the representative I spoke to on the phone, it’s going to a take a while for it to trickle to down bloggers. They are focusing on major brands right now.
Now what?
Basically, business as usual. No sharing overly promotional updates. No directing followers to sites where they can make a purchase (like Amazon) unless it’s on my own page. And, most importantly, always, always disclose a relationship with a brand.
Personal accounts used to share branded content are not affected by Facebook’s recent Branded Content Policy.
If you are using a Page on Facebook to share branded content and your page is NOT verified, continue business as usual. The updated policy released by Facebook recently does not apply to you.
If you are using a Page on Facebook to share branded content and your page is IS verified, you must use the new tool released by Facebook to share branded content and the updated policy does apply to you.
Yes, we are still talking about Facebook Branded Content.
I sat down with Be Blogalicious for their monthly Blab to talk all about being verified. You can watch the video below.
You just made this much easier! Thank you. 🙂
Thank you thank you for doing all the research for this! Honestly, it seems like it was a few other bloggers that may have jumped the gun and did not go to Facebook for clarification that got many of us into a panic mode. Really appreciate you posting on this 😉
My only other question (if you still have access to the FB rep) is if you could get verified if your business name was different than your FB page name (which is my blog name.)
I was told a DBA, LLC, or Trademark for the blog name would work.
Thank you so much for this! It makes so much more sense now!
Thank you so much for posting this! Much clearer now! And super impressed that you were actually able to get a response from a Real person at FB, how on earth did you manage to contact them?
That’s my question too! VERY helpful – thank you!
Thank you very much. NOW I understand.
Thank you so much for this clarification. So many FB groups are creating panic and causing more confusion. Thank you again!
Thanks for your research into this. Makes more sense in saying that they’ve not got round to bloggers yet, and this clears it up well.
So I do have a question… I can’t share an Amazon product I found on sale that would be of interest to my readers with my affiliate link. Correct?
Thanks so much! This was so confusing! 🙂 This really helps me to understand. 🙂
Another question or two for you. 🙂 Does this affect our FB groups? Do the same rules apply? Also, if I’m doing Facebook Live, I’m wondering if I can mention a pretty link that goes straight to any affiliate page? Thanks for your help! 🙂
I am not 100% sure about groups but I wouldn’t think it would affect it. As for Facebook Live, I think as long as you disclose your relationship with the brand you will be ok.
I want to thank you for this post and for updating it with even more information. This makes it so much clearer and I appreciate you all going straight to Facebook for us. Which by the way, how in the world do you end up in a chat box with Facebook anyways?! lol They always seem so hard to get a hold of.
Thanks again!
Great blog Stephanie, but this paragraph at the bottom seems contradictory?
“If you are using a Page on Facebook to share branded content and your page is NOT verified, continue business as usual. The updated policy released by Facebook recently does not apply to you.”
It sounds like if you are blue tick verified you can actually post branded content.. which I thought was the whole point of the rule change? To stop people doing that?
woops typo – should read “It sounds like if you are NOT blue tick verified you can actually post branded content.. which I thought was the whole point of the rule change? To stop people doing that?”
If you are blue checkmarked, you need to go through the Facebook Branded Content tool in order to post branded content. If you are not, you continue to go about business as usual as long as you aren’t sharing a link to a third party selling a product and disclose your relationship to the brand.
Thanks Stephanie.. so if I have a brand rep or blogger that I have paid, or given product to, in exchange for the blog and photos… they can still post their photos, blog and review on Facebook, featuring my brand, so long as they don’t include a link to the product and they somehow disclose their relationship to my brand? Is that right? How might they do that? Do they actually need to say “I am a brand rep for Brand X” or is it enough to say “Loving my new threads from Company X!” Sorry, this is still quite confusing! Thanks!
THANK YOU for spending the time to run this to ground! This was incredibly helpful!! Thank you!
Excellent post. Thank you for taking the time to share your conversation with a real FB employee, and for clarifying what – on their own guidelines – looks as clear as mud and has caused undue anxiety.
How did you speak to a live rep at FB? There is no place that gives you this option. If your page is not branded and you are sharing an amazon link showing a product in which you are the manufacturer, this needs to be clarified. Such as an indie singer showing off her latest album on amazon.
Hi, thank you so very much for this post, it’s helped my understanding a little. I wonder if you could just confirm something further for me. If I write a blog post using another company’s products, I have to just mention this when I share to FB (your example for Kraft). I wouldn’t have to tag them would I? All you need to do is mention their name as per your example? Is this what you mean when you you state “and don’t forget to disclose” . I’m also confused with regard to linking to other blog posts without sharing using the “share” button on FB. From what I have understood, I won’t be able to do that any more. Am I right, what do you think?
Stephanie! Thanks soooooooo much for this post. I feel like I should give you a big bear hug. For now, it’s a lot more clear. THANK YOU!!!! *BEAR HUG*
Thank you! For the majority of us, it’s business as usual. 🙂
Thank you SO MUCH for this post. It definitely cleared up my questions. So needlessly confusing!
Thanks for clarifying this. I have heard a lot of misinformation actually and this seems to make it clearer.