Facebook Actions
This documentation covers the actions and integrations that we support from Facebook.
Applications that support Facebook actions:
Want to run a Facebook contest but not sure where to start? Check out everything you need to know about running Facebook contests with Gleam including powerful demos, best practice examples, feature breakdowns and expert guides.
If a user tries to login or perform any Facebook actions that require authentication then they will be asked to authorize the Gleam Competitions Facebook app.
The Facebook Check-in action allows you to award an entry if users check-in or have previously checked-in to a specific location on Facebook.
This action is perfect for local businesses, or businesses that have a physical location that users can check into. It's also a fantastic way to incentivize loyal customers.
This action cannot be validated automatically because Gleam does not have access to the entrant's Facebook posts
The Facebook Entry action allows you to award an entry for logging into Facebook within the widget. The action has two states, you can award the entry right away, or you can optionally ask the user to Like your Facebook page after login.
This option is preferable to the Visit action if you are running a contest inside a Facebook Tab, as it will keep users on your Tab rather than sending them away unnecessarily.
The Facebook Visit action allows you to ask a user to visit a specific Facebook page. If they like the content they might interact with your page or comment on some of your posts. They will also have the option to Like the page after visiting, this is a completely optional step.
When setting up the action you will need the URL of the Facebook page, the name of the page then any specific instructions for the user to complete.
You also have the option to ask users to:
- Optionally Like a Facebook Page
- Spend x seconds on the Facebook Page
- Optionally answer a question about the Facebook Page
Users cannot complete the action until they visit the Facebook page, after which they can show their appreciation by also Liking it (provided they like the content).
Liking is a completely optional step & cannot be mandatory for the action to be completed.
This Facebook Like action has now been retired & replaced the by the Facebook Visit action. For more information see our blog post.
Gleam makes it easy to run photo competitions - The Facebook photo select action allows you accept photo submissions from a users Facebook feed or albums as a competition entry or to unlock a reward.
This action is very easy to setup, just give it a title (i.e. Select a Photo From Facebook or Show Off Your Latest Style) then give the user some instructions.
You can use the description to make it clear to the user that the photo must first exist on Facebook before they are able to select it for submission.
This will only show the user any photos that contain a specific #hashtag. If the user only has 1 photo with the required #hashtag then the action will automatically complete, if there's more than 1 then the user will be allowed to choose which to submit.
You can setup the Facebook Select action to automatically import photos from certain Facebook sources on the Business plan:
- Posts to Page: Import photos that have been posted publicly to any Facebook Page
- Post Comments: Import photos that have been posted publicly in the comments of any Facebook Post or Photo
When the user clicks the action we ask them to authenticate with Facebook (if they haven't already), then they will be able to choose from their last 21 Facebook photos to submit.
Draw attention to a specific Facebook Post or Video with the View Post action, users are welcome to optionally engage with the post if they find the content meaningful.
One of the most requested action types is asking users to share something on their personal timeline, however Facebook's policies do not permit you to directly give entries for this. This means that you can't give an entry for sharing a link, but you can give entries to users when they successfully refer a user via a shared link.
You can get users to share your competition on Facebook using our Viral Share action type. This will give users entries when they refer friends who successfully enter the competition.
Please note, users will not see an increase in entries until they successfully refer someone that enters. Regardless of how many time they share your link.
There's quite a few options to setup this particular action. First give it a title, how you define the title can greatly impact whether or not people will share it.
The second option allows you to lock the Viral Share until the user completes a certain number of other actions first. For example you may not allow users to share until they first like you on Facebook or join your email list.
You can choose to show the share option with any mandatory action types you have created. However the share itself won't count towards a mandatory action (but will still allow users to do it).
The default share text is used for everything except Facebook sharing, the text you see here is pulled from the description on your prize. This allows you to have separate text for both Twitter & Facebook.
This is what the users will see, they are free to take the link generated & share it wherever they want. You also have control over which sharing buttons are present by default.
If a user shares to Facebook this is the popup they will see, there's a few important areas to cover here.
By default we use the prize image as the og:image that gets shared on Facebook. If you want this image to show you must have a feature image that is at least 287px high.
If you want the image to work perfectly when someone Virally Shares on Facebook then use 1080px x 567px.
Business users have the ability to add a Custom Share image to the campaign. This means you can make your Feature Image whatever size you wish (or use the Carousel).
The recommended Facebook Image Size for the custom share image is 1200px x 630px.
We currently pull the description for the Facebook share from your Prize. However if you set the Default Share Text during the setup of the action that will be used for everything except Facebook.
We've created an example competition that you can play with, it contains all of the actions that we've covered in this guide.
There will be certain scenarios when we're unable to find the PageID for a particular page due to their settings. In this instance you will be required to enter the PageID manually.
On Facebook The PageID is located here: Edit Page -> Edit Settings -> Page Info -> Facebook Page ID
Having certain country or strict age restrictions on a page can make it appear blank when users try to like it within the widget.
It is not possible to put in a Facebook group page into the Facebook Visit action type, you can just use a normal Visit action.
We have a number of other resources and guides that can help you get more out of your Facebook contest with Gleam.
You can use these actions to promote your Facebook page, boost engagement, and drive traffic by using this template:
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Gleam Subscriber Action
This documentation covers the Gleam Subscriber action. Use this action to grow your Gleam mailing list and notify entrants every time you launch a new campaign.