Back in the weeks before Christmas, a glut of Facebook contests had me post a rare rant on my personal page, that I then shared to my business page ... and now that my blog is up and running, I thought I'd share it here ...

<rant>
Words you grow to hate as a social media manager ... "like and share!" Did you know, contests on Facebook that ask you to like their page and/or share a post are not following Facebook's terms of service?

Yes, Facebook has rules. And, I know, lots of businesses do it ... and they'll keep doing it. But it's either because they haven't taken the time to educate themselves on the rules, or they care more about the number of people who like their page than the quality of those followers.

A business isn't allowed to "bribe" someone to like their page with the promise of a contest entry. And honestly, do you want someone to like your page just because they want to win a prize? Or would you rather they were people who actually shop with you and/or use your services and actually LIKE you?

And privacy settings are such that a business will never be able to see everyone who shared a post. My own privacy settings mean I can share a post from a page I manage and not be able see that I shared it. That basically means that a percentage of people entering a contest are writing their ballot with invisible ink. Not exactly fair, eh?

The legitimate ways to enter a post contest on Facebook are liking that post and/or commenting on that post. You can ask someone to like your page or share the post, but those can't be your sole methods of gathering entries. ‪
<end rant>

So, yes ... Facebook contests do have rules. And, yes ... social media managers tend to go a bit mad when we see contests in our feeds that break the terms of service. ;) 

When I first registered my business 3 years ago, I had a couple of ideas for a name.

​Sadly, in order to officially use a name in Nova Scotia, one must register with the Joint Stocks, and both names were rejected for being too similar to those of existing businesses.

And so I ended up registering Michelle McCann Communications. For a whole therapy session full of reasons, I hated the idea of having my name as my business name ... but for lack of a better idea, it was what it was.

Then, on a summer road trip 6 months later, a tag line popped into my head ... "Creating emphasis." That's basically what social media does ... it emphasizes your business. And how do you create emphasis when writing? You bold and you italicize!

Bold and Italic.

Social, of course, came from the foundation of my business, social media services. And communications from my experience in public relations and the fact that I do so much more than social media.

Bold and Italic Social Communications was born.

And it even passed muster with the Registry of Joint Stocks!

It can be a bit of a mouthful sometimes, and it gets butchered a lot ... but after being called Michael McCain on more than one occasion, I can deal.