When you set up a promotion to run on Facebook there are several things you have to do. You have to design your artwork, craft your message, draft rules and terms, and then publish it to your wall. Finally, the hard part; now you have to promote your offer to as many hungry fans as you can possibly reach.

If you wanted to publish your promotion OFF of Facebook, you had to link from Twitter, banner ads, your blog, or website baaaaack to Facebook so they could engage with your awesome North Social promotion. (A little odd to run a promotion on Twitter that requires a Facebook user account).

Adding to all this complexity is the fact that Facebook apps are not available on the native Facebook mobile interface (and networks like Twitter are two-thirds mobile) and now you’ve got a giant pain in the you know what. This is not cool.

You can now create a promotion with North Social and then publish that promotion EVERYWHERE.

Want to learn how? Keep reading…

There are two really cool new features that enable this to work, and I’m unaware of any other software company on earth that can deliver the same functionality.

Personal side bet: If you know of any company that can do what we’re doing: native mobile, Facebook Fan Page app, smart link to sniff device type, blog and website embeddable, desktop user re-direct, instant email response to entrants, floating url, customized entry forms, easily customized designs, and white-label all starting for under $100 to run a week long sweepstakes or coupon blitz. Please let me know by sending an email to alex [at] northsocial dot com and I’ll buy you a beer if you can prove it. (must be 21)  Note: rendering a desktop design in a tiny little phone screen is not “native” mobile, it’s a flippin joke and nearly impossible to use, so don’t waste your breath trying to explain to me that other FB app providers have a mobile “solution” when what they actually have is a mobile disaster. Cheers!

First, there is the smart link technology.

Under the publish tab you’ll see a cool blue “smart link” which is what you are supposed to grab and use as “the” ideal click path for your fans.  (Note: We are aware that this link is a bit long and will be adding a link shortener soon, but for now just use whatever link shortener you prefer and make it a little more presentable). The smart link will sniff what browser the user is on and will deliver an optimized experience for desktop, tablet, or mobile.

This instantly takes the “what platform are they on” question and puts it to bed. Goodnight. Doesn’t matter if you are on a phone or a laptop, it will auto serve the right experience.

This is pretty cool stuff, but we’re not done.

This is what the publish section looks like in your admin panel.

This is where you grab the smart link. (See the giant image below)

You can use this smart link (shorten it if you want to) and publish it across Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Email, banner ads, and any other place where your prospective customers might click.

Second, There is the Desktop User Re-Direct.

The second part of this magical “publish anywhere” equation is the ability to send desktop users to three different places where they can engage with your promotion. (Note: desktop is not mobile or tablet)

Yep, this new feature allows you to direct desktop clicks to where you want them to go.

1) Facebook Fan Page

2) Your website or blog where the promotion is embedded  OR

3) A “Stand Alone App ” page where the promotion lives all by itself (so you don’t need a fan page or website)

This is what it looks like when you send desktop users to your Fan Page on Facebook. This is how North Social apps have traditionally shown promotions (inside the Facebook chrome).

Based on what your promotional goals are, and where you plan on engaging the most users, you can select the optimal destination for your desktop clicks.

It is flexible and totally up to you, just select one of the three options and go. (note: if you select url, you’ll need to type or paste the url where you are embedding your promotion. Or you can send them to some other website if you want your promotion to be on “mobile only”.

Want to take that promotion and run it on your website or blog? NO PROBLEM.

Just grab the iFrame embed code (which is also in the same “publish” section of your admin panel) and past it right into your website, blog, tumblr, whatever.  (Note: You might need to install a plug-in to support iFrames depending on what CMS you are using for your blog or site)

This is what the embed on your blog link will look like when you send desktop users to your site. (This is a WordPress powered blog example only)

If you don’t want to send users to Facebook, and you don’t have a website or blog where you can easily publish an embedded promotion.

You are NOT out of luck.

The third option for the re-direct is the magical floating app. (Note: this is not actual magic.)

When you select this as the destination for desktop users, they will be taken to a floating url which hosts your promotion inside a sleek little box.

This is GREAT if you don’t want to set up a website, or bother desktop users with Facebook. This is a super flexible way to quickly run promotions that don’t touch ANY social network at all. (think landing page, squeeze page, or other fun marketing use for sending users to an easy to set up and modify interactive experience).

The floating url will look like this below.

If you are still reading this all the way to the bottom, I want to say thanks.

Our team here at North Social works really hard to try and build the best possible solution for brands, agencies, and social media managers.

We invest our heart and soul into what we do, and we listen to our customers as much as possible and are always working hard to improve. We’re pretty happy about where we’re going with this entire platform of tools and we hope that you’re having fun as the social/mobile market continues to evolve.

Cheers! -Alex