I Won!

I seldom join contests in Facebook, but I have a friend who has won more than a few times. Imagine my surprise when I found out that I won a Fender guitar strap in November last year, though I only learned about it this May.

Contests provide a quick way of gaining followers for new Facebook pages. However, it has also spawned fake pages from supposedly top brands. Offering to give away prizes like iPhones or even cars can easily get thousands of followers. My guess is that after getting thousands of likes, these pages are sold to other companies who then change the page details to legitimate ones. Gluttone Premium Tones looks like a legitimate startup business so I joined the contest, but I forgot about it.

I always check my messages and notifications. Clicking the message icon displays a list of the most recent ones. However, I never noticed the labels above the list that says Inbox and Other. When I did notice the Other label, it appears that I have an unread message. I won a guitar strap and I did not know it!

I quickly went to Gluttone’s Facebook page and saw the comment stating that I won. I immediately sent a message to the owner to ask if I can still claim my prize, six months after I won. Luckily, I was told that I would still get my guitar strap. Yes!

The message sent to me was from the owner’s personal Facebook account, not from the company page. I am not sure if that was the reason that it did not appear in my Inbox. Nevertheless, this experience taught me one thing: always check the Other section of your Facebook messages. Who knows, there might be some good news waiting.

/royc