Good afternoon, Social Rabbit here with your guide to the world of social media.
In social media, as anything, it is important to know the rules of the game. Facebook on December 1st 2010 changed their rules regarding promotions, some are massive changes, others are no different, below I have laid out what this means for you as the admin of your Facebook page wanting to run competitions and promotions.
1) Promotions run on Facebook
Basically you CANNOT run a promotion through your Facebook page UNLESS you use an application, this includes
- Collecting entries
- Conducting a draw
- Judging entries
- Notifying winners
So even if, for example you ran a competition on your website, you can’t put the winners on your Facebook page (or send them a message through chat, updates or regular messages) according to these rules, nor can you ask them to upload a photo to the Facebook page as a way to enter the competition.
You MUST for any competition you run on an application on your Facebook page (or on your website) include the following text: “This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. You are providing your information to [disclose recipient(s) of information] and not to Facebook. The information you provide will only be used for [disclose any way that you plan to use the user's information].”
2) General Restrictions
In the communications with people about the competition, whether in an ad, on the page or in a status update you can ask them to like your page or check into your place before they get full details of the competition, however entry to the competition can not be through doing something on Facebook, eg liking a photo, commenting on the wall or uploading a photo or video. This also means that they can’t be entered into the competition by just liking your page, or checking into your Facebook place.
You have to make sure that it is very clear that Facebook has nothing to do with the competition/promotion you are running.
You can’t use the Facebook name, trademarks or other copyrights (that includes the logo) when you talk about the promotion except to:
- Tell them that they need to like a page, or check in (as above) for details
- Tell them to go to the application on your Facebook page to enter
Finally you can’t run a promotion if:
- It is aimed at those under 18 years old
- If the promotion is open to people who live in a country embargoed by the USA (that is: Burma (Myanmar), Cuba, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), Iran, Sudan and Syria)
- If the promotion is a sweepstake open to people living in Belgium, Norway, Sweden or India
- If you are promoting drugs, tobacco, guns or petrol
- If the prize includes drugs, tobacco, guns or petrol
- If the promotion is conditional on buying a product or completing a long task!
I am guessing you are thinking, well what can I do? Here are some ways to run a competition/promotion and tell your page likers about it:
- Use an application such as Wildfireapps, they have a few different ones, including sweepstakes, contests and promotions. These do cost money, but are not expensive, a few dollars a day, and are much cheaper than getting your own built.
- Run the competition on your website and post as a status update on your page driving them to your website
- Put the winners of your competitions on your website and email them to let them know, or use an email newsletter if you have one
- Get an application built to run the competition on, however this may set you back $5,000-7,000
Changes
The big changes to these new guidelines are that you no longer need permission from Facebook to run a promotion (not that many people bothered to ask), you can no longer enter people to the competition just because they like your page (so no more, our 1000th liker gets x). These changes are annoying, it is frustrating as a business owner that Facebook have put such tight rules and regulations around the promotions that pages want to run.
You need to be aware that if you don’t adhere to the guidelines that Facebook can shut down your page with NO warning and you will not be able to get any information back from them.
I have to say I personally find these rules frustrating, and unnecessary, I think that Facebook are trying to cover themselves in case they get sued by someone thinking a competition on a Facebook page is run by Facebook, or it could be that Facebook are in with the application developers, and just want page admins to spend more money…. What do you think? Tell me in the comments below.
NOTE: FACEBOOK CHANGED THESE AGAIN ON MAY 11TH 2011
Wow! That’s going to change a lot of the marketing pitches within the advertising companies Lara.
I’ve been telling my clients for a while that they need to have their competitions on their site, but this change by FB will mean that they’ll just have to build better content & learn how to better engage/convert fans via Welcome Pages & other promotions.
It will be interesting to see what impact it will have and whether some companies will simply throw caution to the wind & take the risk with running them regardless of FB rules? (Note: I’m not advocating this)
Hi Greg,
Yes, it will mean that companies need to step up and start being more innovative
SR
I dont fully understand this, Can you do a raffle if it is set up on another site? Am i able to advertise this on my fan page??
I hate these changes!!
Hi
It is not surprising that Facebook have tightened them up so much. With so many people ignoring the approval process, they had to do something to protect their liability risks. Imo, it is like most things in life, people who try do the right thing end up being clobbered by rules that have to be brought into being because they can’t be bothered being responsible.
Marcelle
Hi Marcelle
Thanks for the comment, I have to agree, that it is most likely a case of a few people doing the wrong thing that has caused the changes.
SR
Hi Rhiannon,
Yes you can do a raffle on your website or on an application on your Facebook page, but you cannot announce the winners on the Facebook page, or make them do something on the page to enter. You can post on the page saying go to x to enter the comp.
Hope this makes sense,
SR
Wow, with all these rules, I’m beginning to wonder whether it is really worth having a facebook business site at all.
Hi, I am only a short while off publishing my first book. I was going to use Facebook to give away free copies and offer discounts. Can I still do this or will I be in trouble with these new changes? Thanks, Sue
Hi Rach
It is definitely still worth having a Facebook page for your business, the competitions on pages is only usually a small part of marketing your business, so don’t let this stop you.
SR
Hi Sue,
It depends what you are doing on your Facebook page with the competitions/promotions, if you use an application you will be fine
SR
Luckily enough I worked out how to do an application quickly the other day. And it picks up code from our website but makes it look like its a FB page – easy
So with winners, do you reckon we can say “to find out who won competition blah, see here
Hi Abs,
Thanks for the comment
Yes, I think if you say to see who won go to blah, that will probably be fine.
SR
Ok, wait, I have a fan page with less than 200 likes. I create art and on occasion will post a new piece and have a “name it to claim it” or “guess what’s in it to win it” type of contest. They just add their suggestions to the comments and then I pick a winner. It’s no big thing. I am not big enough to do a huge application or route them to my website like a large company. So you are telling me, that I can no longer do this?????????? if that is the case….wow.
Hi Mira,
Yes you are correct that you can no longer do this, however this particular part of the rules has been in place for over a year, it isn’t a new thing, so I guess you need to weigh up the pro’s and cons. Good Luck.
SR
Am i able to run a promotion where, when the 1000th liker is reached, i will be having a 20%off sale on all products on my facebook page??
Hi Kelly,
I don’t work for Facebook, but the rules indicate that this would not breach them. Hope this helps.
SR
If you are considering running a competition in Australia, some states will require a permit if it’s a chance type competition. However for skill based competitions like ‘words or less’ competitions, usually no permit required. This is in addition to the article above regarding the Facebook requirements!
Thanks, yes, very good point, you need to not only follow Facebook’s rules, but also those for your country and/or state.
Do you have any apps that you would suggest one uses?
Hi,
Wildfire and North Social app’s are good, because they comply with the rules, but you could also use an HTML app. It depends on what you are trying to do
Sr