In the run up to Christmas lots of people and businesses large and small
were running promotions, competitions and contests on facebook. Lots of
them seemed very successful however lots of them were getting it wrong and
didn’t realise they were violating the terms and conditions they agreed to
when setting up their facebook page.
At the tailend on 2010 Facebook tightened up their guidelines for competitions
and promotions. Since then anyone who puts a foot wrong will automatically have
their page suspended. No exceptions.
Click Here for the official line from Facebook
In plain English it means:
YOU CAN’T run a competition on your wall (profile or business page)
This changed a while back, but still see people are doing it. It’s against
Facebook’s guidelines to run a competition that requires entry through a
wall post. So, you can’t ask people to comment on a post or answer a question
in order to enter. It’s such a shame because it feels like a great way to
run a competition and it has that exciting viral element to it.
If you’re going to run any sort of competition, this has to be run a
third party application which for small business owners can turn out
to be costly. Popular applications include Wildfire and OfferPop.
Alternativly you could build your own application inside an iFrame but
again this could turn out to be expensive when costs for design and
development are considered.
YOU MUST get Permission
You need approval from Facebook prior to running any kind of promotion
or competition. You’ll need to submit your full design and a working
application. Play it safe and allow yourself at least 2 weeks to go
through this process and make sure you gain approval from a facebook
account executive.
You CAN’T use facebook tools in your competition
This means you can’t use any kind of facebook mechanic that involves a fan
commenting. It includes: uploading photo’s, video, commenting, liking posts
or pages.
You can however open the contest to “JUST FANS” I recommend you make this
very clear to the user so that they are aware of the mechanics by which
they can enter.
YOU CAN’T contact/notify winners through facebook
You must NOT contact or notify any winner through Facebook messages, chat
or posts.
TERMS & CONDITIONS
You must state in your terms and conditions of the promotion that there is
a complete release of responsibility to Facebook and Facebook are not connected
with your promotion in anyway.
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].”
The above is a guide but remember it is a guide and Facebook make changes to
guidelines on a regular basis so before you begin any kind of promotion
be sure to review their terms and you won’t go wrong.
