The Bad News: Many of the Facebook Page promotions being run by small businesses today are violating Facebook Promotions Guidelines. They may get their pages banned and lose all of their fans.
The Good News: The "rules" for compliant promotion on Facebook are easy to understand and easy to follow.
The Rules
Facebook has simple to understand guidelines. The penalty for not complying with them (I know, I sound like a Borg Drone) is catastrophic. You will comply... or else.
The Highlights
(Quotes from the Promotion Guidelines 4/12/11)
- The following activities fall under the guidleines: "A 'sweepstakes' is a promotion that includes a prize and a winner selected on the basis of chance. A 'contest' or 'competition' is a promotion that includes a prize and a winner determined on the basis of skill (i.e., through judging based on specific criteria)."
- "You will not administer a promotion through Facebook, except through an application on the Facebook Platform."
- "You will only allow users to enter the promotion in... the application box in a tab on a Facebook Page."
- "You will include the following disclosures (including) 'This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.'"
- "You cannot: Administer a promotion that users automatically enter by liking your Page, checking in to your Place or connecting to your Platform integration."
- "You may require that an entrant like a Page... before providing their full entry information for a promotion."
- "You cannot: Condition entry in the promotion upon a user providing content on Facebook, such as posting on a Wall of a Page, uploading a photo, or posting a status update."
What it means in simple English
Anytime you do anything on Facebook that has a winner, you are subject to these guidelines. Your promotion can be mentioned on the Wall, but it may not be administered from the Wall. You cannot condition entry into the sweepstakes, promotion, contest or competition based upon any action that requires the entrant to do something on Facebook. You may require that a participant "Like" your page in order to see the promotion details and to enter the promotion (through use of a "reveal" tab). It's a fine line but an important one.
Non-compliant promotion examples
- "Help us hit XYZ number of fans by next Monday and we will give away a gift card!"
- "Upload a photo, get your friends to Like it, and the most amount of Likes wins."
- "Gift Card to the person who answers the following question in the comments below (on the Wall)."
- “One lucky winner will win XYZ when we reach 500 likes on this page”
- "Like our page and automatically be entered to win XYZ."
- "Comment on our Wall and be automatically entered to win."
There are many more rules to promoting your Page if the promotion involves in any way having a "winner." Be careful. I can help you create an "application" (a custom tab) that will be compliant with Facebook's Guidelines. You can run a promotion safely! Contact me through my Facebook Page, Ken Hood Web Design to learn how.
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