We see them all the time on Facebook, and they are lots of fun: referral contests, photo competitions and wall giveaways. But are they compliant with Facebook guidelines? Usually not.
If you have a Facebook fan page for your business or blog, and want to add some interaction with a giveaway, you’ll definitely want to work within their guidelines to avoid having your page removed.
In the official guidelines, Facebook prohibits individuals and businesses from engaging in certain types of promotions. The document says “You must not condition registration or entry upon the user taking any action using any Facebook features or functionality other than liking a Page.” That means:
- DON’T ask people to “like” anything on your Facebook page, wall or photo album as a type of voting mechanism in a promotion. For example, running a giveaway where a fan with the most “likes” on his or her photo wins, would be against Facebook guidelines.
- DON’T ask people to “share” a Facebook status, photo or album for extra entries in your giveaway.
- DON’T ask people to upload photos to your wall as a condition for entering your giveaway.
- DON’T ask people to leave a comment or a recommendation (for your business) on your wall or one of your posts (or someone else’s wall or post) as a giveaway entry.
- DON’T use Facebook to notify a winner. You can email them directly, or even send a Tweet. But don’t use Facebook chat, messaging or timelines to send someone a winning notification. However, it is perfectly acceptable to announce a confirmed winner on Facebook after they have replied to your initial notification.
Now you might be wondering why so many people are breaking the rules on Facebook. The main reason is probably that they don’t know the guidelines exist and are just following what they see on other pages. And I’m sure that Facebook doesn’t have time to police them all. Add to this the fact that fans will seldom blow the whistle on their favorite brand or blogger. Most of us are just are just eager to win stuff!
So what’s the easiest and most equitable way to run a Facebook giveaway? The third-party application, Rafflecopter, makes it a breeze! After logging in and creating your giveaway on Rafflecopter, simply click the Embed button and it will give you the option to add the giveaway onto your Facebook page. Here’s a quick and easy tutorial for adding the Facebook giveaway app to your fan page.
This is all really good advice, as a blogger we can never be too careful. Lots of pages have been shut down lately.
Always good to play it safe and protect your page, especially after all the work and time put into it.
Great tips!! Thanks for this helpful post, the more we know about giveaways, Facebook, etc.. the better chances we have at having a successful blog. Every tip helps!!
You are so welcome, Anna. Thanks for reading!
Thanks! I am always confused about the ever-changing guidelines and you have summed it up in a nice tidy post 🙂
Glad it was helpful, Alanna!
Wow! Facebook is really cracking down! Scary!
And every once in a while, someone has their page removed for no reason that they can discern. That must be even MORE frustrating! ~Anne
Yup… see it on a daily basis. Thanks for sharing the information.
Thanks for stopping by, Cinella!
I do understand the Facebook prohibitions, but it is my understanding that you can use Facebook functionality for non-mandatory entries in a contest.
This is still hotly debated in some circles. Guideline E-4 says not to use Facebook features as an entry mechanism. It does not make it 100% crystal clear whether it is talking about mandatory entries or optional entries. Many bloggers, to be on the safe side, have steered clear of using any Facebook functionalities (other than liking a page) as entries – whether mandatory or not. Thanks for your comment, Jimmy. I’d love to hear your additional thoughts on this! ~Anne
I forgot to mention that there’s a very good reason for the Facebook guidelines. They are trying to encourage authentic content. When you have people liking photos, posting wall comments and sharing posts ONLY so they can win prizes, and not because they love your blog or your business, then they are using Facebook in a way that the developers did not intend. The idea is for interactions on Facebook to be genuine.