Facebook has recently updated its Promotion Guidelines to remove significant impediments to running promotions via Facebook.
The Promotion Guidelines (available here) apply to communications about or administration of sweepstakes, contests, competitions or other similar offerings (promotions) on Facebook. Under the previous Promotions Guidelines, before administering a promotion on Facebook it was necessary to obtain written approval from a Facebook account representative. However, to obtain an account representative, a minimum media spend was required and most users did not have an account representative. The two major changes under the new Promotions Guidelines address these issues so that now:
Despite removal of these requirements, there are still various other rules that must be followed when considering running a promotion via Facebook. For example promotions may not be administered through Facebook, except through an application on the Facebook Platform. There are also various restrictions governing the type of individuals that the promotion is open or marketed to, the use of Facebook’s intellectual property rights and the way in which a person may enter a promotion. When running a promotion on Facebook you are also unable to make it a condition of entry into the promotion that users provide content on Facebook, for example by posting on a wall of a page, uploading a photo or posting a status update. Administration of a promotion on Facebook also requires that you comply with Facebook’s other Guidelines, including its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities and Platform Policies.
Many businesses did not comply with the previous Promotions Guidelines. Although the new Promotions Guidelines are less restrictive, it is still important to understand and comply with their detailed requests when running a promotion using Facebook.
If you would like further information on running promotions via Facebook please contact us.