Podcast: Ins and Outs of Online Giveaways & Sweepstakes

Several weeks ago, we were featured on Social Geek Radio where we discussed the ins and outs of online giveaways and sweepstakes. We talked a little bit about Rafflecopter, online giveaways, some tips and tricks, and Facebook promotion guidelines.

You can find and listen to the hour-long podcast here:

This podcast can also be downloaded or streamed from iTunes (just search for Social Geek Radio). I want to thank both AK & Deb for being great hosts too! Here’s a link to their followup blog posts:

Podcast Outline

0:00 – 2:43 | Podcast introduction

2:43 – 6:38 | Introduction: Greg Goodson & Rafflecopter

6:38 – 13:07 | Why a giveaway is a good idea for your blog or business

13:07 – 17:40 | What’s the best prize to give away?

17:40 – 22:15 | Giveaways and the value of a crazy prize

22:15 – 29:57 | Great giveaway tips and tricks

29:57 – 34:20 | Making the most of your giveaways when they end

34:20 – 51:14 | 15 minutes of Facebook promotion guidelines

51:14 – 52:35 | Social media accounts

52:35 – 1:00:01 | #GeekItOut Segment o_0

Update: To follow up our discussion in the podcast regarding Facebook giveaway rules, we’ve written an article about Rafflecopter & Facebook Promotion Guidelines as well as 3 Reasons Facebook Guidelines Are Broken.

We appreciate you tuning in! Feel free to leave us questions in the comment field below or contact us – we’d be happy to help!

About the author

Greg Goodson

Greg Goodson is the cofounder of Rafflecopter. 25x ultramarathoner, bluegrass guitarist, & weather enthusiast. Owner of one doge.

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  • notageek4u

    Okay, I have a HUGE question that I need help with. I participate in a few giveaways a year, and am doing my own now and it’s HUGE with about 100 other bloggers. I’ve participated in events where you give someone “Earn 10 entries for Liking these pages” (Through Make your own option). When someone clicks on the link, it takes them to a blog page where there are 10 to 15 facebook pages to like. Lately, fanpages have been put on a 30 probationary period because they consider these to be “Like Farming”, which I do NOT see in their TOS as being against it. Now, the whole blogosphere is freaking out.

    I’ve gotten a much better education in this in the last 2 days, but think I have solution…just not sure. Is it safe to say that asking for likes (Via RC–non-mandatory) is considered a facebook promotion? If it is, can we easily just set up an app page with the html encoded to like these pages, in using the correct verbiage stating that “These will not increase your chances of winning…etc, etc, etc.”

    People pay for Host and co-hosting giveaways because it decreases their Alexa score while bringing more attention to their blog.

    I’m still just a little bit confused in getting other bloggers involved in giveaways while remaining compliant with Facebook TOS and not getting on a 30 day probationary period.

    OR, does EVERYONE have to placed into the RC form asking for non-mandatory likes for extra entries into a giveaway? Just to stay compliant, instead of saying, “Hey…visit this page….like these fan pages…”? That’s where I’m confused. I just don’t know if it should stay on FB or on blog posts/pages and etc. Any insight would be awesome. Thanks for reading this lengthy question lol.

    • We’ve had a few folks contact us the past several days with questions surrounding Facebook promotion guidelines, likes, and Rafflecopter. Everything that I wrote in this blog post still holds true regarding Rafflecopter giveaways and Facebook promotion guidelines:

      http://blog.rafflecopter.com/2012/08/facebook-giveaway-rules-regulations/

      Facebook page guidelines were actually updated on 12/17/12, but these updates revolve around your Facebook page’s cover photo. Facebook promotion guideline remain unchanged:

      http://www.insidefacebook.com/2012/12/20/facebook-updates-cover-photo-and-news-feed-ad-policy-limits-text-to-20-of-image/

      I *think* a lot of the confusion that started the last week revolve around giveaways where folks ask entrants to enter one giveaway entry option that points to a webpage where many Facebook like buttons are placed (I’ve heard this referred to as “like-farming” as you stated above). It’s not written in their TOS, but I’d be extremely cautious in pointing folks to a page that asks them to like many pages. But if you’re running a giveaway like our launch giveaway (http://blog.rafflecopter.com/2012/11/rafflecopter-premium-launch-giveaway/) with one Facebook entry option, that certainly isn’t breaking any rules.

      At the end of the day, it’s always a possibility that Facebook can change their promotion guidelines. We have a good relationship with the team @ Facebook; if they were to make updates, we’ll always make the appropriate changes and make sure everyone’s updated with the changes. But Facebook would give us a period of time to make those changes and wouldn’t just pull the rug out from underneath us and start banning people left and right :P I hope that helps!

      • notageek4u

        Thanks so much for your reply.
        It all makes absolute perfect sense to me.
        However, I do have a small issue that I hope you can help me with…
        I screwed up lol. You’ll be getting an email from me soon! lol