Facebook Promotion Guidelines Update: What You Need To Know

Posted on August 28, 2013 by Greg Goodson 52 Comments

Facebook Promotion Guidelines Updated

Have you heard the news?! Facebook promotion guidelines has just received a major facelift. In the past twelve hours, Facebook published an article on their ‘Facebook for Business’ blog titled ‘It’s now Easier to Administer Promotions on Facebook’, discussing new rules surrounding the ins and outs of running a promotion on the social network.

Prior to August 27th, there were a total of seven rules pertaining to running promotions on your Facebook page. Those seven rules have just been whittled down to four, making Facebook promotion guidelines much more transparent, giving page owners more flexibility in how a promotion might be administered.

In this post, we’ll break down these new guidelines, discuss how the promotion landscape on Facebook is changing, and what you might expect moving forward.

Facebook Promotion Guidelines: The Four New Rules

1. If you use Facebook to communicate or administer a promotion (ex: a contest or sweepstakes), you are responsible for the lawful operation of that promotion, including:

  • The official rules;
  • Offer terms and eligibility requirements (ex: age and residency restrictions); and
  • Compliance with applicable rules and regulations governing the promotion and all prizes offered (ex: registration and obtaining necessary regulatory approvals)

[Translation] It’s your responsibility as a business to take care of all legal aspects surrounding your promotion.

2. Promotions on Facebook must include the following:

  • A complete release of Facebook by each entrant or participant.
  • Acknowledgement that the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.

[Translation] You must make sure your promotion makes it clear to entrants that the promotion is endorsed by you,  and not Facebook. If you can’t tell, Facebook doesn’t want anything to do with your promotion.

3. Promotions may be administered on Pages or within apps on Facebook. Personal Timelines must not be used to administer promotions (ex: “share on your Timeline to enter” or “share on your friend’s Timeline to get additional entries” is not permitted).

[Translation]: Your promotion cannot incentivize entrants to have direct interaction with their personal timeline. Asking entrants to update their personal status update or sharing some content on their timeline isn’t allowed.

4. We will not assist you in the administration of your promotion, and you agree that if you use our service to administer your promotion, you do so at your own risk.

[Translation] Your promotion is being run at your own risk & is your responsibility. Not Facebook’s responsibility.

The 7 Biggest Changes You Cannot Afford To Ignore

Read before opening

Around this time last year, we published an article that dissected the current Facebook promotion rules. Compare the rules described in that post to the rules above. Can you spot the differences? We promise it doesn’t take long! Here are seven changes you should be aware right now with this most recent update:

  1. Commenting on or liking a page post for an entry is now acceptable. You read that correctly! Folks can now participate in a promotion by liking a page post or commenting on a post.
  2. The ‘like button’ can now be used as a voting mechanism. Contests where ‘comments with the most likes wins!’ are now legit.
  3. You are no longer required to use a 3rd party app. As long as you follow the four guidelines above, you can run promotions right on your Facebook wall without getting in trouble.
  4. You can now contact winners through Facebook. Contacting winners through a Facebook message has been given the green light.
  5. Posting on a page as a means of entry is now allowed. Want to run a photo or essay contest? Let folks post on your wall (perhaps using a #hashtag).
  6. Personal timelines are still out of the question. Liking & commenting on a Facebook page / post is alright, but sharing isn’t!
  7. Prepare to see more promoted posts. If you’re able to run ‘like/comment’ promotions, businesses on Facebook are one small click away from getting that post more visibility on the news feed by throwing a few advertising dollars at it.

Looking to become even more learned? Check out the downloadable PDF that Facebook released with this update, which includes several FAQs and examples of what’s allowed.

What To Expect From Rafflecopter

We’ve always kept a close eye on Facebook promotion guidelines. The fact that Facebook is putting promotions in the spotlight is great news! Most folks would agree that the previous Facebook promotion guidelines were confusing & chock full of gray areas open for interpretation. While promotions on Facebook no longer need to be run through a canvas page or a page app, businesses running giveaways through third-party apps will continue to receive value that you couldn’t receive through a homegrown promotion on your Facebook timeline.

Because Facebook pages are able to use the like button as a voting mechanism, new promotions that will be administered directly on a Facebook page without the assistance of a third-party app may lean more towards contests that require a skill vs. a sweepstakes promotion where winners are chosen at random. It’s possible we’ll see an increase in homegrown photo contests or caption contests especially, where entrants upload a photo or make a comment on a post where the comment most ‘likes’ receives a prize.

On that note, there’s no doubt there’s been an uptick in the number of Facebook pages interested in running promotions the past several years. This new update is too exciting for us to ignore; it’s an opportunity to become more integrated with Facebook’s new guidelines and a fantastic excuse for page owners to test new ways to interact with their fanbase. Be on the lookout for some updates soon!

*Update – 9/10/13* - We’ve released a Facebook flash giveaway app to allow you to run giveaways on your Facebook timeline w/ ease. Before you get started, check out the 5 best practices for your Facebook timeline giveaway we recommend.

What do you think of the new changes? Are you surprised with the announcement? Give your thoughts below!

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About Greg Goodson

Greg Goodson is the cofounder of Rafflecopter, the world's easiest way to run a giveaway online. Follow his shenanigans, ramblings, and memes on Twitter at @GregGoodson.
About Rafflecopter, Blogging, Marketing, & Code, Facebook Promotions, The Rafflecopter Platform ,
  • http://www.mpaladino.com Michael Paladino

    Thanks for the heads up and looking forward to seeing how Rafflecopter adapts.

  • The Snarky Mom

    Thanks for the information & the “basic gist” of the new guidelines!

  • Maja

    When I run my first sweepstakes, I didn’t even know I was supposed to run it thru 3rd party app. When I found it out, I redirected my fans to Rafflecopter tab, and realised that I liked that way even more,than using fb. The only thing I didn’t like is being banned from sharing,but sharing is still forbidden, so I’m fine with that.
    There is one more thing I would like to be available- that is visibility of comments, which I implemented thru rafflecopter app. In fact, answers entries were the most important part of my sweepstakes and I would have liked them to be available to reading by anyone. Would that be possible?
    Thanks for this article, I’m looking forward to seeing your improvements!

    • http://www.rafflecopter.com Greg Goodson

      hey Maja – yeah… sharing is just something FB doesn’t want understandably. Incentivizing sharing for entries will always be against the rules :| On that note, if you’re trying to collect comments in the Rafflecopter widget, you can have folks comment inside the widget w/ the ‘invent your own’ entry option. Might not be exactly what you’re looking for, but hopefully it helps! https://rafflecopter.zendesk.com/entries/23199591-How-do-I-create-a-custom-entry-option-

  • Christina

    Can’t wait to see what updates you come out with! It will be great to become more integrated!

  • Lisa

    So, you can’t ask someone to share your promotion as one of the entries to your contest? I see people doing this ALL the time!

    • Lisa

      Sure but just because people do it doesn’t mean its allowed. Pages hav been running contests right on their page all along – but some HAVE been shut down for it.

  • Vanessa

    It’s about damn time too!! 3 cheers :-)

  • http://www.dragonblogger.com/ Justin Germino

    Nice breakdown of the new terms of service and what it means you can/can’t do when running giveaways or contests.

  • Helen GlitzyBitz Hudson

    Can you request that entrants have to like your page as well as the post itself??

    • Deby

      Yes, I’m still unsure about this one. Can we ask for a like for a facebook page as an entry? Its one of the standard options on Rafflecopter but I don’t see it mentioned here as OK.

    • http://www.Rafflecopter.com Juan Patten

      This one is a little subtle. You can offer an entry to everyone who likes your page – but that has to include people who already like the page, as well as newcomers. That’s why we have it worded/structured the way we do (in fact, we’ve had multiple discussions with Facebook about it to ensure we are playing by the rules).

      Does that help clear it up?

  • Helen GlitzyBitz Hudson

    Also what happens if people share the post even though you haven’t asked them to?

    • WendyBirdDesigns

      There’s nothing wrong with sharing – you just can’t use it as a means of winning.

      • http://www.rafflecopter.com Greg Goodson

        this

      • Firat

        Ok. You cannot use it as a means of winning or you cannot use it as a means of requirement for entering the contest? I am going to run a contest using a third party app. I require people to like my page first like a gate to enter the contest. After they like the page, they will fill out the form. (or they won’t if they are not happy with the rules – there will be a link to official rules before they like the page so if they want they can go and read) So, my question is this. Can I say this on my Facebook page that I created with the third party app – “Like our Facebook page to fill out the form for the contest”? The contest will run like 15 days later for a week. It will take a place on my website.

        I hope these information helps understand the concept of my contests.

        Thanks!

  • Jeff M.

    It states, “Personal timelines are still out of the question. Liking & commenting on a Facebook page / post is alright, but sharing isn’t!”

    Isn’t that what the “Enable Refer-A-Friend (aka. “viral sharing”)” on Rafflecopter is all about? Or, is that just referring to contests hosted on Facebook?

    • http://www.Rafflecopter.com Juan Patten

      Good question, Jeff! The way that works is via a subtle difference. It’s not OK to say “share this in exchange for an entry”, but it is OK to say “get one of your friends to enter in exchange for an additional entry”, which seems like roughly the same thing – but isn’t quite. It’s a little strange for sure, but we’ve been over it with the folks from Facebook and have the green light.

  • readingdiva

    Great information – thank you!

  • Julie

    Thsi makes no sense if you apply it to how RAFFLECOPTER is currently run with viral sharing. RC needs to explain this further – how is it legal to ask them to share on a RC Giveaway?

    • http://www.rafflecopter.com Greg Goodson

      Hey Julie – our refer-a-friend feature asks folks to share the giveaway, but you aren’t given an entry when you click ‘share’, but when someone enters the giveaway from the share link each entrant receives.

  • http://so-very.me/ Jenny

    well that’s all fine & dandy but how would you go about picking a winner? o.O

  • Wanting to follow the rules

    This is the only place that I have found that says you can now contact winners through Facebook. Can anyone help me find this information on Facebook. No disrespect meant to the author, but I’d like to see it for myself in Facebook’s rules that it’s now ok. I just can’t find it…

    • Alice
    • http://www.rafflecopter.com Greg Goodson

      In the old promotion guidelines, FB went out of their way to ask admins to contact winners off of Facebook. They removed this rule w/ the new guidelines, but I also read in the comments section of the post that FB made that it was w/in guidelines now. Cheers!

  • http://ecovegangal.com/ Eco-Vegan Gal

    Thanks so much for breaking it down!

  • http://mommyonlyhas2hands.org/ Heather – Mommy Only Has 2 Han

    Thanks for sharing this so we can all follow protocol.

  • Stacy Melendez

    I am deff. sharing this info! Thanks!

  • Caroline Clemmons

    Thanks for the information.

  • http://www.canadianangelxo.com/ Tasha

    I would like to write a post about the New Guidelines. I wanted to ask for permission to use some of the content from this article in my post. Is that OK? I don’t see any Copyright on this blog not to be able to, but just thought I would ask first :)

    • http://www.rafflecopter.com Greg Goodson

      Hey Tasha – you’re welcome to link to / reference our article. I’d prefer you not to directly copy and paste the content from our article though!

      • http://www.canadianangelxo.com/ Tasha

        Ooops that’s what I meant to ask! LOL! Thanks :)

  • JoBryan

    What will happen to people who flout the new terms,ie the sharers, these promotions are still being added regardless as brands continuing to ask for like and share.

    • http://www.rafflecopter.com Greg Goodson

      time will tell if FB is more strict w/ those folks incentivizing sharing – we touch on the subject a bit in our recent blog post. see #4 here –> http://blog.rafflecopter.com/2013/09/facebook-timeline-promotion-best-practices/

      while those promotions that ask entrants to share are putting their fan pages at risk, it’s ultimately up to FB to decide if they’re abusing page guidelines to the point where they should get a slap on the wrist or not.

  • JoBryan

    Please answer my other question about what happens if personal Facebook pages and brands still continue to promote share for entry. I told a company yesterday about the new policy and there reply means they think its OK…

    Hi Jo This competition is okay as it doesn’t require or ask you to share to enter. You are just sharing the message that if we do get a number of new likes, we will give away the money.

    Kind regards

    They are blatantly saying money will be given away for new likes, encouraging people to share!

  • http://www.sktthemes.com/ Professional Wordpress Themes

    Nice to know the 7 points…already pushing a company for our facebook promotion and this will surely come handy…

  • Emily Cotter

    Thanks for the update and the “translations.” I especially like the idea of groups using “likes” as a voting mechanism (number 2.) I think that it’s better than winning at random. These are great, free ways to gain momentum on a page.

    And i’m glad that you still can’t share as a means of voting or entering a sweepstake. Imagine how cluttered timelines would be!

    I’ve seen a lot of this stuff going on (wrongfully!) for a while now anyway, so it’s nice they have put the power back into the hands of the groups.

    Ecotter@mix.wvu.edu
    http://emilycharlottecotter.wordpress.com

    • http://www.rafflecopter.com Greg Goodson

      yeah – I don’t think ‘sharing’ for an entry will ever be allowed… cluttered news feeds would make me sad :(

  • Sarah Yoder

    Re: number two…how does one go about getting a “A complete release of Facebook by each entrant or participant.” It seems as though there would be more to it than to simply have someone “like” something! Do you need to have a little line of text in your promotion information stating that “by entering this promotion you are releasing facebook…blah, blah, blah”

  • Roz Hamilton

    just did a comment game on my page and it was amazing how easy it is..following your guidelines was excellent. TYSM!

    • http://www.rafflecopter.com Greg Goodson

      nice! glad to hear it was helpful :P

  • JoBryan

    Still no reply third post!

  • Ariel de

    Thanks for the amend and the “translations.” I abnormally like the abstraction of groups application “likes” as a voting apparatus (number 2.) I anticipate that it’s bigger than acceptable at random. These are great, chargeless means to accretion drive on a page.http://www.moreviews.net

  • Juliette Golsby-Smith

    So can I run comp on my business FB wall asking people to do the following for entry: ‘like’ our page ‘like’ the competition post, ‘invite your friends to enter too using the ‘INVITE’ button.

    I know the first to requests are ok but is the ‘invite’ friends part ok?

  • twenty21

    Hello there..can you give me some hints about where on a Timeline promotion would one include all the “legal” stuff such as:

    - A complete release of Facebook by each entrant or participant.
    _ Acknowledgement that the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. Etc.

    Cheers
    C

  • neha824

    this site helpful for facebook promotion.please visit this site http://www.moreviews.net

  • KJ

    This is a great concept, but it only brings up 7 statuses….not the one I am running my contest on and it doesn’t allow you to go back. Does me absolutely no good.

  • Richard Ressler

    This is kind of a grey area idea so I’d like to know what you guys think about it.

    I understand that I can not require sharing as a form of entry into the contest nor can I offer bonus entries into the contest for sharing.

    But, what if the suggestion/incentive to share was technically separate from contest. The ‘technically separate” part is the grey area…lol. Let me explain.

    Let’s say I run a contest from my blog for lets say an alarm clock. On my contest page I have my rafflecopter widget which has “Like Us on Facebook”, “Follow Us on Twitter”, “Tweet about the Giveaway”, and “Comment on a Blog Post” as options to enter the contest.

    But on the same contest page, I offer a Bonus “Thank You” gift (let’s say an Amazon gift card) to the winner of the contest if that person has shared articles from the blog (not necessarily sharing the contest itself) to their facebook page?

    The act of sharing content from the blog has no bearing on the chance to win the Contest Prize which is the Alarm Clock. No additional entries are given to people who share content and sharing does not have any bearing on choosing the winner of the contest. It is only have a contest winner has been chosen will I check to see if that person who won has shared content from my blog and if they have I will give then an additional “Thank You” gift (not technically a contest prize).

    Thoughts?