Facebook are notorious for changing their rules with little or no notice.  As a user (especially a business Facebook Page user) it’s up to you to keep abreast of all any new regulations, and make sure you’re following them.

Unfortunately, ignorance is not a defence: if you don’t toe the Facebook line, you could find your page deleted, and all your hard-earned ‘Likes’ absorbed back into the ether.

Despite the rules on competitions being changed nearly two years ago (May 2011) we regularly see promotions that blatantly breach them so we’ve pulled together a brief ‘how to’ guide to help keep you on the straight and narrow …

Basically, Facebook want nothing to do with your competition; in fact, they want to distance themselves as much as possible!

So, things to remember: 

You cannot run a competition anywhere on the timeline of your Page. Instead, it must be done via a third-party app  (essentially an independent page within a Facebook page) and the terms and conditions must very clearly state ‘that the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook’.

There are only three Facebook functions or features you’re allowed to utilise in the running of your competition: you can require people to Like your page, check in to a Place, or connect to the third-party app that will then direct them to your competition page.

However, none of these actions are allowed to grant automatic entry into the competition.  Instead, they are a stepping-stone that leads to your main means of entry: whether that be a multi-choice question, a task, or whatever you decide.

All other Facebook functions are off limits.  What that means is, you can’t ask people to Like or comment on a specific post on your timeline, and ‘a winner will be chosen at random from everyone who replies’.  Nor can you ask them to ‘upload your photos, and the funniest one will win’.

Similarly, you can’t use Facebook functions as voting mechanisms, ie: ‘Like your favourite photo, and the one with the most votes wins’.

You can’t even notify competition winners on your Facebook page, or via messages, or chat, or personal profiles.  It’s up to you to make sure you collect a means of contacting the eventual winner (an email address, phone number or Twitter handle), and you must make it clear it is you collecting the data, and not Facebook.

So, there it is: the basics of how to run a competition on your Facebook Page.

You can read the full rules and regulations here

If you’ve any questions or would like help in setting up your Facebook Page for future competitions then give us a shout!