The Facebook Rules Regarding Giveaways on the Site
If you use Facebook as a tool to market and grow your business, it is very important to abide by their firm policies and rules. A new concern for many businesses and individuals are the rules regarding giveaways on Facebook. There has even been a large number of business pages shutdown for hosting giveaways and other promotions on their Facebook page. Although it is sometimes inconceivable to think that with a click of a button all of the hard work invested in building and growing your following could all be gone, it does happen. Facebook never says that businesses cannot host a giveaway however; they must follow all guidelines in order to keep their promotion and page from deletion. Below is a rough outline of the new guidelines regarding giveaways on Facebook.
Promotional Guidelines
Promotions must be managed and controlled within Apps on Facebook.com
Promotions must include:
o A complete release by all contestants.
o An acknowledgement that the promotion is in no way endorsed by, or associated with Facebook.
o Disclosure that the participant is providing information to the host of the promotion, and not Facebook.
You cannot use Facebook features as a means for registration for the promotion. (ex. Liking a page cannot automatically enter a participant into a promotion)
You cannot use Facebook features as voting devices for a promotion.
You cannot notify winners through Facebook messaging services such as Facebook chat, messages, or posts on profiles or pages.
You may not use Facebook’s name, copyrights, trademarks or any intellectual property in connection with a promotion, except as needed to acknowledge Facebook is in no way endorsing the promotion.
The full and comprehensive list of promotional guidelines can be found on Facebook under their term of service page. Facebook has implemented these policies for many reasons, while they may cause a problem for some they really do serve a valuable purpose. Participant’s information is much safer within an application though Facebook and these guidelines cut back on a lot of the spam found on many pages. These rules and regulations regarding giveaways on Facebook are simple steps the Facebook staff is currently taking to ensure the user experience of their website remains delightful and pleasant.
