Posted by Roxanne Rives

So you sat down with the marketing team today and decided you are running a contest on facebook huh? Did you read the rulebook yet?

Facebook, promotions, large audiences. These things all go together as we have seen promotions becoming a popular way for marketing teams to reach facebook’s 400 million monthly active users. If you see your facebook profile scattered with ads on having the chance to win a big prize, go away on a cool trip or have the latest electronic gadget in your own palm, well, chances are you might just check it out and sign up.

When deciding you have the great idea of running a contest on facebook, step back one pace because it must be first understood that promotions and contests are regulated through the United States part and even in some other countries there are laws on what you can and can’t do when holding a contest.

With tons of fake giveaways, prize terms that make no sense and other issues that may violate your privacy, facebook is a social network that takes precautions to protect users and itself from fake companies and individuals that want to take advantage of you.

Facebook has been a set of official promotional guidelines you muyst agree too when holding a promotion. The rules govern the administering of any sweepstakes, contests, or other promotions on Facebook.

The guidelines are updated often; a more detailed explanation is inside Facebook’s Marketing Bible. (buy the book on the link above)

Read the facebook promotions guidelines

Make sure you are up-to-date with all changes. The guidelines currently include information on what Facebook’s definition of a promotion is including “sweepstakes,” and “contests” as well as general terms that apply to Facebook’s legal protection and rights. Facebook has a list of specific types of actions that promotions can or can’t include.

Marketing teams need to understand how important these rules are when holding a contest or any promotion on facebook, as the penalties and consequences can be large.

Get the contest or promotion approved

Anyone who wants to run a contest or promotion on Facebook first needs to get approval from facebook. In order to access this, first, you need to spend around $10,000 in Facebook advertising.

You have to do this first. According to Facebook, it needs to manually approve all promotions to ensure that each one is legal. If you’re with a small business or other organization with a limited advertising budget, a Facebook promotion is probably not for you.

However, I suggest you experiment with a small amount of Facebook advertising targeted the users you want to reach.If that route is successful, then you might look into running a contest.

Do not require the user to take action

You cannot require users to do anything on facebook to enter the contest other than “liking” your Page.

If you are advertising the contest on your own website, you cannot require someone to join facebook first to enter the contest. If they are not a member of facebook, they have to be able to still enter the contest.

facebook limits the countries that you can have contest in

If you are wanting to run a contest outside the United States, note that all “sweepstakes” are not allowed in Belgium, Norway, Sweden, or India. Make sure Facebook users from those countries will not be able to participate. Other prohibited items include those that market to people under 18, to countries embargoed by the U.S. or require the “purchase of a product, completion of lengthy task or other such considerations.”

Prizes that promote “gambling, tobacco, firearms, prescription drugs, or gasoline ” are not allowed on Facebook. The prize itself cannot include “alcohol, tobacco, dairy, firearms, or prescription drugs.”

Never EVER call Facebook Your ‘Partner’

Facebook’s promotions guidelines state many times you can’t say that you’re partnering with Facebook,they say exactly this… “You will not directly or indirectly indicate that Facebook is a sponsor or administrator of the promotion or mention Facebook in any way in the rules or materials relating to the promotion.”

Many companies have done that, they have paid the consequences. Even if you think you can try it, trust me, facebook has large automated systems that look for that sort of thing, get caught and you will pay the price.

There are many other things you must be aware of when deciding to run a contest on facebook. Make sure you read the entire guideline set from front to back.

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This entry was posted on Monday, May 17th, 2010 at 8:30 am and is filed under Brand, Customers, Press, Promote, Public Relations, Techniques. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

About the Author: Trying out about 3 new sites per week, Roxanne has chosen Social Media as her flavor. She spends several hours a day online, with a heavy focus on Facebook and Twitter. Learning, reading and sharing with other Social Medialites, Roxanne enjoys StumbleUpon in the place of her cup of coffee every morning. Combining Reddit, Digg, Blogger and Technorati, she recommends anyone to try out several pieces of Social Media and then narrow down to a few favorites that work for you based on your needs. Check out her blog at Social Media Rox.