You cannot use Facebook’s functionality to act as an entry mechanism into a competition. This means you cannot automatically register someone into a competition because they liked your page or shared your photo.
You cannot use the like button as a voting mechanism for a competition. For example, you cannot upload an album of photos that have been submitted to a competition and ask your fans to ‘like’ their favourite with the photo with the most ‘likes’ being the winner.
You must not notify the winner of your legitimately run competition through Facebook. That means no post congratulating the winner if they haven’t already been privately notified off Facebook.
Whether you were aware of these rules or not, they have been in place for years, and still every day businesses are breaking them, with small business being the biggest offender.
So what’s the harm in breaking the rules? Well, if Facebook decides to punish you, quite a bit actually! You could suffer a short-term ban from Facebook, or you can even lose your entire Facebook page and all its fans, and potentially have to pay to reinstate it.
Two New Zealand businesses, Velvet Burger and Hell Pizza, both suffered by losing their Facebook pages for a significant period of time after breaking Facebook’s T&Cs.
In India, even big businesses like FCUK and Cadbury were banned for their against-the-rules promotional activity.
So how can you ensure that your Facebook page does not meet the same fate?
Put simply, follow the rules.
It might seem like running a competition on your page is not so simple anymore, and that’s partly true, but there are plenty of tools out there to help you and they won’t cost you a bomb.
Companies such as Tiger Pistol offer a build-your-own-promotion service that you can implement very easily, and can cost as little as $9.95 per month. Surely your Facebook page and its fans are worth more than that!
Don’t risk becoming another Velvet Burger or Hell Pizza, your social media sites are a huge asset to your business and you can’t afford to lose them!
