There’s basically no such thing as doing any type of marketing without social platforms being part of the grand plan. Their reach is undeniable. While social platforms are an integral part of today’s marketing landscape, each one of them has their own restrictions and rules to abide by, and they’re not always easy to figure out.
Platforms such as Instagram & Facebook (Meta) specifically state that they will not provide any guidance, leaving it up to marketers to ensure that they are not running afoul of Meta’s guidelines.
In addition to social platform guidelines, there’s FTC rules to contend with. And let’s not forget about laws protecting PII, which makes running a sweepstakes or contest on socials a challenging task.
So what to do?
Work with an experienced agency such as Marden-Kane that can help you navigate the landmines. It may not be as easy as it once was, but we can guide you on the best practices to run a successful sweepstakes or contest campaign on social.
Things to keep in mind…
First, your promotion must follow the promotion guidelines specific to each social media platform, the official rules must clearly release any liability from the respective platform, and if applicable, acknowledge that they are not sponsoring nor endorsing said promotion.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines state that sweepstakes must be free to enter, full official rules must be easily accessible, legible, & understandable, and disclosures must be unavoidable, especially near any call to action. If there is an incentive for participating on a social platform, the entrant is required to use specific promotional hashtags to accompany their post.
Most social platforms’ rules are closely aligned with the FTC, along with only running promotions on the Sponsor’s properties (timeline/pages/groups/events), not on the participant’s properties. Additionally, you cannot require participants to like, share, or comment on a post, which falls under the category of “engagement bait.” Nor can you require anyone to tag themselves in content where they do not appear or tag their friends.
X is slightly more lenient in that they more readily allow for posting a particular update, or following a particular account, but still require a specific hashtag. But as with others, any attempt at “gaming” the system with multiple retweets, reposts, or the creation of multiple accounts will land you in trouble.
This is not an exhaustive checklist of all the do’s and don’ts, which is why partnering with an experienced agency such as Marden-Kane is vital.
So what do we recommend?
The best strategy is to use social platforms as an announcement mechanism for your campaigns, but send your followers to a dedicated site for submitting entries. In this way all pertinent information will be captured on a secure form allowing for an easy way to draw and contact winners. If it’s a contest, the submission can reside on the social platform, with a link to it submitted with the entry form. This way, judges can easily view all entries in one location from Marden-Kane’s proprietary judging tool.
And by not being locked into the social platform, there is no need to give anyone access to your brand’s admin account. Marden-Kane can do the heavy lifting, leaving your brand managers to do what they do best, promote your brand.
Want to know more? Contact us and we’ll get you to where you need to be.