Running promotions on Facebook can be very effective for your overall marketing strategy. You can reach a highly engaged audience in a short period of time if your promotion goes viral. The credibility from a well-executed Facebook promotion is superior to just about anywhere else on the internet. There are guidelines surrounding promotions on Facebook, however. These guidelines are rather strict, and failure to follow them could result in corrective actions from Facebook including possible removal of your promotion. Thus, it is important to understand all Facebook promotion guidelines in order to ensure you implement a compliant campaign.
Common Promotion Mistakes
One of the most common mistakes made by businesses is using their own Facebook page to try and implement a promotion. The page can advertise the promotion, however, any functionality associated with the promotion such as a registration page must be placed on a view (formally known as a tab) managed through a third-party application that is not hosted by Facebook. You cannot use any Facebook function to create or market your promotion. In addition, you must adhere to the complete terms of Facebook’s disclosure policy, including creating certain release wording clarifying that Facebook is in no way associated with your promotion. Next, make sure your contest rules are clearly stated on your application page. If there are missing rules or the rules are unclear, Facebook has the right to shut down your promotion. Your rules should cover everything that might arise during your contest, and must be in accordance with the prevailing laws governing sweepstakes and contests of the jurisdiction(s) in which your promotion will be held.
Don’t Use Facebook Itself to Promote
When Facebook says you cannot use any of their core functionality to administer promotion, they mean any of the more common activities such as Facebook’s “Like” or “Share” buttons as a means of collecting data. Likewise, you cannot contact winners through Facebook, whether via a message or on their wall.
What You Can Do
Clearly, when it comes to Facebook promotion guidelines, there are a lot of things that are prohibited. Instead, leverage the popularity of the platform but use a third-party application to run the promotion such as registration for sweepstakes or for uploading photos and videos for a contest. You can also collect names and emails through the third-party app, so that you can contact contest winners. You may promote your content on your Facebook page, and use the “like” or “share” features so long as use those featured do not translate into, for example, a sweepstakes entry. If you simply post a link to your content on Facebook, you should be fine.
If you are thinking about developing promotions on Facebook, you might want to consider engaging the services of a marketing company experienced in the interpretation of Facebook regulations and disclosure requirements. Marden-Kane’s thorough understanding of Facebook’s guidelines can help optimize your promotion so that it is viewed by the most people and provides you with the greatest return, while ensuring your promotion runs through to its successful completion. Contact Marden-Kane today to maximize your chances of running a successful contest.