Thinking Of Running A Contest on Facebook? Think Again!

I was expecting this post to be about some bad experience on holding a contest there. Never thought of the legal reasons about it on their site. Good info!

The most exasperating part of all of this is that many people would be willing to jump through the hoops to make sure their promotions, giveaways and contests met the legal rules, but Facebook seems to have just said, “Don’t Bother.” If you must gain approval through an account executive but account executives will only be assigned to those with big budgets, yikes. Can everyone say Catch 22?

Jesse,

I’m glad I read your blog! I’m not surprised that Facebook has taken this position; it’s becoming more and more common. My old company just made this decision regarding their web tool, and I don’t blame them. Contest regulations are a bear, and the legal ramifications are steep.

It’s kind of a shame, and the for-pay games/contests/sweepstakes providers are expensive and clunky, but it will ultimately make me think harder about how to build community and a following without an easy incentive like a giveaway. A more valuable community, at that.

Back to the drawing board. Thanks for the heads up! This makes for a lot more research as we were planning a promotion on FB.

Time to go back to MySpace?

Good (if harsh) analysis, Mari. theKbuzz will have a solution for small business that meets facebook’s new guidelines soon (ideally by 11/13).

Very interesting!!

Does the law REALLY NEED TO BE THIS COMPLICATED?

I mean, come on, just kick off the spammers that get complaints!

This is another reminder that social media is just in the infant stage of its journey. Originally facebook was not meant to be a marketing tool and perhaps this is their way of claiming their vision back for their site. This gives all of us entrepreneurs a change to adapt and flex our creativity muscles!

@Josh your right does this mean even MORE spam on twitter? I am wondering what other sites will take from facebook’s actions?

OK, we’ll all use our blogs - to heck with FB! I used FB much more since the contest - now I’ll use/recommend it less!

These new rules are confusing me. It seems to me that Facebook wants businesses to have Fan Pages and pay them for advertising, but don’t want them to be able to use their Fan pages to do anything fun with their Fans. As a business user, this kills me. I’m still trying to get in touch with my sales rep to find out exactly what these rules will mean for the monthly contests that we have been running on our Facebook page for the past year.

Thanks for the info. That said, however, people must be able to get the written approval because I just entered to win one of their contests. A Netgear RangeMax WNDR3700 router. I’m happy people are willing to go through the legal ease to submit contests on Facebook because it’s an easy way to participate!!

[...] recent article from Mari Smith highlights the dangers of putting all of your marketing eggs in the Facebook [...]

[...] You can create contests using third party apps and some other ways that are too confusing (and very expensive) to try and explain. Mari Smith does a pretty good job explaining how you can go about that difficult process on her blog Read her post HERE [...]

I can always count on learning something new from Mari Smith. Just when I thought I knew it all, I could visit her site and she has more to offer each and every day. Your the greatest Mari !!

Seems like a trend…for every step forward for Facebook (profile layout improvements, for example), they take 2 steps back. Twitter is so much easier to understand and use, and there are always cool new improvements coming out via Twitter and 3rd party apps. I know where I’ll be spending more of my time!

I posted about this on my blog yesterday and we’ve had quite a discussion on the comments over there. Some think it’s still okay, but I know that the verbiage says no, explicity, unless you’re running a contest using an App. I’ll refrain from using any part of FB in any of my giveaways.

I’ve never done a contest on Facebook and don’t think I’ve actually seen anyone else do one.

However, I do have a question — which is probably a moot point, since I’d have to get approval from FB first….or, would I?

I’ll just ask the question! Suppose I decide I want to hold a contest and create a landing page and marketing and promotion all completely Facebook-Free.

I currently use hellotxt.com to broadcast my tweets to several social networking sites (when that’s what I want to do for the particular tweet), including Facebook.

When it hits my Facebook status, would they consider that a prohibited marketing of a contest on their platform?

[...] analysis of the implications of these new policies can be found on the blogs of Nick O’Neal, Justin Smith, Kristen Parrish , CNETand Mari [...]

Prior to the new rules, I ran a contest to fill a fan page. The results were fabulous. But, alas, as soon as I found “the holy grail” the rules changed.

Although FB has many advantages in overall social marketing, at a moments notice we can get our hand slapped. What this means, follow the experts (like you Mari) to find out what is happening and keep up on the latest and greatest.

Great idea. Go a head and making it live. There are many contest running today. You should try some thing new and unique.

Well runnind a contest on facebook is a great idea keep it up

[...] to reports the costs of getting that written consent can be large. Why Facebook reports that running a promotion in a Facebook application or “fan page” requires [...]

Thank you for the great post never thought of a contest but saved me time now. http://familygroupfinancialusa.com

[...] Word of Facebook caution! Companies that plan on running contests on Facebook need to proceed with caution. Facebook just announced that brands, advertisers, and marketers that want to run contests or sweepstakes on its platform have to go through an approval process first. And it could get pricey.  For more information, check out this post by Mari Smith. [...]

I understand why Facebook had to do this, there is a lot of spamming, going on. Because the price tag is so steep and there is an application process, I think this may hinder businesses engaging on Facebook in some ways. That being said, its not the end of the world, there are plenty of better ways to interact with customers/fans.

So LAME! just waiting for a new social site to hit so we don’t have to deal with that..isn’t that what everyone was saying when myspace started doing similar things like this. that’s why so many people left Myspace. too many changes.

Ok so I can’t have a fan page on Facebook at all for my giveaway blog now? I’m still confused! Hahaha!

[...] Just ask your Facebook fans to upload their entries. Using the commenting tools provided, you can work up some guidelines for judging or just highlight and post the best stuff on your wall to promote the video makers. Even better, by posting appropriate policies and guidelines, you can get permission to use anything uploaded for company advertisements, projects and more. However, you should beware that Facebook has recently implemented some strict promotional rules.  See this post for more on that. [...]

[...] lugar. Y podría llegar a ser caro. Para obtener más información, echa un vistazo a este post por Mari Smith (en [...]

I could rationalize facebook’s motives, such as liability risk, for disassociating itself from contests until it decided to reserve contest privileges to the highest bidders. This disregard for the “little guy” is frustrating, but I have no doubt that the creative minds behind social media marketing will come up with new and innovative ways to promote contests.

I think no need for contests, I mean facebook and other networking sites can be of help…$10,000 is really a big money for an advertisement that can only reach like a number of people….only those who have facebook…I’m sure there are other ways… Thanks! Informative!

[...] Just ask your Facebook fans to upload their entries. Using the commenting tools provided, you can work up some guidelines for judging or just highlight and post the best stuff on your wall to promote the video makers. Even better, by posting appropriate policies and guidelines, you can get permission to use anything uploaded for company advertisements, projects and more. However, you should beware that Facebook has recently implemented some strict promotional rules.  See this post for more on that. [...]