Much like the FTC, Facebook’s advertising and promotions philosophy keeps the users’ experience in mind. Facebook has become a useful tool for advertising and promotion through social media marketing, especially for targeting specific audiences. This tool, however, does come with rules. Since Facebook can shut down your campaign if they find any violations, it is essential to understand their guidelines. In addition to following Facebook’s Privacy Policy and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, here are a few important things you should know about Facebook’s advertising and promotion guidelines:
1) Mind the platform:
- Written consent is not needed from a Facebook representative.
- Entry into a promotion on Facebook cannot be done through Facebook activities except by becoming a fan of the Facebook page. This means asking fans to post information on their friends’ walls to spread the word, uploading photos or videos, or changing their status in order to gain entry into the promotion is not allowed:
“In the rules of the promotion, or otherwise, you will not condition entry to the promotion upon taking any action on Facebook, for example, updating a status, posting on a profile or Page, or uploading a photo. You may, however, condition entry to the promotion upon becoming a fan of a Page.”(Facebook Promotion Guidelines, Section 4.2)
- This does not mean you can’t encourage the fans of the page to spread the word to the people in their networks; in fact, you should encourage people to spread the word about your campaign. It just means they can’t be required to do so in order to gain entry into the promotion.
- Proper usage of grammar, capitalization, punctuation and symbols is mandatory for advertisements not supported on the Facebook platform.
- You must obtain written approval from a Facebook account representative at least 7 days prior to the promotion’s commencement.
- Users must enter either through the canvas Page of an application, or on an application box under a tab on the Facebook Page.
- The restrictions on Facebook activity to gain entry into the promotion do not appear to apply to promotions through the Facebook platform.
2) Be Clear and Honest:
3) Take Full Responsibility:
- Whether or not you are using the Facebook platform, keep in mind that these promotions are yours. Facebook emphasizes that “you must not express or imply any affiliation or relationship with or endorsement with [Facebook]”(Section VII, Developer Principles and Policies.)
- Section 3.7.1 of Facebook’s Promotion Guidelines states that in the official rules of your promotion, you must acknowledge that “the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.”
- After browsing through a few promotions’ official rules, it seems this guideline does not seem to be strictly enforced. As long as you do not in the least bit imply or state that Facebook is endorsing or is affiliated with your promotion, you should be good to go.
- Questions, comments and complaints about the promotion are yours to handle, not Facebook’s.
4) Be Proper:
By abiding by these general points, marketing and advertising on Facebook shouldn’t pose a problem to your company’s campaigns. Facebook just wants to ensure users still have a good user experience while advertisers are promoting their company or product to a targeted audience. You should always be cautious when handling tools – Facebook is no exception. Use it wisely, and you will get results.
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Research and writing assistance provided by Craig Oda (coda at pageonepr.com, Twitter @codawork)
Tags: advertising, facebook, facebook promotion, social media, social media advertising
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Does this include in store promotions & discounts/sales? Or does this just refer to contests and promotions that require entries and prizes?
Hi Megan,
Thanks for your question. You probably need to follow the promotion guidelines even if you aren’t strictly running a contest with entries and prizes.
For example, let’s say your store website is promoting a deal (so this would not be on the Facebook platform) where if you become a fan of the Facebook page, you get a coupon on an item in the store. That’s in line with the guidelines, and should be just fine.
Does this answer your question? Please let me know, and feel free to send more questions my way.
So, if our brick and mortar stores are having a promotion: “Receive 25% off your entire purchase in stores” …Can I post this on my wall without having to get it approved by Facebook?
Thanks so much for the quick response!
You’re not buying an ad or running the promotion on or off the Facebook platform (like my example in the above reply) so I think a wall post promoting an in-store promotion is fine. Just make sure you’re clear to your Facebook fans about the discount (when it is, on what items…etc.) and you’re good to go!
Wonderful! Thank you so much for your article & answers! You have really helped!
Thanks for reading and commenting! I’m glad I could help.
Is this example acceptable?
On my facebook fan page I run a contest…whenever we reach fan # xxx that person wins $5 off a purchase at our brick and mortar store.
Also, is it acceptable to send coupons to all my fans via the Update option? For example, I send an update to all fans saying to print this update and bring it to our brick & mortar store for $5 off a purchase.
Thank you!
Hi DeAnn,
I should think that the contest where fan # xxx wins a $5 coupon is fine – all people have to do is become a fan of the Facebook page, is this correct?
And by “Update” option, do you mean a wall post or a message? Could you clarify please? I think I know what you’re going for, but I just want to clarify. This coupon is only going to be available to fans of the Facebook page, correct?
Thanks for responding!
Yes…all they would need to do is become a fan of the facebook page.
By “update”…that is how I communicate with just my fans…is there a better way? I want to be able to send all fans a coupon to use in my brick and mortar store. Just fans, no one else. I’ve been “sending an update” to all fans. However many don’t check their updates.
I’d love some creative promotion ideas if you have any!
thanks!
Hi again,
Sorry it has taken me a while to get back to you. If your updates are just going to your fans, perhaps you could promote the update on your Facebook Page wall (everyone will see it, including non-fans, so maybe that will help your fans become aware of their updates and non-fans want to become fans! So, for example, you could post: “Fans – check your updates for an exclusive coupon!” Or something along those lines?)
After some research, I think it might be tricky to create a tab on your business page just for your fans, but I believe it can be done. There’s a tutorial here, if you’re interested: http://lorrainesiew.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/facebook-pages-introduction-to-fbml/
Please don’t hesitate to ask more questions!
Thank you for simplifying the guidelines around running a contest on FB. My question is, if I try to contact an account rep using the FB form to recieve permission to run my contest on the FB platform, it asks me to create an ad. Is this necessary in order to run a contest through the FB platform?
Secondly, if I choose to go another route, am I safe to create a microsite for my contest and promote that through a tab on my FB page without permission from a FB rep?
First I would like to say that I think this is Facebook trying to make money off of small businesses. If I could afford Pay Per Click advertising I would buy it on a major seach engine. Here is my question. Typically I draw random #’s for Fans only @ every 100 fans. That person is then awarding a Store Credit or an item from my store. Same for referral promotions. My understanding is that I am now unable to GIVE anything away without FB’s permission. However, if I offer it as a SPECIAL DEAL at every 100 fans offered to 1 lucky fan chosen by random Fan # draw and Charge per se $1 is that abiding by the Rules? Please advise.
Hi! Thanks for your guys’ comments and questions! I’ll try to answer them as best as I can. Sorry it has taken me a little bit; I just wanted to confirm with my colleague the proper advice to give to you guys.
Julie – For your first question, I think there is a required ad-buy to run a promotional campaign on Facebook. To actually run a campaign through the platform, this is necessary. It is not, however, if you’re simply promoting a contest that is run on another page. For your second question, it is fine to create a microsite for your contest but you probably cannot put it on a tab. It’s safer to promote it simply by posting something on your page wall saying go to this URL to enter my contest. The only thing you can do on Facebook if you’re not running the campaign on the platform is encourage someone to become a fan, but you cannot ask them to do anything else, including submitting their information, through Facebook.
Michelle – How are you contacting your fans that are randomly drawn for store credit or an item from your store? If you’re not running your promotion through the Facebook platform, you should have a separate site where people can submit their information because you are not allowed to do that if you’re only using Facebook to promote your giveaway. It’s fine to promote by asking fans to join the Facebook page, but any other activity is prohibited. Could you explain a little further what you mean by charge per se $1?
Thanks for reading and I hope this helps. Please feel free to send more questions my way.
DeAnn – Know that you cannot contact and obtain somebody’s information through the Facebook platform. I know you were thinking about randomly selecting a fan to get a coupon, but you cannot inform them through Facebook. Entry through a separate site is the safer way to go, but you can certainly promote this other site on Facebook perhaps through a wall post encouraging fans to click the URL to enter.
It would not be a “giveaway” if it cost the consumer paid $1. Obviously the item would be worth more than that and would be offered to only 1 person at random. I have set up a blog to host my “giveaway” I will now only contact “contestants” outside of FB. I feel this is the best way. I understand that Twitter does not have such restrictions. I will check them out as well.
Hi Michelle,
Setting up your blog was a good idea. Twitter is a good way to go, be sure to read the guidelines there as well. We have a lot of tips on our blog about Twitter too
Hi Paulina, GREAT posts! I would like to give away branded apparel randomly to our FB fans as well as our own Vlog site members (website provided), as well as encourage people to become FB fans and registered users of our Vlog. Trying to come up with a way to integrate the promo to both groups while at the same time not making it confusing and not breaking any FB rules. In addition, our Vlog Login Register uses a plug-in called WP-FB Connect (Wordpress-Facebook Connect) which allows users to register and login to our site thru their existing FB account and passwd. First timer’s attempting to register on our site through their FB acct settings are prompted by a window after they hit enter, asking if our blog site can connect with their personal info and retrieve their email and bday. Is this as tricky as it seems or do u have a suggestion for how to make our promo simple without breaking FB rules? Thx in advance!
Hi Alex,
Thank you so much for reading and commenting! As for your promotion, I think what you have to be careful of is how you get a user’s information. Does the WP-FB connect automatically ask for that information, or are you customizing the program to do so? It might be safer to have the registrations separate, so you don’t run the risk of making it seem like Facebook is involved in the promotion in any way. My colleague Susan confirmed that you are not allowed to contact and obtain user information through Facebook for a promotion (unless you’re running it directly on the Facebook platform, that’s different and requires an account with a Facebook representative.) You can definitely promote your Facebook page on your Vlog page, which it seems like you’ve done since I can see a Facebook “Like” box.
It might be a good idea to encourage people on the Facebook page to register for your Vlog (this is if the registrations are separate) by promoting the giveaway, but the giveaway would need to be hosted on your Vlog and not on Facebook (so, people would need to enter their user information on the Vlog, and not on Facebook.) Does this make sense? Let me know what you think, and if you have any other ideas or questions you want to run by me please don’t hesitate to do so
Thank u so much for your INSTANT reply! It helps a lot. I’m still a lil unsure on whether or not to use WP-FB Connect. The plug-in is designed to prompt the user for FB data, I didn’t program it that way, that’s how it’s designed to work (but that’s one reason I like it!)
I thought I had this figured out after reading your reply, but then I read your blog post “How to Make Sure your Promotion is Within Facebook’s Guidelines”. It clearly states the difference between “Administering” and “Publicizing” a promo on FB platform versus another site platform, with the main concern being that of “collecting user data” ON FB. But according to the article, you can publicize and manage ur campaign on FB thru the Wildfire Web App / Promo Builder and get around the user data collection technicality because the “actual” registration and gathering of the data is happening outside of FB, thru Wildfire. Isn’t that what my WP-FB Connect plug-in is doing…gathering the data outside of FB on my Vlog Registration page, with the proviso it’s asking specifically for FB user data?
I know I can just forgo the plug-in but it’s such a nice ez way for people to register and login precisely because their user data is housed and protected by FB. That’s the other selling feature behind the plug-in. User doesn’t feel like they are providing new user info to various new websites, just sharing existing FB data with a new site they want to register with.
Hi Alex,
I definitely understand the convenience of the WP-FB plug-in, I just wanted to be clear of what it was doing. From the sounds of it, it seems fine to keep the plug-in if it’s to link WordPress and Facebook, so people can just log-in and blog from their Facebook account and blog. I think people have used this capability successfully, and it’s not for the purposes of getting information for a promotion, so I think it is okay.
After reading the Wildfire blog post, I think with Wildfire, participants are entering their information on the Wildfire platform, and not on Facebook, correct? So Wildfire isn’t actually extracting user information from a Facebook profile – it says that when they need to enter information, they are re-directed to the Wildfire website where they collect the information. So it’s fine to use WP-FB Connect to users can blog through the single account, but if you want to run the promotion, you will have to contact them and obtain information through the blog or another additional site, not on Facebook. Is this giving you a better picture? Please let me know. I’m here to help.
It’s pretty clear now, Paulina. You guys r tremendous. Forever grateful. I’m sure I’ll turn to u again…if u don’t mind
Have an awesome weekend from your friends at HispanosEnMiami!
Alex,
It was no problem at all! Thanks for reading the blog and commenting. I’m so glad we could help. Don’t hesitate to turn to us whenever you need to. We’re always here, and we often post tips and guides for using social media. Hope you have a nice weekend too
Is it ‘allowed’ to ask people to tag themselves in a photo which you will then randomly draw a person to win that particular item? It seems to be happening quite a lot lately.
Hi Lynette,
Thanks for reading and commenting! From my understanding of the guidelines, unless you’re running your promotion on the Facebook platform (which entails working with a Facebook representative…etc.,) I don’t think that’s allowed. It says in the guidelines that you are only allowed to have someone become a fan to be eligible for your promotion, nothing else. You’re not even allowed to contact the winner and obtain their information through Facebook – publicizing your promotion on the wall, or through an update, is fine, as well as encouraging people to become fans of the Page, but the promotion must be administered on another website so as not to lead people to think Facebook is affiliated with the promotion. Of course, if a member did tag themselves in a picture on the page voluntarily, it would be fine, but doing so wouldn’t be allowed to be a requirement for entering a promotion.
Hello,
Would it be ok to ask fans trivia questions on our wall, and offer a prize to the 1st person who answers correctly that they can pick up at our office location, or would I need to go through the Facebook platform?
Hi Jenny,
Thanks for reading and for your question! I think a safe way to do this kind of promotion is to ask the question on your Facebook wall, but have it so that people reply to you via e-mail instead of just posting the response on your wall. This way, it’s less likely that you’ll violate the guidelines since people will be contacting you outside of Facebook to win. Even safer is if you use a wall post or update on Facebook to direct them to another website where the question(s) will be posted – if you do this, you can have them post their answers directly onto the other website instead of having them e-mail you if you so choose. There is a rule that states the only thing people can do on Facebook if you’re running a promotion off the Facebook platform is become a fan to gain entry into the promotion, so I wouldn’t risk having someone post the answer on your wall in case that’s a violation. Does that make sense?
Thanks so much-makes perfect sense!!
No problem, Jenny!
Feel free to comment and ask as many questions on any of our blog posts – we’re here for you!
A local winery has asked me to create a coupon for their Facebook page which visitors could download or print. The coupon would entitle them to a free wine tasting when they visit the winery. I’m trying to figure out whether this would be allowed under Facebook’s guidelines and whether I can do it as a PDF that could be downloaded from an FBML page. I don’t have access to the client’s website to post the coupon there. I’d appreciate any thoughts you might have on this.
Hi Penny,
Sorry it has taken me a while to get back to you! It has been a busy week. I don’t think it’s a good idea to download the coupon off the Facebook platform, just to be safe. I think the best thing to do is promote the coupon on your Facebook, maybe through a link on the wall (status update,) which fans could then click through to a third-party website to download the coupon. Maybe it might be good to put the coupon on the winery’s website – this way, fans would be led back to the winery’s official website through Facebook as well as the coupon. Does that make sense?