There’s been some confusion around Facebook and blog giveaways and what you can and can’t do. I figured I would do some digging around and see what I could find out. I am asked quite often to use Facebook as a entry option for my giveaways so it’s important to make sure no rules are being broken.
I looked under Terms on Facebook and found the Facebook Promotion Guidelines where it lays it out for you…in legalese of course!
Here’s a few key points I found out that would be applicable to giveaways:
- If you are using the Facebook platform for your giveaway, you are not allowed for people who fit the following criteria to enter: under 18 years old, from a country embargoed by the USA, from Norway, Sweden, India or Belgium, can’t have a prize that is considered a dairy product, giveaways where you have to purchase a product or complete a lengthy task to enter.
- You must get written approval from Facebook before running a promotion through Facebook. If you do get the written approval through Facebook, then people can only enter on the canvas page of an application OR on an application box on your Facebook page. I’ve seen these before run by Wildfire.
- You do not need to get written approval from Facebook if you are doing a giveaway that is administered completely off Facebook. This would apply to the typical blog giveaway where you have people leave comments on your blog for entries and you select the winner from the comments on your blog and NOT from your Facebook fans! Facebook WILL DISABLE your page if you break these rules!
- You can’t condition the entry to the giveaway by asking the reader to take any action on Facebook like updating their status, posting on a profile or wall, or uploading a photo. So this would mean you can’t tell them to “Like” your page and write something on your wall. I see this quite a bit and it’s a no-no.
- You CAN ask the reader to “like” your Facebook page for an entry. This is allowed!
Facebook has laid out a few examples of how to apply their rules and I’d like to share them with you:
You cannot: Condition entry in the promotion upon a user providing content on Facebook, such as making a post on a profile or Page, status comment or photo upload.
You can: Use a third party application to condition entry to the promotion upon a user providing content. For example, you may administer a photo contest whereby a user uploads a photo through a third-party application to enter the contest. My note: This was my Wildfire example from above.
You cannot: Administer a promotion that users automatically enter by becoming a fan of your Page. My note- this to me applies to those referral contests we see so often. Get an entry just by liking my page. There’s no third-party involved here and they would be picking the winner directly from these Facebook fans. With a blog giveaway, it’s off Facebook and it’s selected from the comments received.
You can: Only allow fans of your Page to access the tab that contains the third-party application for the promotion.
You cannot: Notify winners through Facebook, such as through Facebook messages, chat, or posts on profiles or Pages.
You can: Collect an address or email through the third-party application for the promotion in order to contact the winner by email or standard mail.
You cannot: Instruct people (in the rules or elsewhere) to sign up for a Facebook account before they enter the promotion.
You can: Instruct users to visit the third-party application to enter the promotion (as described in Section 3.4(i)). Since users must have a Facebook account in order to access an application on the Facebook Platform, if you give this instruction, they will be prompted to sign up for a Facebook account if they do not already have one.
About Stacie
Good grief! Thank you so much for letting us know and clearing it up a bit. I think I have been following the rules, but I will watch much more closely now!
Thanks for the post…I’ve been trying to follow the FB guidelines to the best of my ability.
These guidelines can be a little confusing. But I guess the gist of it is if you’re running a contest on your blog you’re ok?
Yes as long as you just say like the page for an entry and then they leave a comment on your blog. You can’t ask them to like your page and write something on the Facebook wall.
Thanks so much for posting this. I am new to doing giveaways on my blog and I want to make sure i follow all the protocols when it comes to suggesting followers to “Like” the sponsors on FB! Thanks again!
Thanks so much Stacie! I have told people to like a companies page AND write on their wall as an entry. I didn’t know it was a no-no! Thanks for the info!
Stacie-
Thank you so much for spelling this out–the Facebook rules are so confusing, so I stopped having Facebook as a component to my giveaways. Now I know how to set up my giveaways correctly to comply with their rules.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Jules
Thanks, I didn’t know all of this! I didn’t know it was prohibited to have them write on the wall as part of the entry.
Hi, I’m a new follower! Thanks so much for this info…I’m new to hosting the giveaways, so this is good to know, even if I am still a little confused! Do you know if it is okay to post a link on your Facebook wall to your blog page that has the giveaway? It seems silly not to be able to do that. And since my blog is networked, those posts show up on my blog tab automatically. Thanks!
Visit me at http://www.all-americanbaby.blogspot.com
That would be fine because it’s not an entry- just you promoting it. I do it all the time with mine.
Thanks for the heads up! I’ve got to admit I was totally unaware of the rules, and I need to change some things with how my giveaways/photo contests run. Is Wildfire free for hosting photo contests?
No, it’s something you have to pay for unfortunately.
And its PRICEY.
Yes, I figured they would be expensive. I usually only see big companies using their application.
I’m glad someone wrote this – I had seen that you can’t require people to leave a message on a Facebook page, but I’m still seeing a lot of blogs doing it. Thanks a bunch!
Thanks for the info – lots of stuff I never knew!
Thanks so much for the research, Stacie. That really does help a lot!
Just for clarity, Facebook can be in the “extra” category. We can have them like our page or a company’s page.
BUT
Can we ask as the “extra” entry for the entrant to post something like, “Stopping by from Simply Stacie” OR post on their own wall, “I’m entering a giveaway (url) from Simply Stacie, enter today”.
Thanks for all these topics re: Reviews and Giveaways! You are so handy!! You are much appreciated.
You can’t make them take an action on Facebook. The only thing allowed is to get them to Like a Page but not write something on the wall or on their profile.
Hope this helps
Yep, that helps. Was at a conference this summer N was told it was ok to leave a comment. I see it everywhere. Will go change my giveaways right now!
Thanks, Stacie, I posted on my blog with a trackback to your site. What a great useful tool to make sure we all follow the rules and stay legal. Thanks!
I wrote a post about this almost 1 year ago today…
http://myweeview.com/2009/11/new-facebook-rules-am-i-in-trouble-again/
It’s pretty much the same rules now as it was then
Thanks for the reminder
Lynette
xo
thanks for clearing up the confusion!
I haven’t done it but I find this absurd (if it’s true, I haven’t researched it): “You cannot: Notify winners through Facebook, such as through Facebook messages, chat, or posts on profiles or Pages.” I’ll notify someone any freaking way I want!
In fact, sometimes emails to go junk and I’ve asked winners through twitter to check their junk mail.
It’s true- I found all the info here: http://www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php
True or not, I think it is open to interpretation. It seems to me that the language is addressing those sweepstakes that only notify winners through FB. I think if you’re sending an email to the winner and then following up through FB that is fine. I know some emails to right to spam so I typically try to reach a winner any way I can. I have DM’d winners through twitter to check their junk folder for a prize they won. I wouldn’t hesitate to do so through FB if they were a contact or follower of mine. And FB certainly can’t tell me that I can’t contact winners or entrants through FB. That’s like telling me what I can or cannot write about to my friends or contacts.
But thanks for your post. I haven’t been doing any of the “comment on my wall” or mandatory “like” entries so I know I am safe. However, FB CANNOT tell me how to or how not to contact anyone I am connected to, or what subject matters I may contact them about. I can’t tell them they are a winner, but I cam spam them with 100+ requests to “like so and so’s page?” Absurd.
The ones that require writing on the wall annoy me. I rarely do those entries unless it is something I really want! I have been tempted to put as an entry: I liked the company on Facebook, but did not write on their wall since it is against Facebook’s terms.
I wonder how the giveaway hosts would respond to that as an entry?
Wow, Thank you for digging those up for us.. that sure is helpful!
Cindy
GREAT research! Lots of questions answered. Fortunately I’m on the up & up. This is where I breathe a big sigh of relief LOL
Wow, Stacie, thanks for taking your time to look all that up and post it! Really appreciate it!
Thank you so much for doing this! I definitely don’t want to break rules. Aside from the obvious consequence of not wanting my page taken down, I just don’t like to break rules for no reason. Thanks for the post!
Okay so I am a little confused:
1. YES you can ask them to “like” a FB page as an extra entry for a giveaway but
2. NO you cannot ask them to both like AND comment.
So… that means all those flash giveaways that say “go like their page and leave them love” are breaking the rules?
Yes you are right. You can ask them to like your page, but not leave a comment on the wall.
Those ones are breaking the rules.
Thanks for the wonderful, and very informative post!
why the dairy ban of all things I wonder? I know a lot of ppl use giveaways- going to Stumblr for sure!
Follow Dirty Truth Reviews on Google Friend Connect.
sorry wrong post
very interesting!
I’ve asked people to leave a wall post or something on facebook as an extra entry, I’ll be stopping that now.