Over the past two years, Facebook has relaxed the rules governing contests organized by companies on the social network: one less headache for community managers! However, there are still some rules… which many companies are breaking.
Before August 2013, Facebook was adamant that contests (orpromotions, as Facebook calls them) had to be run via an app. Thanks to this, boxes like Woobox or Shortstack made money, as companies called on them to organize their contests without breaking the rules – and thus not having their efforts cut to shreds by the social network. But since then, companies have had a field day getting the word out without having to go through a process that was, for the uninitiated, rather complex.
What rules are still in force?
In its terms of use for pages, Facebook specifies that companies are responsible for the legality of the contest process (rules, terms and conditions of participation, compliance with applicable laws, etc.). The social network also requires that the following elements be included:
- A waiver protecting Facebook duly completed by each participant;
- the mention that the promotion is not associated with, managed or sponsored by Facebook.
While these notions of responsibility are obvious, other rules seem to be frequently forgotten:
- Promotions can be managed on Pages or in applications on Facebook. You may not use diaries or friends’ relationships to manage promotions (for example, by using phrases such as “share this link in your diary to participate”);
- “share this link on your friends’ diaries to get more entries” is forbidden;
- as well as “identify your friends in this publication to participate”.
While Facebook spells this out in black and white in its page terms of use, many companies ignore this information and decide, consciously or not, to organize a “share on your wall” contest. In the small world of community managers (in Quebec, at least!), these “offending” practices go so far as to cause debate and frustration among all those who take the time to comply with the conditions. Even if theviral effect is immediate (it’s a well-known fact that sharing has a leverage effect on social networks), the fact remains that not all participants have the same chances of winning. Indeed, if the publication is not shared in “public” mode – i.e. accessible to everyone, whether registered on Facebook or not – the contest organizers won’t be able to count the entries correctly and fairly. This practice must stop. Facebook’s rules are flexible enough to allow companies to stand out from the crowd and create contests that are out of the ordinary.
Source: http://isarta.com/infos/?p=24220
