Facebook’s new promotion and competition rules

Many small travel companies have thought to themselves “Why don’t I use Facebook to run a promotion or contest to get more people engaged with my business?” However, until now, it has been something of a convoluted process and a potential minefield for small businesses.

Until the rules changed last week, there were strict limits on how you could run promotions and competitions and the types of activity that were allowed to encourage people to enter.

The biggest change is that competitions and promotions no longer need to be administered through a third-party app, such as Shortstack and SnapApp, and can be simply carried out on a Page’s timeline. Apps can still be used to make more visually appealing competitions.

The change to allow entry on timelines means that companies can now solicit entries by having users post on, message, comment on or like a brand’s page. Likes can also now be used as a voting mechanism.

Some readers of this blog will probably be thinking, “Hang on a minute I have already been doing that anyway”. In fact, such promotions and competitions have been against Facebook’s rules but they have been widely ignored or the companies behind them have been unaware that they have been breaking the rules.

However, Facebook points out that companies are not allowed to encourage people to like or comment on their own personal timelines as an entry mechanism. It also means that shares are not a permitted entry mechanism. In its promotion guidelines, Facebook says, ” We want to make sure that people continue to post authentic, high quality content to their Facebook Timelines to stay better connected with the people they care about.”

Another change is that companies are now not allowed to encourage users to tag themselves in photos that they are not actually depicted in.

Facebook says, ” It’s OK to ask people to submit names of a new product in exchange for a chance to win a prize. It’s not OK to ask people tag themselves in pictures of a new product in exchange for a chance to win a prize.”

Get ready for a wave of new competitions and promotions from small travel companies seeking more likes on their Facebook pages as a result. And a deluge of spammy fake followers too.