Do you have giveaways? Facebook Rules...

Facebook changed their rules so the info below is no longer current.  You can see the new rules here and find a good article commenting on it here.

---THIS INFO BELOW IS OLD AND NO LONGER ACCURATE.  I AM KEEPING THIS ON THE PAGE FOR HISTORICAL PURPOSES ONLY --

There are some other facebook guidelines that could get you in trouble if you make "liking on facebook" a requirement for your giveaways---it all depends on how you word it and how you count those likes. You can learn more at the following links...

Facebook Giveaway:  Rules, Contests, and Regulations Esplained (Rafflecopter Blog)

Facebook Promotions Guidelines Training (Facebook's Own Site)

My takeaways from these articles are this...

1.  You can give people entries for liking your facebook page...only so long as you record that some other way than through their like (i.e. like this page AND leave a comment saying you did).  The important thing is that they aren't automatically entered when they like your page.

2.  You do need to word it carefully so they don't think they are automatically entered for liking your page.  In other words, you can say "To enter you must be a facebook fan and leave a leave your e-mail in the form below", or "All my facebook fans get an extra entry if they leave a comment below" but not "Like my facebook page to enter."  You have to make it clear that new or existing fans can enter, so ou should avoid any text that specifically says "Like this page to enter, "  since that could make it sound like it's only for new fans, or that it's actually the action of clicking the like button that enters you (which is against facebook terms)

3.  "You can’t ask folks to directly “Share this promotion on Facebook” and award them an entry or a point for the physical act of sharing."  (Rafflecopter Article)  But you can reward those who send you traffic from facebook or otherwise in other ways (such as asking entrants to say who referred them, and then giving entries to those who referred them.)

4.  You still risk getting "fake fans" which could hurt you.  So, something to consider.

I have also read one account about someone getting in trouble because she got too many likes from fake facebook accounts! Since "sweepers" (people who enter a lot of sweepstakes)  are often the ones with these fake accounts, this is a real danger.  But I've only heard about this happening once.

One other thing unrelated that can cause you trouble is if you don't have a current phone number listed on facebook it could slow down the process of getting your facebook page back online.  Another blogger I know of was not able to get her facebook page back up because they wanted to confirm that she was the owner of the page by text, and she had an old number listed.  You can set your phone to unlisted, but make sure it's current, or that could cause you problems.  It's somewhat unlrelated to giveaways, but I thought I'd mention it here anyways.



For more rules you should know about hosting giveaways, click here.