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Contests on Facebook : reminder of the rules

A couple of months ago, Facebook changed its rules relating to contests in order to simplify them and make them accessible to all. However, some important points remain, that’s why we decided to do a quick recap of the things you should know.

Also, you can download our white paper:

10 tips for running successful competition on Facebook

19 pages – 729 ko – pdf

The 6 rules you need to remember:

1. You must indicate that Facebook is not the organizer of the contest

You must quote:

« This promotion is not supported or sponsored by Facebook. The information you provide will be furnished to [recipient(s) of information] and not to Facebook. The information you provide will only be used for [what you intend to do with the information provided by the user]. »

You need to precise in the rules of the contest that Facebook does not handle the competition and can not be held responsible if something goes wrong.

You can not reach your fans directly on their Facebook walls or emails about the competition: by instance you can not notify the winners of a contest through Facebook messages, instant chat feature or publications on users profiles or fan pages.

[box_info]Note: By using Kontest, you are sure to fully follow the rules imposed by Facebook![/box_info]

2. You must create a link to your “Privacy policy”

The purpose of this page is to define the nature of the collected information and its future use. It also helps to indicate how to allow the user to rectify the personal data collected on him.

3. The prizes can not be dangerous or highly legislated products

Firearms, alcohol, tobacco, medicine, fuel, gambling or dairy products are forbidden.

4. You can not use a native feature of Facebook as a condition of entry

C’est surement le point le moins facile à saisir et pourtant le plus important.

This point is the most difficult to understand and it’s probably the most important.
Simply put, you can not use one of native features of Facebook as a condition of entry for your contest. So you can not say « Leave a comment on my page to be drawn,  » « Add a picture / change your profile picture to be drawn,  » « Change your password to be drawn » etc..

That is the reason why it is forbidden to hold a contest on the wall of a Facebook page.

5. You can hold the contest in the tab of a page

The contests are welcome in the tabs. You can have a « Contest » tab and set it as default, that means it’s going to be visible for non-fans as well. Therefore a user can participate within the tab without having to leave the page or use a dedicated application (the tab being an application).

6. You can hold a contest exclusively for the fans of your page

You can decide that only the fans of your Facebook page can participate in your contest. However, you should not write :

“Become a fan to see the contest”

because you would use a native feature of Facebook. Instead, you should write :

“Become a fan to participate to the contest”

So, what do you think? Are these rules easier to understand now?


You can also download our white paper:

10 tips for running successful competition on Facebook

19 pages – 729 ko – pdf