I’m a “fan” of just about every small business Facebook page in my area. And as I see them fill up my news feed, I notice that a lot of them are doing different types of contests.

And in the past two years, I think I’ve only seen one local business do a Facebook contest that was in accordance with Facebook’s terms of service. All the others were violations. And I don’t say this to pat myself on the back, but the only truly legit one was one of my clients, who worked closely with me to make sure they did it properly. I’ll also point out it worked incredibly well for them.

Most of the contests I see tend to be in the vein of, “Like our page for a chance to win” or “We’ll give a prize to our 1,000th fan”.

Guess what. You’re doing it wrong. Most of the contests that small businesses (and some larger businesses) do on their Facebook pages are in direct violation of Facebook’s terms of service. Take a close look at their promotions and contest policy and you’ll see. And I understand this, to a degree. After all, most of us don’t read the small print. It’s just a bunch of blah blah blah. But in this case, it’s an important blah blah blah, because if you violate Facebook’s rules, you run the risk of having your page shut down.

So here’s what you need to know

  • If you are asking people to “like” your Facebook page in order to enter to win, you are in violation of Facebook’s TOS.
  • If you ask people to comment on a Facebook post as condition for entry in a contest, you are in violation of Facebook’s TOS.
  • If you ask people to post a picture on your page as condition for entry to win something, you are in violation of Facebook’s TOS.
  • If you ask people to tag a picture as a condition for entry, you are in violation of Facebook’s TOS.
  • If you ask people to like a picture or other object as a means of voting, you are in violation of Facebook’s TOS.
  • If you ask people to answer trivia questions on your Facebook wall in order to win something, you are in violation of Facebook’s TOS.
  • If you ask them to do ANYTHING on your Facebook wall as condition of entry, you are in violation of Facebook’s TOS.
  • Even if you don’t write about or promote the contest on the Facebook wall, and use your blog or some other non-Facebook platform yet still require them to do something on your Facebook page as condition of entry, you are in violation of Facebook’s TOS.

Yes, it might be a great way of building your fanbase or increasing engagement, but they are ALL in violation of Facebook’s TOS.

What’s the big deal?

Well, so everyone is doing it. And apparently, despite the rules, Facebook doesn’t seem to be enforcing them. I’m not aware of any business page that has been shut down for running a non-approved contest. But, it’s still wrong, and this is Facebook we’re dealing with. They are notorious for making changes and doing things without any notice.

Facebook doesn’t tend to be very subtle. I’d bet the farm that if and when they decide to start enforcing this policy, it won’t be in the form of warnings. Who’s to say they won’t just pull the rug out from under you by randomly deciding to shut down your page. It could happen. And if it does, there goes all of your time and effort…and community…down the drain. In my mind it’s not worth the risk.

I know several businesses that are aware of the violation, but press on because they know that Facebook hasn’t done much to stop these sorts of contests. The feeling is:

I’ll stop when they tell me to stop.

Is it worth losing everything that you have worked so hard to build?

I always lay out the rules for my clients. It is up to them if they want to run the risk, but I won’t run a contest for them like that, and I certainly won’t tell them, “It’s ok, no one ever gets caught”. After all, how important is your brand to you?

So how DO you run a contest on Facebook?

Well, if you want to run a contest on Facebook, there is really only one way to do it:

It must be done through an approved third party app, on a tab (not the wall)

Plain and simple, that’s it. The catch is, it will cost you. You will need to work with a third party app like Wildfire, and pay them to help you administer whatever type of contest that interests you. Sure, there might be a lot of other rules, but Wildfire and other approved apps take care of all of that for you. They work very closely with Facebook to make sure that they are in line with what is approved. And the costs really aren’t all that prohibitive, especially if you plan properly and feel that the ROI of the contest is worth it.

If you’re not willing to pay, then you’ll need to find some other way of running a promotion or contest that ISN’T on Facebook.

But please, in the name of all this is right and good, do NOT run your own contest on Facebook. Do you want to be the one that gets shut down?

 How have you approached running contests on Facebook? Do you still try to do them, or do you avoid them? Have you used any approved third party apps, and if so, how have they worked for you?