Facebook recently modified its Page Terms and, in particular, its Promotions Guidelines. Facebook first announced the changes on August 27th via a news release on its Business Blog. Here are some of the key changes that have been made:
- You are no longer required to run a promotion on Facebook through an app on Facebook (i.e. either on a Canvas Page or an app on a Page Tab). Although promotions may be administered on Pages or within apps on Facebook, Personal Timelines cannot be used to administer promotions.
- The former prohibition against using Facebook
features/functionality as a promotion's registration/entry
mechanism and conditioning registration/entry on a user using
Facebook functionality/features has been revised. For
example, as per the Facebook news release, you can now collect
entries by having users:
- post on the Page;
- comment/like a Page post; or
- message the Page
Further, it is no longer explicitly prohibited to notify winners through Facebook.
- The former prohibition against using Facebook functionality/features as a voting mechanism has been revised. For example, as per the Facebook news release, you can now use "likes" as a voting mechanism.
- It is prohibited to inaccurately tag content or encourage users to inaccurately tag content. On this point, the Facebook news release states you cannot ask people to tag themselves in pictures of a new product in exchange for a chance to win a prize.
These changes will allow greater flexibility in terms of the options available to communicate or administer a promotion on Facebook. However, caution must still be exercised – "you are responsible for the lawful operation of that promotion".
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