Like many social media platforms, Facebook has rules in place
that specifically govern the administration and advertisement of
prize promotions on the site. Marketers who wish to run
sweepstakes and contests must comply with these rules, or risk
having their carefully-designed sweepstakes or contest shut down
mid-promotion, cutting off access to a key segment of their
customer base (and possibly leaving them open to legal
complications).
Since its initial announcement of the Facebook Promotion
Guidelines several years ago, Facebook has revised its rules
several times, incrementally scaling back its restrictions on prize
promotions conducted on the site. In its most recent set of
changes, announced August 27, Facebook quite literally opened up
the playing field to allow promotions directly on its
"Timeline", and made a number of other changes that will
permit marketers considerably greater latitude in offering prizes
on the site. While previously Facebook had
