Are you thinking of running a Facebook contest or promotion without using an app?

Would you like to run a contest or sweepstakes on your Facebook page timeline?

On August 27, Facebook made a major change to its promotion guidelines.

Although you can run a promotion directly on your Facebook page timeline without using a third-party app, there are several factors to address before you decide to run your contest.

In this article you’ll discover six things to consider before setting up a contest on your Facebook timeline.

#1: Know How You Can and Can’t Collect Entries

Facebook’s new promotion rules and the accompanying guidelines are pretty straightforward.

You can collect entries by having users post on your page, message your page, comment on or like a page post and use likes as a voting mechanism.

In other words, you can ask users to enter by posting a photo on your page or in the comments on your post, and then select a winner based on which entry has the most likes.

You can ask users to enter with a message to your page, a post on your page or with a comment or like on your post, then randomly pick a winner.

You can also ask users to answer a question and pick the first correct response as your winner.

But you can’t ask users to tag themselves in a photo they’re not pictured in, ask users to share a post or ask users to post something on their own timelines or their friends’ timelines.

The promotion below is viewed as unauthorized by Facebook because it lacks any reference to official rules and it requires users to not only like the post but also share it.

This promotion doesn’t follow Facebook’s guidelines.

#2: Follow ALL the Rules

Facebook has loosened its rules, but there are still rules to follow!

As stated in Facebook’s Pages Terms:

If you use Facebook to communicate or administer a promotion (e.g., a contest or sweepstakes), you are responsible for the lawful operation of that promotion, including:

• The official rules
• Offer terms and eligibility requirements (e.g., age and residency restrictions)
• Compliance with applicable rules and regulations governing the promotion and all prizes offered (e.g., registration and obtaining necessary regulatory approvals)

Comply With Local Regulations

In plain English, you must comply with all local regulations. For example, in France, you must register contest rules with a notary public. In Italy, you must use a server based in Italy to collect entries. In Brazil, sweepstakes are allowed in very limited cases. Your local laws still apply and not respecting them can cause you a lot of trouble.

The promotion below would be illegal in most states or countries because there’s no way for the page to verify that the participants are 21 or older.

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/facebook-page-timeline-promotion-tips/