Facebook's New Promotion Guidelines for Pages
Facebook made some significant changes to the Facebook Promotion Guidelines that, frankly, many small businesses were ignoring anyway.
The terms and conditions have often been overlooked and/or difficult to understand for the average mom and pop store owner. I've spent a great deal of time trying to remind small business owners that they can't run promotions on their Facebook page without an app. Then they show me examples of many Facebook pages doing exactly that and my only response is to shrug, "Try it."
Related: Increase Your EdgeRank on Facebook Pages
All that is now water under the bridge. On August 27, 2013, Facebook changed their page promotion guidelines to allow promotions to be administered directly on a business Facebook page. Facebook promotions remain prohibited on personal timelines, but are fine on your business page. This is a giant step for small business. The main changes:
- Facebook Pages can now offer contests, giveaways and sweepstakes directly on their Facebook page.
- A "like" or comment or message is now permissible as a means of contest entry.
- Users may now post directly to the business page and upload photos in albums a page owner sets up accordingly.
Related: The New Facebook Timeline Will Benefit Your Business
I must caution that the liability risk for the business owner is higher now without the assistance of an app. A page admin will now have to single handedly manage the entries, select a winner, prevent underage entries (marketing to children is highly regulated), and observe US (and other countries') sweepstakes laws.
OK all you small business people, go get some of that unsold product off your shelves and start giving it way! People love (and "like"!!) free stuff.