Four Facebook Giveaway Rules for Beginners
Most small business owners have given a Facebook giveaway a crack - it seems like such a great way to generate a buzz online. Offer something for free and in return gain a bunch of new followers - amazing!
Until it’s not amazing & Facebook responds by throttling your reach and you’re not sure what you did wrong.
Like a lot of things in the world of digital marketing, it is so easy to sneak a look at what your competition is doing or maybe even a friend and go yeah I’ll do that too! And so begins the cycle of learning bad habits that unfortunately have a bigger impact the smaller your business is. A business with a large and engaged Facebook following can often afford to have their reach throttled by Facebook, they may have a healthy advertising budget and privileges that aren’t afforded to the new or small business owner but essentially it’s a numbers game. Comparatively, if you only have a few thousand followers the impact of reduced reach has a larger lasting impact on your business.
The number one policy violation that I spot over and over relates to requesting engagement bait as a form of entry - yes all those shares, tag a friend, like this page to enter are not authentic engagement but are also expressly forbidden by Facebook.
Whenever you do this, because everyone else is, you are risking your page, your account quality and reducing your reach.
So it’s worth considering whether you should even be running giveaways in the first place? If you’re sure that you have the right people, the right prize and the right method then let’s go ahead and make sure you understand the rules for running a giveaway or competition on Facebook.
Facebook Giveaway Rules for Business 2021
Let me break it down for you! There are two main methods of giveaways the first is the most common a timeline giveaway run directly on your timeline. These are simple to pull together and don’t require too much organisation - which is where people run into trouble!
The other method of giveaway is a third party app giveaway which runs the contest on your website for you, and while it also has limitations regarding what you can ask from entrants, the benefits to your wider digital marketing shouldn’t be sniffed at! You can push people to Instagram, YouTube or Twitter, you can ask them to sign up to your mailing list - actions that are potentially more valuable than a measly Facebook follow from someone who isn’t even your target market and unlikely to buy from you.
Third party apps often take care of terms and conditions as well as the Facebook release and make contacting your winner a breeze.
No matter which method you select to run your Facebook giveaway, these are the four rules to keep in mind:
1. Ensure your giveaway or contest is permitted on Facebook
Buying tickets for a chance to win is considered a raffle or lottery and is prohibited. Drawing a winner at random or where entries are judged are allowed.
2. Release Facebook of responsibilty
Acknowledgement that the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed, administered by or associated with Facebook.
3. Provide clear rules about who can enter your Facebook giveaway - and better still chuck the detail on a landing page
Who can enter (age, location, transport required)
How they enter
The prize description (this is also a legal requirement in some territories)
How you will select a winner (by chance or judging criteria)
How you will distribute prizes (will you post it? is it collection only?)
How long will the giveaway run and when you will draw a winner
No purchase necessary
A release of user-generated content if you want to share entries in future social media posts
4. Don’t force people into actions to enter
I know everyone else seems to be doing it but you can’t ask people to:
Share one of your posts
Post on a friend's timeline
Tag people in posts
These actions are expressly prohibited by Facebook who does not permit actions on their platform in exchange for competition entries - and doing so may lead to your page being shut down or at best a reduction in your organic reach for being spammy.
However, you can use a third-party app that sends people to your website and asks for specific actions there (there are still rules and the same actions are still prohibited!).
But I don’t want to make entering my competition too hard!
Keep in mind that a small barrier to entry can be a fine way to weed out people who aren’t your tribe….if you think a third-party app and leaving Facebook to complete an entry will prevent people from entering your competition, then maybe those people aren’t that interested in what you’re offering and perhaps aren’t your target market?
A third-party app is an infinitely more valuable way to run giveaways using social media to direct traffic to your website to collect entry information. But if you are going to run a timeline giveaway ensure you stick to the very clear rules .