Running Competitions and Contests on Social Media - What are the Rules? - Articles

The recent changes to Facebook’s terms of use for company pages regarding the administering of competitions and promotions got me thinking…are businesses fully aware of the rules and guidelines imposed by the various social networking sites when it comes to running competitions? My suspicion is that many are not.

To save you the time and hassle, we’ve brought together the main points for you to address when seeking to run a competition through Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest.

Facebook

Facebook sets out very clear regulations that must be adhered to. Here are the key points you need to consider:

You can collect entries by requesting users to comment or like a Page post
You can collect entries by asking users to message the Page
You can utilize likes as a voting mechanism
Personal timelines must not be used to administer promotions. Therefore users must not be encouraged to share on their timelines to enter
Tagging must always be accurate – therefore you cannot ask users to tag themselves in an image that they are not actually represented in
You are responsible for running the competition in a lawful manner (i.e. offering terms and eligibility requirements)
You must include a release of Facebook by each entrant or participant
You must acknowledge that the competition is in no way associated with, administered or endorsed by Facebook
Competitions and promotions administered through Facebook are done so at your own risk

Facebook page terms

Twitter

Twitter is less strict than Facebook, offering guidelines for running a contest rather than terms of use. The emphasis is on administering competitions in a way that does not lead entrants to breaching their own terms of use.

Here are the main points:

Discourage the use of multiple accounts – include a rule that states that anyone found to be using multiple accounts to enter the competition will be ineligible
Ask users to include ‘@your username’ in their Tweet entries so that you can see every entrant in your Mentions timeline
The use of #hashtags should be relevant to the topic
It is your responsibility to comply with relevant laws and regulations

Guidelines for Contests on Twitter

Google+

You may not run competitions or contests directly on Google+ or using its features
You may display a link to an external website where your promotion is hosted
You are solely responsible for adhering to all relevant laws and regulations regarding the administering of competitions in your location
” Your Promotion must not be run or conducted in a way which conflicts with the Buttons Policy, Privacy Policy or Google+ Pages Additional Terms of Service“

Google+ Contests and Promotions Policy

Make sure that contests are “fun” and “useful”, offering real value to users of Pinterest
Don’t make people pin or repin your contest rules
Don’t ask people to vote with pins, repins, boards or likes
Don’t request people to pin from a selection – let them pin something of their own choosing within the theme that you stipulate as part of the rules
Make sure it is clear that Pinterest is in no way affiliated with your competition
You are responsible for ensuring that any contest you run on Pinterest complies with all legal requirements e.g. you must state the official rules and offer terms and eligibility requirements.

Pinterest’s Brand Guidelines