What you need to know when running a social media competition
If you are looking to run a promotion through your business social media accounts then there are a couple of things that you will need to know. Facebook and Instagram change their guidelines frequently which can be hard to keep up with. To save you time, we have condensed the key points into one handy blog post so that you can ensure that your promotions are in keeping with the latest rules and regs.
Running a competition or giveaway on your social media can be a great way to generate audience engagement with your account which can be an inexpensive method that you should consider incorporating within your marketing campaign. Be sure to know your audience so that you can make sure that the prize is relevant to them.
Things you need to know…
Where can you run a promotion?
- within a Facebook Business page timeline
- within a Facebook event or group
- within a custom created Facebook page
- within an Instagram Business
Where can you NOT run a promotion?
- personal Facebook page
- personal Instagram page
What information do you need to declare?
- the rules of the competition i.e what actions are required for an entry to be successful and closing date
- the competition requirements i.e age or location restrictions
- acknowledge that Facebook/Instagram is not sponsoring or publicly supporting the promotion
Who is responsible for running the promotion?
- You are! The responsibility of ensuring that the promotion is in line with the law lies with the individual who is running the promotion within the account. Facebook/Instagram does not assist with this.
- One place to keep the promotion contained would be through a landing page which can be linked within the post so that notifications, regulations, and consent are processed which enables entrees to provide contact details.
- Facebook and Instagram are not liable if there are any problems with the promotion
What promotion requirements are allowed?
- Like this post
- Comment on this post
- Like comments on this post (i.e. vote by liking)
- Post on this page’s timeline
- Message this page
Requesting entrees to ‘Like Our Business Page’ is a requirement that is still up for debate. This is technically not against the rules but it is a difficult one to monitor.
What promotion requirements are NOT allowed?
- Share this post on your timeline
- Tag your friends in a post/image – so don’t ‘@Friend’
- Share this post on your friends’ timeline
Facebook and Instagram used to allow the use of personal timelines or tagging a friend within promotions but this is no longer the case. This is still a guideline that is missed by promoters, so be sure that you’re not one of them.
How do you announce the promotion winner?
- posting a status on your page detailing the winner
- make a comment in the comment stream on your page
- send an email to an address the winner has provided
- make an announcement on your blog or website
If you are looking for some assistance with running a promotion or don’t have a business page in the first place then get in touch and we can help you make the most of your social media accounts.