How to operate a promotion on Facebook

As we’ve found ourselves managing more and more social media led competitions recently, with the majority of them unsuprisingly taking place on Facebook, we thought it might be helpful to share some best practice tips with you on how to operate a promotion on this social media platform. Whilst we like to think we’re experts in many things, we thought it best to hand this over to someone who really knows their stuff, so we persauded a lawyer friend of ours who specialises in media and marketing to put pen to paper (or rather, finger to keyboard). So, over to Kate Atkin from M Law.

Competitions and prize draws on Facebook are an increasingly important way for companies to reach their customers.  You may be aware that late last year how to on conduct and publicise promotions on Facebook.

Below is a summary of the guidelines and some best practice tips:

• The guidelines apply not only to the operation of the promotion, but also to the collection of entries, conduct of draws, judging of entries and notification of winners.
• It is useful to know that the guidelines are drafted using US terminology.
• For clarity, “sweepstakes” are referred to as competitions in the UK, and “contests” are referred to as prize draws in the UK.
• Your promotion can only be open to entrants over the age of 18.
• You cannot require payment or the purchase of a product as a pre-requisite to enter.
• Any prize cannot constitute or include alcohol, dairy, firearms, and tobacco or prescription drugs.
• Entrants can only enter a promotion through a separate application tab, companies cannot utilise native Facebook functionality.
• You cannot require entrants to post content on a wall of a page or to post a status update as a condition of entry, BUT you can use the application tab to require an entrant to post content on to the tab.
• You cannot create a promotion mechanic whereby entrants are automatically entered by  ‘liking’ your page or ‘checking in’ to your ‘Place’ BUT you can require entrants to ‘like’ your page or ‘check in’ to your ‘Place’ before they provide their entry information.
• You must state on or around the promotion entry field that Facebook in no way sponsors, endorses, administers or is associated with the promotion.
• You are required to state how and for what purpose entrant’s personal information will be used – it is therefore advised to include a legally compliant privacy notice.
• By running a promotion on Facebook you are also required to comply with the Facebook Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (FSRR) and the Facebook Developers’ Policies.  Make sure you read these!
• Don’t forget your promotion needs to have a set of legally compliant and effective Terms and Conditions.
• Don’t forget your promotion also needs to comply with the Gambling Act and the CAP Code.
• Don’t forget any collection of personal information needs to comply with the Data Protection Act and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive.

Kate Atkin has extensive legal expertise advising businesses in the field of new media, online marketing and social media and believes that sound and practical legal advice is a pre-requisite to maximising opportunity in social media environment.