Running a Contest on Facebook

Hello everyone! I wanted to make sure everyone was aware that in many cases it is against Facebook policy to run a contest on your Facebook page. It used to be allowed but recently Facebook has made their rules more strict. Contests are fun and can encourage people to “like” your Fan Page but don’t take the chance of having your page disabled – follow their rules!  These pages will help:

Read Facebook’s Promotions Guidelines very carefully: http://www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php

Explanation and suggestions on the Facebook Help Forum: http://www.facebook.com/help/?question=618328

In a nut shell, you must either receive special permission from Facebook to run a contest, or use a Facebook-approved third party application to run a contest ON Facebook and you must follow the other rules as well.

There is another option though.

Write up and conduct your contest on your blog. Have readers comment to enter the contest (things like tell me your favorite product, or share a story, become my fan on FB and tell me in the comment etc.) Then announce the winner on that blog. Use that blog URL to promote the contest on your Facebook profile or fan page – so the actual contest is being held somewhere else, you are just sharing a link on FB.

For those who want to use a contest to build up your fan page, try creating a Coupon on a custom tab using Static FBML. But then set that tab to only be visible when someone “likes” the Fan Page.

Here are directions to do that, courtesy of HyperArts: http://www.hyperarts.com/blog/facebook-fan-pages-content-for-fans-only-static-fbml/

Additionally, there are several contest, coupon and promotion applications available through App Bistro.

Do you have any other creative ideas?