If you run a Facebook page for your fishing business or club, then the temptation is there to try to gain as many new members as possible. And one great way to do that is via a free competition (actually, it’s not a particularly good way, sometimes, but that’s a separate article).
If you are considering doing a ‘Like & Share this photo’-style competition, STOP!
YOU ARE RISKING HAVING YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE DELETED, WITHOUT WARNING AND WITHOUT ANY WAY OF GETTING IT BACK.
Folks, the rules are clear and ignorance is not a defence. Never has been and never will be. Check them out for yourself:
http://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php#promotionsguidelines
There’s no need for me to dissect these rules for you. If you run a business, or are in a position of authority in an organisation, then you probably understand plain English. Instead, I’ll highlight two obvious rules that I believe ‘Like & Share’ competitions break:
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i. Promotions on Facebook must be administered within Apps on Facebook.com, either on a Canvas Page or a Page App.
And
iv. You must not use Facebook features or functionality as a promotion’s registration or entry mechanism. For example, the act of liking a Page or checking in to a Place cannot automatically register or enter a promotion participant.
There are other rules that most pages are breaking with their promotions, but these two are the most blatant ones when it comes to competitions. You MUST use Facebooks Apps to run such competitions and you CANNOT use ‘Like’ and ‘Share’ as entry mechanisms for your competition.
BUT NOBODY HAS HAD THEIR PAGE DELETED YET
True, I haven’t heard of a UK fishing page being deleted for breaking these Facebook competition rules yet, but a quick search on Google will find you articles on other pages that HAVE been deleted, without notification and without prior warning. One guy I read about even had two pages deleted – he didn’t learn the first time it happened!
WHY DO FACEBOOK HAVE THESE RULES?
I’m not Facebook, so I can’t answer for them, but here’s my guess….
I’m an angler. I like fishing. A lot of my friends like fishing, including my Facebook friends. Every time a company launches one of these ‘Like & Share’ competitions, my Facebook newsfeed is full of the same thing. To be honest, it ruins my Facebook experience. If I owned Facebook, I wouldn’t want that to happen to my users. I’d like them to share stuff because they wanted to, sure, but not because they were being tempted to by the offer of something free.
That’s why I think Facebook created such a set of rules. They want their site to be full of interesting stuff, not the same old spam.
BUT EVERYONE DOES IT
Fine. Carry on, then, if that’s how you feel.
WILL FACEBOOK DELETE MY PAGE, THOUGH?
I don’t know. They didn’t pay their lawyers to create the rules without a reason, I’m sure. I’ll hazard a guess that if they do delete it, though, you won’t get it back. Your hard work will have been for nothing.
HOW CAN I GET AROUND THE RULES?
You can’t get around them, but it doesn’t cost a lot to comply with them. Just use Google and look for a ‘Facebook Sweepstake App’. Woobox is a good one. It will cost you a few quid, but not a great deal. Not using an App may cost you a lot more.
I hope this short article proves useful. I’m not a solicitor, so please take it as friendly advice only and get professional advice if you want the Facebook T&C’s explained to you properly. It wasn’t until somebody pointed out these rules to me that I realised I was doing exactly the same thing…and I dare say that there are other Facebook rules that I am breaking still!
Elton Murphy, www.AnglersNet.co.uk
Webmasters – I don’t want anyone to lose their Facebook page. Please feel free to copy and paste this article on your site, if you think it will help. All I ask is that you include the following footnote, with the hyperlinks intact:
FOOTNOTE: This article was written by Elton Murphy, editor of www.AnglersNet.co.uk and admin for the www.facebook.com/AnglersNet page on Facebook.
