Your totally awesome Facebook Fan Page is all set up and populated with exclusive behind-the-scenes content – you can almost taste the engagement. …except the fans are nowhere to be found. (side note: “build it and they will come” is one of the greatest lies ever told).

So what now? How do you reel ‘em in? Why with a contest of course! Just pick up a few iPod Nanos to use as prizes (who doesn’t love those things?!) and lay out your conditions for entry… all you must do is become a fan, write on our wall, post a discussion topic, upload a fan photo, tag yourself in said photo, ‘like’ our status update and then tell all your friends about it! Then you can just sit back and watch the fans flock to your page.

Not so fast… while this may have been a quick fix in the past, Facebook tightened the reins on contests with the updated Promotion Guidelines released late last year. Three months later, I’m still seeing heaps of renegade Facebook Pages out there, running their illegal contests, with no regard for the laws of the land. So, I thought some cliff notes might be handy.

What does it include?

The guidelines govern the administration and publicising of promotions, contests, competitions, sweepstakes, ‘games of skill’, ‘games of chance’, lotteries (anything where someone gets something for free) on the Facebook platform. (side note: for simplicity’s sake I’m using the generic term ‘contest’ to refer to any of the above from here on out).

What is meant by ‘publicising’ a contest?

‘Publicising’ a contest on Facebook means using any part of the platform to talk about it (regardless of where the user actually enters the contest).

You would probably use things status updates, Facebook ads, wall posts, events, static FBML (custom content), fan updates (private messaging) to do this.

What is meant by ‘administering’ a contest?

‘Administering’ a contest on Facebook means using any part of the platform in the actual execution of the contest.

This includes entry collection, judging/winner selection and winner notification.

3 important rules to consider:

1. You cannot administer a promotion that users automatically enter by becoming a fan of your Page.

• You cannot make the act of fanning your Page the means by which users are entered; that is, anything along the lines of “become a fan of our Facebook Page and you’ll automatically be entered to win…” is prohibited.
• However, you could condition entry on the user becoming a fan if done via a 3rd party application (i.e. the user must become a fan as a step in the application’s entry process).

2. You cannot require a user to do something on the Facebook platform to enter the contest.

• This means you cannot condition entry on a user performing actions such as commenting, posting status updates, ‘liking’, uploading photos, changing one’s profile image, RSVPing for events.
• But you could condition entry on the user providing content if done via a 3rd party application (i.e. require the user to upload a photo to your 3rd party app but not directly to your Facebook Wall or photo album).

3. You can’t use the Facebook platform to notify winners.

• This means you cannot use any of Facebook’s inbuilt communication tools like messages, chat, status updates and wall posts to contact winners.
• But, if you were to use one of those 3rd party applications I keep mentioning, you could put in a field that requires users to provide a contact email address or phone number where they can be reached if they win.

4. You must get approval for any contest you wish to administer on Facebook.

• You cannot administer any contest on Facebook unless you’ve gotten the OK from your account rep. Speaking from personal experience, Facebook reps are usually pretty unresponsive unless they think there’s $ involved (we’re talking like >$10k ) – think about (or perhaps feign interest in) taking out some ads.
• However, you can publicise a contest without obtaining Facebook’s written consent.

Disclaimer: The rules outlined above are accurate at the time of posting, but it’s Facebook… they love changing things up without notice. In addition, whilst this post addresses some of the more common violations, it is by no means an exhaustive guide to administering or publicising contests on Facebook. Be sure to read the Promotion Guidelines in their entirety before initiating any promotions on the Facebook platform.

Slideshow of what you can and can’t do with promotions on Facebook: