There are few things that frustrate social media users more than changes to Facebook, unless it’s when Facebook relaxes its rules to give us more freedom. Then the collective voices rise up and thank Facebook for finally seeing the light. In many cases - such as the cover photo changes in March - the big announcements about the good changes leave us scratching our heads as to why certain restrictions were ever implemented in the first place.

There’s always a reason, even if it’s not obvious to us. Which is why I’m personally frustrated at the lack of any critical thinking and questioning in this latest change to Facebook’s long-held rules about contests and promotions. We strongly believe it’s better for businesses to follow the guidelines because it’s just not worth the risk to lose your page over a contest or any other reasons.

Not when the rules are so easy to follow. That’s why we’ve covered promotion guidelines extensively in the past. And here we are talking about the latest changes that were announced yesterday as well. Instead of quoting the news release, let’s look at what the newly revised guidelines say:

What are you responsible for?

1. If you use Facebook to communicate or administer a promotion (ex: a contest or sweepstakes), you are responsible for the lawful operation of that promotion, including:

a. The official rules;

b. Offer terms and eligibility requirements (ex: age and residency restrictions); and

c. Compliance with applicable rules and regulations governing the promotion and all prizes offered (ex: registration and obtaining necessary regulatory approvals)

This addition is a good move by Facebook, which was necessary now that they’ve pulled the third-party app restriction. Every jurisdiction has different regulations for running contests and the onus should be on the contest owner to abide by the regs where they are. Facebook cannot realistically police that. Having rules for a contest seems like a basic starting place, but we’ve all seen contests that are haphazardly run and the business hasn’t carefully considered various challenges that in many cases could have been foreseen with a little preparation and forethought.

What must your promotions include?

2. Promotions on Facebook must include the following:

a. A complete release of Facebook by each entrant or participant.

b. Acknowledgement that the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.

This is the clause that every page owner needs to pay very close attention to. If I post a picture of a gift certificate to my Facebook page and tell my fans “Like this to win!”, how are these requirements fulfilled? More than likely, that status would have to be expanded to:

Like this to win!

By liking this photo, you release…<insert appropraite release text legalese>

This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. You are providing your information to <insert business> and not to Facebook.

It’s a mouthful, isn’t it?

Where can promotions be administered?

3. Promotions may be administered on Pages or within apps on Facebook. Personal Timelines must not be used to administer promotions (ex: “share on your Timeline to enter” or “share on your friend’s Timeline to get additional entries” is not permitted).

I noted in a couple of places that it’s being reported that shares are allowed as entry mechanisms. This clause says they aren’t and the reason why is likely that shares aren’t viewable unless they’re public. So, if I share something from a page on my personal timeline to friends only, that share shows up in the share count, but the page admin can’t see that I shared it - so how can they draw my name? Share contests have always bothered me more than any other kind of “illegal” Facebook contest for this reason.

This does not mean you can’t ask fans to share the contest - it just means that a share cannot count as an entry.

Who will administer your promotion?

4. We will not assist you in the administration of your promotion, and you agree that if you use our service to administer your promotion, you do so at your own risk.

Facebook still wants the legal acknowledgement that they aren’t involved, and if you weren’t clear that they want to stay arms length, they’re telling you outright that they will not get involved. You’re using a tool they’ve provided free of monetary charge to promote your business and you’re on your own when it comes to that contest you want to run, regardless of the issues you run into.

Stay tuned…

Many are praising this change as being a great money-saving change for small businesses. I agree…mostly. Tomorrow, we’ll share initial thoughts about the changes and some advice for businesses that want to run contests.

When we posted last week about 5 mistakes that will get your Facebook Page deleted, we missed something. Thanks to our friend Shawna, at ReSoMe, we learned that sometime between December 20th and March 13th, Facebook updated their Page Guidelines and threw marketers a little bone.

The 20% rule went into effect in December

Way back on December 20th, Inside Facebook wrote about the recent addition of a 20% text rule, which included these quotes from the Facebook Page guidelines:

Pages Terms Section III.B reads:

Covers may not include:

i.    images with more than 20% text;

ii.    price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it on socialmusic.com”;

iii.    contact information such as a website address, email, mailing address, or information that should go in your Page’s “About” section;

iv.    references to Facebook features or actions, such as “Like” or “Share” or an arrow pointing from the cover photo to any of these features; or

v.    calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends.”

But wait…something more has changed since December

When we wrote about the rules that can get your page deleted, these are the guidelines we included. However, when Shawna sent a message to say that they’d been changed, I jumped over to see how:

Section III.B now states:

All covers are public. This means that anyone who visits your Page will be able to see your cover. Covers can’t be deceptive, misleading, or infringe on anyone else’s copyright. You may not encourage people to upload your cover to their personal timelines. Covers may not include images with more than 20% text.

The Help Center has been updated as well:

What are the guidelines for my Page’s cover photo?

Use a unique image that represents your Page. This might be a photo of a popular menu item, album artwork or a picture of people using your product. Be creative and experiment with images your audience responds well to.

All cover photos are public, which means anyone visiting your Page will be able to see the cover photo. Cover photos can’t be deceptive, misleading, infringe on anyone else’s copyright or be in violation of the Pages Terms. You may not encourage people to upload your cover photo to their personal timelines.

Cover photos must be at least 399 pixels wide and may not include images with more than 20% text.

To get the fastest load times for your Page, upload an sRGB JPG file that’s 851 pixels wide, 315 pixels tall and less than 100 kilobytes. For images with your logo or text content, you may get a higher quality result by using a PNG file.

What does it all mean?

It’s now safe to include everything that was previously banned, including: price or purchase information, contact information, references to Facebook features or actions, such as “Like” or “Share” or an arrow pointing from the cover photo to any of these features; or calls to action.

Just don’t use more than 20% of the image space to do it. See? It’s a bone, but it’s a little bone.

How will you change your cover photo under the latest revision of the guidelines?

Facebook contests are now a free for all! (Or are they?)