Guidelines for Posting Promotions on Social Media

Guidelines for Posting Promotions on Social Media Credit Shutterstock/AntonioGuillem Most businessesnow usesocial media for marketing. From social media influencers to LinkedIn Groups, there are countless ways to use these platforms to promote your products and services.One way is by running contests and sweepstakes. While it binnenseems harmless to deutsche bundespost a contest and hand out a prize, it might not be. If you dont follow the proper laws and guidelines, you could be in legal trouble.The best competitions play by the rules, because they not only protect entrants, they also protect the business itself, said Suki Harrison, founder of social media giveawayagencyOrigamiGlobe. By failing to adhere to legislation, youre leaving your business open to hefty fines, and by ignoring clearly stated terms of use,you even risk losing your social media accounts.Editors note Looking for information on social media management services for your business? Use t he questionnaire below, and get quickly connected to our vendor partners to learn mora about a customized strategy and pricing for your businessThe first step to enkoranversyoure running a legal vorrcken isto determine the proper terminology. You cant use the terms sweepstakes, contest, lottery and giveaway interchangeablythe words have different meanings.A sweepstake is when the winners are chosen by luck alone. The winner of a contest is chosen on merit. A lottery winner is chosen from entrants who pay to enter, and a giveaway is an overarching term of all the different promotions, said Tirena Dingeldein, content manager and senior analyst at Gartner Digital Markets. Each social media platform has different rules and guidelines for running a giveaway. Here are the rules you need to be aware of before posting a promotion on Facebook, Twitter or Inskalendertagram.FacebookBefore you post a promotion to Facebook, you should brush up on its policies for promotions on Pages, Groups and Events.Link back to your competitions terms and conditions. According to OrigamiGlobe, the conditions should include who can enter the promotion, when it starts and ends, what your audience must do to enter, how many entries are allowed, what the prize includes, when the winner will be announced, and how long the winner has to claim the prize.Get the necessary licenses. Some promotions need licenses, while others dont. It depends on if you run a game of perspektive or skill, what state your competition is open to, and the value of your prize, according to OrigamiGlobe.Acknowledge that Facebook isnt associated with the promotion. On every platform, you need to make it clear that your promotion isnt associated with the social media website. Dont ask people to tag or share your giveaway. You may not ask individuals to tag friends, share the promotion on their timeline to enter or share it on afriends timeline. You also shouldnt ask users to tag themselves in a photothey arent in. Some of the legal ways you can ask individuals to gain entry is by commenting on a post, liking or reacting to a post, or checking in to a location, said Emily Spurlock, manager of integrated strategy and promotions at Ignite Social Media.TwitterIf you want to host a contest or promotion on Twitter, here are the guidelines you need to follow.Discourage creating multiple accounts. Individuals who create more than one account to enter a contest are liable to get their account suspended. In your post, you should state that anyone who uses multiple accounts to enter will be ineligible.Discourage posting the same tweet more than once. Posting duplicate, or near duplicate, updates or links is a violation of theTwitter Rulesand jeopardizes search quality,Twitter states. Dont ask users to tweet duplicate updates.Make sure you see all the contestants. Twitter recommends asking users to mention you in their updates. If you dont, youll have a tough time finding all the users whoparticipated in the giveaway. When youre mentioned in tweets, you will see the updates in your notifications.Use topics relevant to the contest. Twitter encourages users to include relevant hashtag topics with the updates. If you encourage users to add your hashtag to unrelated content, it may cause them to violate Twitter Rules.If in doubt, review Twitter Rules and best practices. If you arent sure youre running a legal giveaway, review Twitter Rules and its search best practices before making the contest live. You can also check theTwitter for geschftliches miteinander sitefor more tips.The best way to offer prizes through contests and sweepstakes on Twitter is by asking participates to retweet an update, follow an account or tweet an update with a hashtag. InstagramHere are Instagrams promotion guidelines you should know.Post the promotions official rules. Like Facebook, you need to link to the official rulesand explain who is eligible to enter the promotion, including age and residency restrictions .Get licenses and comply with rules and regulations. Before posting a promotion on Instagram, you should make sure you have the right licenses.You cant ask people to inaccurately tag photos. Dont ask people to tag themselves inphotos they arent in.Acknowledge that the promotion isnt sponsored by Instagram. You must acknowledge that the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Instagram somewhere in your post. You can have people enter your contest by asking users to comment on a post, like a post or share a photo to their feed (this requires usage of the FTC disclaimer hashtag), said Spurlock.Other social networksOther platforms such as Snapchat, Pinterest and YouTube are also important to your marketing efforts. Before you post a promotion, be sure to check each sites rules and guidelines. Whateverplatform you use, its always a smart idea to double-check that your promotion is in the clear.My advice is to consult a lawyer who has experience with social media platforms before running a giveaway, as a botched giveaway can not only cause you to lose your audiences trust but also lead you to losing money in legal fees after the fact, said Dingeldein. Saige Driver Saige received her Bachelors degree in Journalism and Telecommunications from Ball State University. She is the social media strategist for Business.com and Business News Daily. 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