Did you know that a running a Facebook Contest is a fantastic way to grow your Page and also help you grow your e-mail list?  But how do you run one the right way?  Let me tell you, there a lot of people doing it wrong out there and they are in danger of having their Page shut down!

Let’s dive into what you need to know about running a promotion or contest on Facebook.

1.  If your Prize isn’t available to everyone, you must use a Facebook Application to gather entries for your contest.

You can give away a discount or coupon to everyone on your Page by just telling them about it in a Post.  But if you are going to pick just one winner or a couple winners, then people have to actually enter on a separate area (usually on a separate tab on your Facebook Page).  There are many Facebook contest apps to choose from, all with different features.

2.  You cannot tell people to “Like to Enter” or “Comment to Enter” or “Share to Enter”.

You can require a Like to enter your contest but you must have them enter somewhere separately.  You can’t draw a random winner from all your Likes or all the people who Like your page because most of them didn’t consent to be entered into your contest.  Facebook also does not allow use of their tools (like share, commenting, photo uploading to your Timeline, etc) as a mechanism to enter your contest.  Make sure you read their Promotions Guidelines before you get started.

Certain contest apps will allow bonus entries if people Share your contest with their friends and get their friends to enter.  That can be great for getting people to spread the word about your contest.  But you can’t say something like “share this post to enter” or “upload a photo to our Timeline and the one with the most Likes wins”.  Those are no-nos.  There are many contest apps that have official photo and video contests that are done right.  Use one of those!

3.  You can post about a contest on Facebook that you are running somewhere else.

If you have an entry form on your website for your contest, you can definitely direct people to that place to go and enter your contest.  That is not a problem!  If you are running some type of Twitter contest where you have a method of entering by tweeting something, or a Pinterest contest that’s happening over on Pinterest, then by all means, share that information on Facebook!  Facebook just wants to make sure you aren’t using their functionality as the only way people enter.

Hope that clears everything up!  Want to go more in-depth with running a successful Facebook Contest?  Then sign up for my FREE Webinar replay   Running Successful Facebook Contests.

How about you, what questions do you have about running a Facebook Contest?  Have you tried one yet?  Let us know in the comments below!  Also get Grandma Mary’s take on running Facebook promotions the right way here: