Want to Promote Your Small Business on Facebook? Some Things You Should Know Part 1

I see it at least once a week if not more often that a small business has a Giveaway on Facebook and the way you enter to win is comment on the picture and share it. Sometimes the graphic being shared is a graphic about the Giveaway and sometimes it is a picture with the name of the company or artist across it. The small company gets their fans to share to around and you see it in your Facebook Feed and say hey I want to win a custom portrait of my dog or a month’s supply of some new all natural cat treat so you share it as well. I am guilty of “entering” the Giveaway as well sometimes – if a travel agency specializing in cruises wants to giveaway 2 tickets on an awesome cruise why wouldn’t I want to win?

What the small business owner, author, or artist doesn’t realize is that they cannot run a Giveaway on Facebook. A giveaway run on Facebook is completely against Facebook’s Terms of Service and can have your fan page terminated without warning. It is right there in those pesky conditions of service no one ever reads. You are also not allowed to host a photo contest asking people to upload a photo of their cute dog or cat to your Facebook Fan Page.

You are allowed to ask your friends and fans to share something there just can’t be an entry to a prize involved. Rules are always changing on Facebook so don’t feel bad if you didn’t know and have run a giveaway for a dog collar in this way or offered a gift certificate to your online pet boutique. Take this message to heart and share it with your small business owner friends and fellow artists so that the mistake isn’t made again or by them and caught by Facebook.

As someone who has contacted numerous small business owners to warn them of the possible termination of their Facebook Fan page for hosting Giveaways I always hear the same thing.

BLOGGERS HAVE GIVEAWAYS ON FACEBOOK.

Any blogger who knows the rules and terms of service of Facebook would never jeopardize their Fan Page and host a Giveaway directly on Facebook. Bloggers know that they can use a third party application to run their Giveaways which allows them to ask for Facebook “Likes” or “Shares” of the Giveaway but would never ask people to physically be on Facebook to do something like share a picture, comment, or like something. This is why you see most bigger bloggers running all of their Giveaways with Rafflecopter or Giveaway Tools it allows them to have those entering the Giveaway share that with their friends or to “Like” a Brand or Company’s Facebook Page. Bigger companies use apps like WildFire to run Giveaways on Facebook or other 3rd party apps to run cute picture contests or longest tongue contests. This is also why the big companies turn to bloggers to run contests and giveaways for them. They know and their PR agencies know that an Ethical Blogger will tell them if something they are asking for in the Giveaway is against the rules whether it be something having to do with Google, Facebook, or Google Plus is against the rules and could potentially put them in jeopardy. Bloggers should know the rules and regulations of their craft and profession and be able to give the right information to PR Agencies and Small Companies alike about making sure rules and policies are followed.

Bloggers LOVE working with small business owners, artists, and authors and are more than happy to run Giveaways for them. They can guide those new to Social Media about the ins and outs of Social Media. Bloggers can be a wealth of information for small business owners, artists, and authors after all many Bloggers make it their business to know the tools of their trade so that they can succeed in something that they love.