Facebook on Tuesday announced updated guidelines for promotions on the social network, and the most prominent change was the removal of the requirement that promotions be administered via applications only. Business owners can now run CONTESTS on their Page without a third party app! Thousands of companies were already running contests on their Pages that didn’t comply with the 3rd party rule. Now, they will be compliant!

Businesses can run promotions (contests, sweepstakes, competitions or drawings) on their PAGE wall and/or via a third party app on Facebook. Pages can:
* collect entries via users (fans and non-fans) posting on the Page wall
* collect entries by users commenting or liking on a Page post
* collect entries by having users message the Page
* collect votes via likes (new fans, post likes)

This is all great news for increasing ENGAGEMENT! Plus, with the message feature, companies can open up more dialogs with prospects via the Message feature.

There is just one small rule Pages need to comply with now and it’s around accurate tagging. Pages cannot:
*ask users to tag themselves in any images in order to enter contests. (Facebook wants us to use photo tags for when we’re actually in the photo/image. Makes sense.)

See the official announcement below

We’ve updated our Pages Terms in order to make it easier for businesses of all sizes to create and administer promotions on Facebook. Here’s what Page administrators need to know:
We’ve removed the requirement that promotions on Facebook only be administered through apps
Now, promotions may be administered on Page Timelines and in apps on Facebook. For example, businesses can now:
Collect entries by having users post on the Page or comment/like a Page post
Collect entries by having users message the Page
Utilize likes as a voting mechanism
As before, however, businesses cannot administer promotions on personal Timelines.
Accurate tagging is required in promotions
In order to maintain the accuracy of Page content, our Pages Terms now prohibit Pages from tagging or encouraging people to tag themselves in content that they are not actually depicted in. So, for instance:
It’s OK to ask people to submit names of a new product in exchange for a chance to win a prize
It’s not OK to ask people tag themselves in pictures of a new product in exchange for a chance to win a prize
We hope these updates will enable more businesses to use Facebook to launch their promotions. For more information regarding the changes to our promotions policies, check out our downloadable Promotion Guidelines, which include FAQs and best practices for running promotions through Facebook.

Please do share this exciting news with your friends and fans!

Will you be more likely to run contests on your Page now?