New Facebook Page Guidelines

03 | 1 | 12

Posted by ellison in Trendspotting

With the rollout of Timeline for Pages, Facebook has (not surprisingly) updated their guidelines for pages. We strongly encourage everyone to be familiar with these guidelines. The full text can be read here:

http://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php

There are two notable additions to this document:

  • Very specific prohibitions on what can be done with the cover photo space:

B.    Cover

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:
i.    price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it on socialmusic.com”;
ii.    contact information such as a website address, email, mailing address, or information that should go in your Page’s “About” section;
iii.    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
iv.    calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends.”
I suspect this particular guideline will see countless infractions over the coming months.
  • The inclusion and relatively modest update of the Promotions Guidelines. The old document is still out there, but it appears that the newer version is included as the final section of the Page Guidelines:

i.    Promotions on Facebook must be administered within Apps on Facebook.com, either on a Canvas Page or a Page App.
ii.    Promotions on Facebook must include the following:

a.    A complete release of Facebook by each entrant or participant.
b.    Acknowledgment that the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.
c.    Disclosure that the participant is providing information to [disclose recipient(s) of information] and not to Facebook.

iii.    You must not condition registration or entry upon the user taking any action using any Facebook features or functionality other than liking a Page, checking in to a Place, or connecting to your app. For example, you must not condition registration or entry upon the user liking a Wall post, or commenting or uploading a photo on a Wall.
iv.    You must not use Facebook features or functionality as a promotion’s registration or entry mechanism. For example, the act of liking a Page or checking in to a Place cannot automatically register or enter a promotion participant.
v.    You must not use Facebook features or functionality, such as the Like button, as a voting mechanism for a promotion.

There is not really anything new about the above excerpt, but it always bears repeating, as people violate these guidelines almost daily….

More to come in the next couple of weeks, for sure…