Facebook released new promotions guidelines on December 1 instructing companies on how to conduct and publicize promotions on the site.

Under the new guidelines, an advertiser cannot administer a promotion – defined as collecting entries, conducting a drawing, judging entries, or notifying winners – through Facebook, except by using an application box in a tab on a Facebook page or on the canvas page of the application. Advertisers cannot automatically enter users into a promotion by requiring them to “like” the advertiser’s page, or check the advertiser’s page, and entry in a promotion also cannot be conditioned upon a user’s providing content on Facebook, like a status update, photo, or wall post.

Businesses can, however, require entrants to “like” a page or check into their place before providing their full entry information, and can use a third-party application as an entry platform upon a user’s providing content (for example, a photo contest where a user uploads a picture to a third-party application to enter the contest). The guidelines also ban advertisers from using Facebook to communicate with a winner through messages, chat, posts on profiles or pages. Instead, a business can collect an e-mail or postal address as part of the promotion to contact the winner.

Other prohibitions include using Facebook’s name, trademarks, trade names, copyrights, or other intellectual property; communicating or administering a promotion if it is open or marketed to users under the age of 18; and conducting a promotion where the prize or any part of it includes items like alcohol, tobacco, prescription drugs, or firearms.

A disclosure must be placed adjacent to any promotion entry field that Facebook in no way sponsors, endorses, administers, or is associated with the promotion, and advertisers are required to explain how the user’s information will be used. The promotion rules must also include a complete release of Facebook by each entrant and participant.

To read Facebook’s updated promotions guidelines, click here. Why it matters: The new guidelines offer businesses greater opportunities to administer a promotion on Facebook while, at the same time, provide Facebook users with additional privacy protections. Companies interested in taking advantage of accessing the more than 500 million members of Facebook should familiarize themselves with the new guidelines.