I thought I’d take a break from our Sweepstakes Boot Camp series to look back at the most popular Sweepstakes Law Blog posts over the last year. I ran the analytics on our site, and the results are illuminating.

Our readers are clearly drawn to information about sweepstakes fundamentals, such as registration and consideration. But they’re also interested in more cutting-edge topics, like Facebook promotions and ongoing questions surrounding the concept of vote farming.

I also see that blog visitors flocked to my Q&A with Liz Compton, the chief of the Bureau of Compliance at the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. It appears many of you are keen to know more about marketing promotions in Florida, home to some of the country’s most stringent regulations for sweepstakes and contests.

What other blog topics should I tackle over the next year? E-mail me at djoerling@thompsoncoburn.com, or tweet me a suggestion at @SweepsLawBlog.

Top 10 Sweepstakes Law Blog posts: March 2012-March 2013

1. Do you need to register your sweepstakes?
2. Are you violating the Facebook contest rules?
3. Consider this: How do states define “Consideration”?
4. Consult this checklist before promoting your next sweepstakes
5. 5 pitfalls of refer-a-friend sweepstakes options
6. ‘Void in California’ no more: Alcohol beverage producers free to market sweepstakes
7. Lawyer who lost $100,000 contest prize spurs debate about ‘vote farming’
8. The IRS wins every sweepstakes
9. An exclusive interview with Florida’s top sweepstakes regulator – Part One
10. An exclusive interview with Florida’s top sweepstakes regulator – Part Two

Dale Joerling is the chair of Thompson Coburn’s Advertising, Marketing and Promotion Law group. He is editorial director of the Sweepstakes Law Blog. You can find Dale on Google+ and Twitter, and reach him at (314) 552-6058 or djoerling@thompsoncoburn.com.

When I saw an ad for a new Mexican restaurant that opened near my office, I thought about trying it. When I received a 10% off coupon in the mail, I thought about it again. But when my brother told me it was now his favorite restaurant, I went there for lunch on that very same day.

Without a doubt, a referral from your current customers is the best source of new customers. The same principle applies to sweepstakes and contests: You can increase participation through use of referrals.

As a result, “refer-a-friend” options are becoming very popular in the sweepstakes world, particularly with promotions pushed online or to social media sites.

These options appear in a various forms: “Refer-A-Friend,” “Send-A-Friend,” “Tell-A-Friend,” “Tweet-A-Friend,” and other variations, all of which basically do the same thing. Facebook’s “Share” feature has a very similar function.

Sweepstakes sponsors routinely incentivize their customers with rewards of coupons, gift cards, products, or additional entries into the sweepstakes if they forward the promotion to friends. It’s clear: Refer-a-friend options are here to stay.

However, refer-a-friend options carry some risks. Before you ask sweepstakes or contest entrants to refer the promotion to a friend, be aware of five potential pitfalls:

1. Being careless with consideration
   Make certain referring a friend doesn’t constitute the “consideration” required to enter the sweepstakes. If there’s no other way to enter the sweepstakes other than referring a friend, that requirement could be viewed as “consideration” under state law, which may result in authorities classifying the sweepstakes as an illegal form of gambling.
   
   
2. Sending messages that could be 'spam'
   Be aware that providing gifts or rewards to incentivize an entrant to refer your promotion through an e-mailed message to a friend may result in the application of the CAN-SPAM Act. Under the CAN-SPAM law, the sponsor may have to comply with the Act’s requirements regarding email messages, and the sponsor may be considered the “sender” of the e-mail to the friend.
   
   
3. Playing favorites
   If the person referring a friend receives additional entries or otherwise increases their chances of winning the sweepstakes, ensure that entrants who pass on the “refer-a-friend” option have equal opportunities to obtain an identical number of additional entries.
   
   
4. Allowing unlimited entries
   You may also want to consider placing conditions and limitations on the friends to whom the sweepstakes is being referred. For example, you may want to limit the number of referrals that one person can make, as a means of capping any problems that may arise by one entrant submitting huge numbers of inappropriate referrals. Similarly, it may be important to restrict referrals to persons over a certain age, those in a defined geographic area, or anyone employed by a sponsor. The bottom line is that all entrants must have the same odds of winning the prize(s).
   
   
5. Not seeking consent
   You should also make certain that the friend to whom the sweepstakes is referred meets the eligibility requirements of the sweepstakes and is aware of and consents to the releases and disclosures contained in the official rules.

Referrals to friends can be a very effective way to increase the benefits of sponsoring a sweepstakes, as long as you take these precautions.

By the way, please click here to forward this post to a friend.

Dale Joerling is the chair of Thompson Coburn’s Advertising, Marketing and Promotion Law group. He is editorial director of the Sweepstakes Law Blog. You can reach Dale at (314) 552-6058 or djoerling@thompsoncoburn.com.

“Like” it, “poke” it, but don’t post your latest sweepstakes on Facebook without some serious thought.  Your contest could be violating the site’s promotions rules.

It’s unclear how closely Facebook is monitoring illegal sweepstakes, although the company has come down hard on a few mostly foreign companies.  Still, the threat of enforcement looms for any business that tries improperly to boost its brand among Facebook fanatics. 

Facebook is now flooded with ads and promotions, in part because companies smartly realize the collective spending power of the 800 million users who log on to the site every month. The social networking giant hasn’t just changed our culture; it’s changed the way we market products.

And sponsoring a sweepstake or contest on Facebook is one of the simplest ways to generate leads and create buzz about a product or brand.

In one example, beauty brand Clairol boosted its Facebook fans by nearly 1,000 percent when it launched a giveaway campaign for a new hair color product. Pepsi jumped on the social media band wagon in 2010 with the Pepsi Refresh project, which offered grants to local charities. Users could vote through Facebook and “share” their charity picks with friends to generate more votes.

Sponsoring these types of promotions can increase a company’s Facebook “Likes,” boost their “Fan” base, and expand their customer database with opt-in email addresses.

But every promotion of this type falls under the Facebook Promotion Guidelines, which apply to any “contest, competition, sweepstakes, or other similar offering using Facebook.”

Originally, the guidelines required sponsors to obtain Facebook’s prior written approval to conduct a promotion on site, plus a commitment to a minimum media spend to support the promotion. The company eliminated those requirements in a December 2010 overhaul. However, the new guidelines are clear that the promotion must be administered using the Facebook platform, which means that the promotion also must comply with Facebook’s platform policies.

The guidelines contain eight items, including definitions of what constitutes a sweepstakes and a contest. (A promotion that includes a prize of monetary value and a winner determined based on skill is a contest; and if the winner is selected on the basis of chance, it is a sweepstakes.) The guidelines also include very specific requirements for any ads and other materials that use Facebook logos or trademarks without permission.

In addition, the guidelines require that the promotion include a complete release of Facebook by each entrant or participant and an acknowledgment that the promotion is no way sponsored, endorsed, administered by or associated with Facebook. That’s why you see that language on virtually every sweepstakes or contest that is conducted on Facebook.

It’s a little uncertain what consequences befall businesses that violate these rules. Facebook apparently hasn’t flexed its enforcement muscle much against improper sweepstakes and contests in the U.S. 

But it has cracked down on some foreign companies. Last year Facebook deactivated the official India pages of designer French Connection UK and chocolatier Cadbury’s for improper promotions.

Also, if your Facebook promotion violates the rules, there’s nothing stopping a competitor from reporting you to Facebook, leaving you vulnerable to enforcement.

If you are considering sponsoring a Facebook sweepstakes or contest, you need to make sure that you are complying with the Promotion Guidelines, all other applicable Facebook policies, and of course, state and federal regulations.

Dale Joerling is the chair of Thompson Coburn’s Advertising, Marketing and Promotion Law group. He is editorial director of the Sweepstakes Law Blog. You can reach Dale at (314) 552-6058 or djoerling@thompsoncoburn.com.