On Wednesday, Facebook made some important changes to their “Promotions Guidelines” that video contest filmmakers should be aware of.  Thousands and thousands of companies (and even individuals) have been running contests of all types using their facebook pages. That’s not exactly legal though so Facebook is cracking down and deleting unauthorized contests.  But this isn’t just a legal thing. If some small business runs a contest where voters have to “like’ their page and then vote by “liking” an entry, well…facebook doesn’t make any money off of that. So now if Joe’s Pizza of Akron, Ohio wants to run an ultimate fan video contest they need to pay a facebook-approved company to run that contest as an app. Here are some of the more interesting restrictions from Facebook’s :

Promotions on Facebook must be administered within Apps on Facebook.com, either on a Canvas Page or an app on a Page Tab.

You must not use Facebook features or functionality, such as the Like button, as a voting mechanism for a promotion.

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.

These new rules probably won’t have any effect on most of the facebook-based video contests you may encounter.  But beware: If you come across a video contest where likes count as votes, don’t enter! Because that contest (and the sponsors page) could be zapped out of existence at any moment.

And that’s a good thing.  Unauthorized contests are sketchy and I personally don’t enter them.  On the other hand, I think video contests that are run as facebook apps are great. It’s easy to get people to vote since you don’t have to register.  Even better though, it’s really hard for people to vote for themselves over and over on facebook.  The big name in facebook-based video contests seems to be a company called Wildfireapp.  ()  So man, these new changes are going to be really good news for them.  Wildfire is running the Dairy Queen contest I’m in right now and I’m pretty happy with how it’s going.  Oh yeah….did I mention I’m a finalist in Dairy Queen’s “Mini Blizzard Treatment contest!?”  I have a 1 in 6 chance of winning one of six Mini Coopers!!  But I need votes to win.  If you haven’t already, please do me a major solid and vote for my video.  It only takes like 5 seconds plus you’ll get to see a real life App-run facebook contest with your own eyes!

Voting is open until May 17th so vote while you can!  You only need to vote once though.  This is a really exciting contest and I swear, if I win i will be RETIRING from video contests that use votes alone to determine the winners.  Trying to get people to vote for you is just too much work!

One again, click here to vote: 

THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT EVERYBODY!!!