As Facebook celebrates its sixth birthday today, it’s a reminder of what the platform started out as compared to what it it is today. Originally a network for college students that later opened up to everybody, Facebook became the entry-point into social media for many businesses.

With that in mind, Facebook is beginning to react to this trend by trying to regulate how businesses interact with their fans. More specifically, they’ve added guidelines for conducting promotions on Facebook, a popular tactic for building a presence on this platform. However, no official announcement was made about these guidelines that were added back in November and aside from the subtle buzz among industry professionals, the word about these changes still remains a bit of a mystery.

The changes include guidelines for promotions and contests on Facebook:

1. Administering a promotion requires approval from Facebook at least seven days before the promotion is scheduled to start. This has been tested and found that advertising dollars need to be spent in order to get approval.

2. The approved promotion must then be conducted through an application on the Facebook platform as directed by Facebook. This includes the canvas page of the platform or the application box tab on the Facebook fan page.

3. Things that are forbidden as entry into a contest/promotion include user-provided content on Facebook (e.g. make a wall post, comment on a status or upload a photo) or simply becoming a fan of the page.

4. Winners cannot be notified through Facebook messages, chat or wall posts.

So what happens if businesses violate these guidelines? It’s pretty simple, Facebook threatens to shut down the Fan page and all the content and community that was built on the page is completely gone. But is it being enforced? And if it is, what does that mean for businesses on Facebook?

If businesses are spending significant amounts of money on Facebook ads and working closely with their team of developers, there is nothing to worry about.

What can small businesses do?

Customized content and applications will become more important. Also, providing content in the form of video and photography that provides value and/or entertainment will be key. Businesses should take advantage of this platform as way to host content that showcases a personal side of the company or brand in ways that might not be possible through a traditional Web site or other traditional marketing and advertising tactics.

Give the audience a reason to engage with the company/brand.

However, learning about promotions and sales is still one of the top reasons why people connect with brands in social media. It is important to realize that contests and promotions will continue to be an important tactic for businesses to build a presence online, but looking to new, creative ways to execute through other platforms may be worth exploring.

Will these changes affect the how you are using Facebook for your business?