Google+ just opened itself up for businesses and now allows entities to set up company Google+ pages. With this launch, Google announced a number of policies dictating what page owners can and cannot do on their Google+ page, including its “Contest and Promotion Policies.” These new policies outright prohibit anyone from running “contests, sweepstakes, offers, coupons or other such promotions” ("Promotions") directly on their Google+ Page. The policies, however, specifically allow linking to Promotions being hosted elsewhere – on a company’s own site and, presumably, third party social networking sites – but only as long as the Promotion does not conflict with other Google+ policies, including the Google+ Privacy Policy, the User Conduct and Content Policy and the Google+ Pages Additional Terms of Service. These policies prohibit various actions that a company may want to take in connection with a Promotion, including, "aggressively" adding users to circles and displaying third party advertising on a Google+ page. Also, any applications linked to on a Google+ page must comply with the Google+ Platform Development Policies. The Google+ Contest and Promotion Policies also contain a laundry list of indemnities in favor of Google for any claims associated with a Promotion linked to on your company’s Google+ page, even though it cannot be hosted on the page.
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