How to Run a Pinterest Contest

It’s hard to find a social media platform with a higher sharing rate than Pinterest. In fact, 80% of all Pinterest pins are repins (repetition not intended).

With a hyperactive user base, this platform has a great chance to become your brand promoter or bring new traffic and leads to your website.

Why run a Pinterest contest?

There are three good reasons why you should run a Pinterest contest:

1. Make your brand skyrocket. Pinterest is about capturing ideas and getting inspired by memorable lifestyle visuals. Sounds like a great place for gaining brand recognition! Go for it if you want to tell the world about a marvelous product/service/event you’re promoting.
2. Promote a sale. Yes, sales also take place on lifestyle platforms. A contest on Pinterest can actually bring new customers to you.
3. Benefit from sharing evangelism. User-generated contests may get an incredible sharing potential on Pinterest. So how about making your brand go viral?

Related: Why Social Media is Your Best Friend for Award Ceremonies

Pinterest contest rules

Get yourself acquainted with Pinterest first, and then make it work for you. To arm yourself with all the necessary instruments for Pinterest contest success, we’ve collected the important rules:

• Chase after good quality. Pinterest contests are meant to fascinate people and capture their aspirations. Therefore, you can’t really count on users sharing hundreds of identically poor-quality contests. Opt for quality, instead of quantity. P.S. Don’t overdo it. Pinterest contests grow old pretty fast.
• Provide simple instructions. People don’t have to rack their brains around your contest rules. Avoid sophisticated twists, otherwise, Pinterest users might avoid your contest.
• Hold the spam. Like any other self-respecting social media platform, Pinterest doesn’t tolerate spam. Go through the anti-spam measures prior to setting up a contest. Also, forget about encouraging any spammy behavior like pinning contest rules or providing comments. Lastly, no “Pinterest pin to win” titles!
• Don’t ask for too much. In fact, one Pin will suffice.
• Stick to branding. Make sure that you comply with Pinterest branding requirements, in case you want to reference it.

6 Dos and Don’ts for a successful Pinterest contest

All rules noted? It’s “go time”, to think of making people enter. Engaging users on Pinterest actually means making them like your ideas, which is not that as easy as it might sound.

Feast your eyes on 6 do’s and don’ts for empowering your audience:

#1. DO opt for simplicity.

Make the instructions crystal-clear and easy to follow, ask for one Pin only. Pinterest users will pay you with their respect.

#2. DON’T get all crazy now.

The common mistake of many contest organizers is that they get overexcited about it and start freakin’ around gettin’ all spammy. Just try to relax there. A juicy idea and helpful instructions will do all the work for you.

#3. DO respect Pinterest.

Use the brand name in compliance with Pinterest branding rules, if you expect your contest to live a long and happy life.

#4. DON’T ask for tons of submissions.

If you make ste a bar of submitting one unique photo and winning a prize, the users will appreciate your striving for good quality.

#5. DO use hashtags.

Encourage contest-specific hashtags for better sharing rates.

#6. DON’T forget about announcing the rules.

To make your Pinterest contest understandable, include all the data related to the start and closure dates, submission requirements, and any restrictions.

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How to run a successful Pinterest contest

You don’t need to break the rules in order to get high-scoring contest results. Here are some tips for a Pinterest contest that you can leverage to reach a sharing boom.

1. Ask for one entry. Let’s say you run a contest focused on creating the best poster for your new product launch. Ask the contestants to make one single entry and pin it on their pinboards. That’s it. People adore simplicity. Still, there’s no need to stick to this benchmark forever. If you’re launching a big campaign and need hyperactive promotions, there’s one more good entry strategy to go with. Set up a Pinterest contest that requires creating boards. Make all of them related to one topic like “Top places for conducting a cocktail party” and then make it go viral!
2. Create suitable hashtags. How do you match your brand or product to the contest submissions? Hashtags know the answer. By assigning contest-specific hashtags, you make your contestants bind their pins to your campaign. Voila: looks just like a powerful sharing network!
3. Build a landing page. You can’t leverage comments in Pinterest, for boosting engagement, because it may be taken for spammy behavior. Our suggestion is going outside the platform and creating a separate contest landing page. Use the page for listing contest rules and submission requirements, integrate the entry form with the platform. Bonus: additional website traffic!
4. Clearly, explain rules and prizes. Show that you appreciate your contestants’ time and dedication – let them know what they should expect in advance. While it’s clear on the rules portion, you might be a bit in the dark on whether to announce the prizes beforehand or not. The answer is yes. Even if you’re motivated by a “big surprise” idea, don’t take the risk. Not everyone will be ready to engage with your project without knowing what to expect in return.
5. Judge sweepstakes creatively. To avoid being spamming, Pinterest enabled the system that discourages using likes or repins as the instruments for voting. This, in fact, can be very advantageous for you. Assign the voting task to the team of professionals, who’ll judge all entries by creativity and empower the users by good expertise!
6. Think outside the box. Creative ideas always gain the upper hand. If you’re brave enough to tweak Pinterest reality and impose unique concepts, you’re riding the wave.

Just a final incentive think about boosting your traffic by aligning a Pinterest contest with some external social media activities. Whatever’s on your mind, pursue your big ambitions!

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