From Pinning To Winning; How To Run A Successful Pinterest Contest

Pinterest is the third most popular social media channel to date. With that stated, Pinterest has an abundance of opportunities. But is your company capitalizing on the platform? There are two core aspects of Pinterest that a company should focus on: 1) curated pins that are enticing enough for users to repin and 2) get click-throughs from those pins to the company website.

One of the best ways to give a Pinterest account a much needed boost is by running a contest that can direct traffic to both your Pinterest account and your website. An additional benefit of running a contest is having the ability to get communities talking about your brand more. There are many different ways to run a Pinterest contest, so be sure to pick what suits your brand’s message best.

Pick a Goal

In order to get started, pick a goal upon which to base your contest. Your goal could involve something you want to specifically promote such as a new product or service, or something as basic as gaining follows for your account. From there, decide on the type of contest you want to run.

If you’re a restaurant owner, you can ask pinners to pin their ideal meal, favorite new dishes on your menu, or pin a feature they would like to see at your restaurant. If you can find a narrow focus for your theme, it usually makes for a better contest.

Make sure participants follow the company account in order to enter the contest. If you already have a large following on Pinterest, create a new “Group Board” to easily track submissions for pinners to pin images to.

If you have a brand new product, this can be a valuable way to get new images of your product out into the Pinterest world. You can ask entrants to submit their photos to the group board, and the most favorable photo can win.

Select a Winner and Prize

Now the fun part, decide how to pick a winner and prize. Use your discretion and pick someone either at random, or a favorite pinning applicant. Pinterest itself recommends that you stay away from using likes or repins as votes as it can appear spam-driven across Pinterest. You can reward fans with products, a gift certificate, or any item that suits your brand, and that will incentivize people to participate.

Determine Contest Rules

Now that all the basic items are nailed down, it’s time to establish the contest rules. Be sure procedures are official, legal rules for entrants. These rules should be relatively simple, easy to follow, and not subject to change once you launch the contest. Include in the rules how long the contest will run, and how the winner will be contacted. If you have legal counsel, a consultation with them about how the contest will run is a worthy idea.

While the contest runs, the rules should be easily accessible and live on your website. You should not require your entrants to repin these contest rules on Pinterest.

Promote!

Last but certainly not least, don’t forget to promote your contest across all other social media channels and the company website. Assign a unique hashtag to the contest so pins, any tweets, or Facebook posts related to the contest are easily tracked. Go a step further and create a unique Facebook tab, a dedicated landing page, or an email blast to further encourage contest applicants.

With over 70 million users on this pinning platform, your brand has quite an audience listening. Capture their attention, and hopefully their traffic, with a Pinterest-ing contest.

Do you have any ideas on how to run a successful Pinterest contest? We want to hear them! Comment below.