How to Hold a Successful Pinterest Contest | Social Media Virtual Assistant - Be Social Worldwide

How to Hold a Successful Pinterest Contest

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Businesses use social media contests as a way to engage with their fan base and to draw in a larger one. Pinterest contests have become one of the most popular ways to hold an online contest. These contests go a long way to promote your brand and even increase sales.

Like holding a Facebook contest, you have to follow the rules set by Pinterest when you want to hold a contest. Most important of those rules is that you cannot choose a winner randomly and you must have the Terms & Conditions of the contest clearly posted on your website.

Here are some of the “Don’ts” to remember when you plan your contests:

-Don’t require multiple pins. One is plenty

-Don’t ask participants to vote with pins, likes, repins or boards

-Don’t make it seem that Pinterest recommends you or the contest

-Don’t ask for comments

-Don’t ask participants to repin your rules for the contest

-Don’t require pins from a certain section.

You don’t need to offer a big prize to get people interested in your contest. Offer a prize that ties into your business in some way. For instance, if you design custom jewelry, you can make one of your necklaces the prize. If you offer something like an iPad, then you’re going to see a lot of entries but that will be where your interaction with those people ends.

Here are the steps you need to take in order to have a successful Pinterest contest:

Make it easy and follow the guidelines.

You don’t want to create a contest that leaves potential entrants scratching their heads. The more complicated it is, the more time you have to spend on it. Here are some of the things you can ask participants to do for the contest:

-Pin images from your brand website.

-Pin images of your products that they love.

-Pin a photo of them using/ wearing one of your products.

Since you cannot choose a winner at random, you will need to specify exactly how you will be choosing the winner for your contest.

Promote your contest

When you are holding a contest, make sure that any promotional materials or contest pages are going to get people’s attention. You can use any number of apps to create entry pages, including Woobox, Promojam and Wishpond.

Create a post on your site that outlines the rules of your contest and talk about the contest on your other social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter. Use free tools like Viral Content Buzz to help promote your contest too. Also, look at platforms like Contesthound, Win-free-stuff and Contestchest, which are free ways to market your contest.

Give good incentives

People love attention on social media so make sure you are acknowledging as many entrants as you can. You can create a “Top 20” from your entries and post them on your site. Announce the date when a winner will be announced.

You can offer multiple prizes to entrants without having to spend a lot of money. If you own your own salon, for example, you can give one winner a free haircut, another a facial or manicure, etc. People like multiple prizes because it means there are more chances to win.

Pinterest is an excellent platform for contests. You don’t need to offer huge prizes and the contests are easy to conduct. No matter the size of your business, you can hold a contest that builds awareness of your brand and draws new potential customers.

Have you been using Pinterest to hold contests?

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