The following post is from Whitney Toomer, Client Service Manager, and Justine Santa Cruz, Production Coordinator.
What is a Pinterest contest?
Pinterest has definitely been the stand-out amongst the social media newcomers of the year. Although it’s been around before 2012, Pinterest has been the buzz word on everyone’s lips. We all know it’s an online pinboard – but what does that exactly mean for marketers.
A Pinterest contest allows you to create a promotion specific to your Pinterest customers. From this you will see a curation of photo-driven images that are relevant to your property or brand. The best part about a contest is the content is completely user-generated.
Examples of Pinterest Contests:
- Best Pinboard – User creates an entire board with many pins, property or brand selects the best board as the winner.
- Most likes/repins – Property provides select images, users then repin. Winner gets the most likes/repins.
- Sweepstakes – Property provides select image, users then repin. Winner chosen at random.
Why would you run a Pinterest contest?
“Pinned” images allow companies to promote their products and establish their brand personalities in a highly sharable forum. The distribution of these images typically retain their source links and help drive referral traffic to brand websites and encourages brand adoption among the Pinterest community.
According to third-party measurement data, Shareaholic, Pinterest beat out Twitter for the first time in referrals in February. Now, Pinterest is now beating out StumbleUpon, Bing, and Google in referral traffic (not Google organic, of course). The study is based on Shareoholic’s network of over 200,000 publishers, which reaches more than 270 million people monthly. Women’s lifestyle, home decor and cooking magazines have been among the biggest beneficiaries of Pinterest’s growth.
In addition to increasing traffic to your website, you can leverage a Pinterest contest to increase traffic for a specific demographic or need; for example, weddings.
As with any contest or social media campaign, creating a Pinterest contest will increase your brand or specific property’s reach and engagement with loyal guests.
How Guest Can Participate/Interact/Engage:
- Board names and placement
- Pin Descriptions, including hashtags
- Incorporate with other social media accounts
Potential contest focus for hotels:
- Weddings – Dream Wedding, Best Way to say ‘I do’ (biggest demographic)
- Best Vacation – What is your ideal vacation? What goes into your dream vacation? (food, restaurants, room)
- Area Activities – Surfing, skiing, shopping
- Onsite outlets – Dining, spa
Who’s already taking advantage of Pinterest Contests?
Travel Brands:
- Jetsetter: Become a Jetsetter Curator
- Four Seasons: Pin Your Dream Wedding Contest – They even promoted this through Twitter, and through a specialized Pinterest account, FSBridal
Non-travel Brands:
- IKEA UK: Pin it to Win it
- Very Rosenberry: Pin it to Win it – Can win a nursery bedding set if you create and pin your dream nursery utilizing one of their bedding sets.
- Organize.com – All about you dream kitchen, participants must create a board titled “My Organized Kitchen”
Best Practices for a Pinterest Contest
- Review Pinterest’s Terms and Conditions
- Property/brand should use board titles and pin descriptions to their advantage and include detailed instructions in the contest rules such as “title your board Property Name: Dream Wedding” and position the board in the top right hand corner, pins should all begin with “ Property Name: Dream Wedding” and then the user’s personal description
- Create a landing page with contest information, rules and regs
- Make sure property posted images are repinnable and landing users on a relevant page
- Support the contest though eblasts, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, website
- Benchmark engagement
- Use thoughtful copy for image captions – these travel fast and will reach a bigger audience than just the first re-pin.
Interested in ramping up your online strategy? Check out the full suite of MICROS eCommerce interactive marketing tools, send us an email, or give us a call +1 301.841.4700(US) | +44 (0)20 3004 9468(UK).
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If your brand is currently using Pinterest, take advantage of the platform’s enormous popularity by incorporating a Pinterest contest into your social media strategy. A Pinterest contest is an easy and effective way to engage your target audience, increase referral traffic, foster trust and loyalty, and generate buzz about your products, services, and company values.