Pin It To Win It: Increasing Your Fan Engagement With Contests and Giveaways
August 9th, 2012 by
We’ve touched on how to put Pinterest to work for your brand in the past, but some businesses are now using the social media site in even more exciting ways. With the site’s unbelievable growth (it recently passed Twitter, Bing, and Stumbleupon in the rankings), if you aren’t using Pinterest to promote your business already, it’s very clear that you should be.
But, did you know that besides pinning your products and using the images to drive traffic to your site, you can also engage your target audience with contests and giveaways? It’s a practice that’s been coined “Pin It To Win It” and it’s taking Pinterest by storm. We’ve talked about using Facebook contests to promote fan engagement, but this is the first push towards competition-based community involvement we’ve seen on Pinterest so far.
Some contests simply require you to repin an image and include a hashtag. Others require Pinners to follow one or more of their business’ boards in exchange for a chance to win.
While this approach has been used on many a blog, it is also an effective strategy for Pinterest. Some companies, however, are getting especially creative with their fan engagement and taking it a step further. In addition to having Pinners follow them, they’re also having them create a board filled with their products.
Take World Market’s recent Pin It To Win It Contest. They begin by having entrants follow them on Pinterest. Then, they have Pinners create their own board with at least 10 items taken either directly from their site or from the company’s own Pinterest boards. (You can see my entry here!)
Genius.
Not only are they gaining followers, but also they’re increasing the number of pins on the site from users and capturing countless other views in the process. I’ll say it again – genius. Anyone can fill out a contest entry form, but World Market is engaging its audience in a way that’s fun and beneficial for both the company and the Pinners, and they’re not the only ones.
GAP recently held a similar promotion, as did Microsoft Windows. And as their popularity increases, we’re sure to be seeing more of these contests and more consumers engaging with brands on Pinterest.
So, what about you? Would you consider running a Pinterest promotion for your business?
