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Pinterest Updates its Contest Guidelines

By  Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk

Pinterest-Contest-GuidelinePinterest recently updated their Brand Guidelines and has come out with some new regulations that they are requiring for running sweepstakes and contest promotions. It comes as a bit of a surprise since Facebook announced just a couple of months ago less restrictions on running these types of promotions on brand pages. Here are some of the new "don'ts" that Pinterest has posted:

  • Don’t suggest that Pinterest sponsors or endorses you or the contest.
  • Don’t require people to add Pins from a selection – let them pin what they like.
  • Don’t make people pin or repin your contest rules. This is a biggie.
  • Don’t run a sweepstakes where each pin, repin, board, like or follow represents an entry.
  • Don’t encourage spammy behavior, such as asking participants to comment.
  • Don’t ask people to vote with pins, repins, boards, or likes.
  • Don’t overdo it: contests can get old fast.
  • Don’t require a minimum number of pins. One is plenty.

Here is what Pinterest does recommend:

  • Remember that Pinterest is all about people discovering things that inspire them. Reward quality over quantity.
  • Make it easy to get involved with clear and simple instructions
  • Read our anti-spam measures to keep your contest fun and useful.
  • Check out our branding guidelines if you’re going to reference Pinterest in any way.
As always if you do use Pinterest as part of a contest or sweepstakes, you are responsible for making sure it complies with all legal requirements. This includes writing the official rules, offer terms and eligibility requirements, etc. This is where we can assist many of our clients to make sure they are in compliance. We recommend that you keep the promotion simple and make sure your instructions are clear. Since Pinterest now states not to pin the rules of the contest or sweepstakes promotion, you should instead include a link to them which may be posted on your Facebook page or on your website.

Philly-Pin-an-artful-getawa-300x277Regarding the content of the pins, it is still fine to ask participants to pin an item from the brand's website or Pinterest profile page. You just can't ask for a specific pin or from a certain board. Back in June we assisted with this Pinterest promotion for Visit Philly. They asked participants to create a board with at least ten pins taken from the following:
• 3 pins from the Visit Philly With Art website
• 2 pins from the With Art Philadelphia Pinterest Page
• 2 pins from the Visit Philly Eat & Drink Pinterest Page or of restaurants from the Visit Philly website
• 2 pins from the Visit Philly Stay In Philadelphia Pinterest Page
• 1 repin of Visit Philly’s official contest pin

So the first 9 pins are still okay to request, however, the last pin, which is a repin of a specific pin, is now not allowed.

All in all  Pinterest is requiring these restrictions to try and make the social site less spammy.  These types of promotions may at times encourage people to pin things that are really not very interesting or relevant. so these new guidelines help to avoid spam. By complying with these new guidelines a brand can make the promotion experience much more valuable to both themselves and the use

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