Although we have been doing Pinterest sweepstakes and contests for clients for quite some time, our Pinterest solution continues to expand and evolve, but at a high level, were are some of the solution’s key components and selling points:

User Generated Content Front-End Tools

• Photo upload support (basic)
• Ecard generation (ability to layer text on images or photos)
• Complex photo manipulation (similar to our photo booth offerings)
• Graphics composite, transformation and effects engines and support

Streamlined Pinterest Social Integration Points

• Following one or more Pinterest pages/accounts
• Auto publishing on Pinterest
• Special short link support
• Image search and cataloging/archiving capabilities

Third party Social Media Integration

• Video support (YouTube, Vevo, Vimeo, i.e.)
• Audio support (Soundcloud, i.e.)
• Sharing support (see below)

Basic Sweepstakes and Contest Engines

• Data entry and verification
• Data manage and output console and tools
• Contest judging console and tools
• Photo gallery (with external hosting support)
• Integration with third party CRM and databases for data pass-through
• Age-gating and Geo-locking support

Comprehensive Social Media Sharing

• Sharing capabilities on Facebook and Twitter
• Publishing capabilities on Facebook and Twitter
• Download and email sharing support (for UGC)
• Facebook “Like-Gating”

Flexible Deployment Options

• Microsite support
• Facebook page
• IFRAME support
• Multi-page deployment support and tracking

Management and Analytics Support

• Integration with Google analytics, Omniture, i.e.
• Sweepstakes stats console
• Contest judging tools and support

More Reading

• Sweepstakes and Contest Roundup
• Another Interesting Pinterest Campaign

We are looking for a handful of beta users for a new product we are working on that automates and enhances posting photos on Facebook pages. If you aren’t familiar with the marketing benefits of photos or don’t know exactly we’re talking about, checkout the following articles:

• Photos on Facebook Generate 53% More Likes Than the Average Post
• Get The Picture In Facebook Posts To Boost Engagement
• 5 Ways to Improve Your Facebook News Feed Exposure

If you interesting in being a beta – contact us.

Valentine’s Blakemail Tweematic
A Tweematic based promotion we launched a year or two ago.

Valentine’s Song Card
This is set of application we developed for labels such as Interscope Records and Curb Records a couple of years ago. What makes this approach unique is the use of both a picture as well as an song track.  The application support delivery via Facebook, Twitter, Email as well as a direct invitation to a friend.

Basic Email Card
So this is NOT one of our creations (obviously it lacks the creativity and social media components we like to include in our projects : ) but it demonstrates a Valentine’s Day card in its simplest form. Incluced purely as an example.

We are looking for a handful of beta users for a new product we are working on that automates and enhances posting photos on Facebook pages. If you aren’t familiar with the marketing benefits of photos or don’t know exactly we’re talking about, checkout the following articles:

• Photos on Facebook Generate 53% More Likes Than the Average Post
• Get The Picture In Facebook Posts To Boost Engagement
• 5 Ways to Improve Your Facebook News Feed Exposure

If you interesting in being a beta –  contact us.

If you are a Metablocks client, you’ll know we are no fans of “Sweepstakes by Documentation”, in fact most of our social media sweepstakes and contests applications are all about automating sweepstakes in a meaningful way versus having users read and follow a long set of directions.

Here are list of the obvious problems with the “Sweepstakes by Documentation” approach:

• Requires users to read and follow a very long set of instructions
• Provides little or no confirmation that an entry was received
• Usually doesn’t have a built in mechanism that helps promote the sweepstakes
• Lack front and back-end application functionality that helps collect user information and then automate winner selection or judging
• Provide not meaningful, measurable metrics or stats

Given the short coming of this approach, the only pro to this approach is the cost (or late thereof), but unfortunately you usually get what you pay for. Why then do some many (large) brands continue to put out “Sweepstakes by Documentation” on sites like Pinterest and Twitter that make up in documentation what they lack in creativity.

Country Living Pinterest Contest
Here is a typical example of the approach we are talking about. This sweepstakes by Country Living has the short comings:

• Documentation assumes the reader has a certain familiarity with Pinterest and asks them to do tasks that are not well explained
• Like many such sweepstakes the process can be laborious: join Pinterest, follow board, launch a new board, fill board with 10 pins, i.e.
• In addition to being laborious, the process of complex, and there is no automation. Sometimes instructions are hard to understand (“a minimum of 5 must be pinned from CountryLiving.com” –  how do i do that?) or are simply complete
• The “submission process” is entirely lacking or incomplete. There is little or no information gathering or age verification, and “submission” usually involves posting a comment
• Because such sweepstakes lake any application front or back-end, judging or winner select is manual, also there are no comprehensive stats. Our Pinterest contest platform solves all these problems.

American Heart Association Walk It. Pin It. Win It!
This Pinterest contest from the AHA also misses the point, even though it has very little “documentation” per se, here is why:

• Doing away with “documentation” doesn’t solve the problem, in fact it create new ones
• Many “ad hoc” promotions fall short of general sweepstakes requirements. They lack information about rules and regulations, they do not spell out eligibility requirements such as age or location, and makes you wonder by large brands (and their partners) would take on extra (and unnecessary liability)
• Some, like this one, exhibit create problems by going “cross-social”. This one asks you to post on Pinterest, then Tweet your Pinterest username or leave a comment on their blog! My goodness, perhaps they only announced the winners on Facebook?! Too many things to do, too many places

Sephora: 40 Days of Wishes
There were some things we liked about this promotion, mainly the fact that they did add a way to collect submissions and cut down on the amount of documentation. But here is what we didn’t like as much:

• Provided no automation or acceleration, tasks as still all manual
• Unnecessarily complex. Sponsor could have made it easier (see alternative version of this sweeps we did for Sony)