A recent study by web analytics firm Simply Measured reports that more than two thirds of the  world’s most recognized brands now have a presence on Pinterest.   Many brands are being managed by individuals who signed up as themselves instead of the business they work for as a by-product of early adoption of the platform.  These individuals who are often working under the radar of their internal legal team’s radar may or may not be aware of the rules of engagement when it comes to using sweepstakes and contests on Pinterest.

Very quickly the 5 major “don’ts” when directing users to get involved with your promotion on Pinterest are as follows:

1. Don’t imply that Pinterest endorses your promotion or is in any way affiliated with your brand.
2. Don’t mandate that users restrict pinning to content you provide.
3. Don’t require that consumers pin or repin your official rules
4. Don’t offer sweepstakes entry based on a pin, repin, pinboard like or follow.
5. Don’t attribute votes to pins, repins, creating boards or liking the aforementioned.

If you are saying to yourself wow my promotion doesn’t conform to these guidelines you are not alone.  A random examination of a dozen sets of rules yielded multiple violators mostly to #1 and #4 above.  The “Pin It to Win It” catch phrase is also arguably the most blatant violation of any social media platform guidelines taking place right now mostly because the implied affinity, creative and otherwise between the brand and Pinterest.

It’s pretty clear that Pinterest is just starting to get a handle on cleaning up the situation.  As they become more vigilant becoming compliant to their guidelines will take on added significance.  No one is going to want to be the first brand to have their promotion pulled down leaving their Pinterest followers scratching their heads about what happened.

In tandem with additional scrutiny is Pinterest’s emphasis on converting individual accounts to business accounts when promoting a brand.  One of the primary motivations is to generate awareness of these 5 rules.  When you convert familiarize yourself with the additional Pinterest Business Terms of Service.

We can help.  Example;  a common compliant way to award entries we’ve seen is for consumers to create board, pin content and then email the URL to an entry email address to earn an entry.  Emails and the content can be monitored providing some additional measures of control.  For more complicated promotions with multiple entry earning opportunities and other concepts please reach out to us at expert@mardenkane.com.