Every time I teach a class on blogging these days, I tend to preface it with this talk:
The world is changing. I love writing. I love blogging, but it feels like we are moving further and further away from the written word, and more and more to images and video. Think about it: if you had the opportunity to read a 500-word post or to look at a picture. Social media like Tumblr, Pinterest and Instagram, which are all image-based, are tops these days. Even on Facebook, a status update that contains an image gets way more likes than a text-status update.
Because of this shift, and because of the popularity of these image-based social media, businesses are cottoning on and creating contests through social networks like Pinterest and Instagram.
Here’s a couple of examples for you:
This contest by Bobbi Brown and Birchbox increases their Pinterest followers, and helps to spread their brand across the platform.
And here’s one from Fluevog, using Instagram.
What creative or interesting examples have you seen of businesses using Pinterest or Instagram to create engagement through contests?