February flew right by! Even with the shortest month of the year drawing to a close, we hope we were able to help you draw more traffic and/or sales this month than in 31-day giant January.

Our major hope for February was to get you using Pinterest, which we’re trying to turn into our #1 social media platform for 2016. Pinterest has incredible potential for promotion and engagement, especially in lifestyle niches like parenting, DIY/crafts, fashion, wellness… basically, everything that Blogger Babes is about!

One of the ideas we’re most excited about is holding creative Pinterest contests, from low-investment caption contests to high-investment, time-consuming baking contests. How exactly do you go about hosting a baking contest online, where you won’t even be able to taste it? You get creative.

3 CREATIVE PINTEREST CONTEST IDEAS TO INSPIRE YOUR FOLLOWERS

1. CAPTION CONTESTS

Okay, let’s start with the smallest… a caption contest! A time-honored tradition from one-panel newspaper comics, caption contests have long been an internet pastime, too. For a fun, relaxed Pinterest activity, simply pin a photo relating to your niche and encourage followers to submit a caption in the comments. Then set a deadline and offer a prize.

You might even want to make this a regular thing—if your followers enjoy it enough, consider creating a caption contest board with a new image and new opportunity for a different prize every week.

2. PIN IT TO WIN IT

Kick it up a notch! Encourage your followers to pin items themselves, this time along a certain theme, such as “your dream office space.” Promise them a reward within the theme; in this case, a monetary reward encouraging the winner to build a dream office space would be appropriate. If your theme is “a look at your makeup bag,” consider cosmetics.

3. VIRTUAL COOKIE CONTESTS

Now we’re talking competition.

Create a group board for that baking contest we mentioned earlier, then post a pin announcing the rules and different visual categories for which you’ll give rewards, like “Best Decorated” or “Most Creative.” Unfortunately, tastiest won’t make the cut. :(

But! This is also a great way to get followers to share recipes if you’re a food blogger. And if you aren’t… it doesn’t have to be a cookie contest. You can try other ideas, like creative gift wrapping techniques or patterns. It all depends on your niche and what you would personally enjoy.

BEFORE YOU START…

Whatever you do for your contest, make sure that your pins send people to your blog to sign up. Link to the board where they can submit entries on your blog. You don’t want everything to take place on either singular platform.

And of course, don’t forget to look over Pinterest’s guidelines for contests.