Pinterest tightens contest guidelines

In a post on the company blog, Kevin Knight writes that Pinterest will no longer allow contests that:

• Suggest that Pinterest sponsors or endorses them or the promotion
• Require people to pin from a selection (like a website or list of pins)
• Make people pin the contest rules
• Run a sweepstakes where each pin, board, “like” or follow represents an entry
• Encourage spammy behavior, such as asking participants to comment
• Ask to vote with pins, boards or likes
• Require a minimum number of pins

For a while, Pinterest was the wild west of social media contests, while Facebook made it as prohibitive as possible. In late August, Facebook eased up a bit, no longer requiring third-party apps to create a promotion.