In our second commentary regarding Pinterest, we suggested evaluating Pinterest to be sure it’s a marketing tool that best fits your brand’s goals and objectives and the best use of your resources and time. We also offered some helpful tips and ideas to best optimize your exposure and as we wrap up this three-part series on Pinterest, we’ll share Homes.com’s experience using this platform as a powerful marketing tool to engage with consumers and generate leads.
In celebration of Valentine’s Day, Homes.com ran our first contest, “Pin it if You Love it”. Participants created a “Pin It If You Love It” board, and pinned 10 homes for sale or for rent that they loved, complete with creative descriptions and links to the properties as found on Homes.com.
Given that this was our first contest, we were more than pleased with the results and declared it a huge success. During the contest’s two-week run, over 300 “Pin It If You Love It” boards were created, which generated over 3,000 links to the homes that participants loved on Homes.com and 500 property inquiries to real estate professionals. Page views increased by 420 percent and searches grew by 782 percent as a result of the referring traffic from Pinterest. The “Pin It If You Love It” contest proved to be a game-changer and elevated Pinterest from being just another complimentary marketing tool, to a leading source of referring traffic to Homes.com!
The crowning jewel of the whole initiative was that this contest was recognized as a finalist in the 2013 PR News Social Media Icon Awards in the Pinterest category.
