It's that time of the week again…More news about the exploding social media site Pinterest from yours truly. Just when you thought you had heard enough, I reveal how much more there is to add to your store of Pinterest knowledge. After all, every week brings fresh news of how various companies and organizations are making good use of the site for their marketing needs. In addition to that are the changes that the fledgling company is starting to implement, in its efforts to keep apace with the rapid growth of its product on an increasingly massive scale.

I have already blogged about several companies as well as non-profits that utilize Pinterest to spread the messages, products, or services of their organizations. The number of businesses that are jumping on the Pinterest train is growing quite steadily. And, according to a recent Mashable article, some businesses are going the extra mile when using Pinterest for SEO marketing. They are conducting entire campaigns to promote contests with tempting prizes on the image-sharing platform.

Just take a look at a few companies that have carried out successful and creative campaigns for promoting contests using Pinterest.

Kotex
In Israel the company ran a Women's Inspiration Day campaign that identified and encouraged 50 "inspiring" women to re-pin a virtual gift that the company sent them. If they did so, they would receive a real gift from Kotex, which would be something that they had already pinned on their Pinterest boards. This campaign garnered 100 percent participation. Not only that, since the women shared their pins on other sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, a total of 2,200 social media interactions were generated, effectively enhancing the brand's presence online.

British Midland International
The company ran a contest titled "Pinterest Lottery" over several weeks, in which it posted pictures bearing its logos from five destinations – Dublin, Beirut, Moscow, Marrakech, and Nice – and asked users to re-pin them on their own boards. Each week the company randomly chose a number, and the pinners who re-pinned that number picture were entered in a lottery to win free flights to that destination.

As you can see, the opportunities to be creative with marketing through Pinterest are simply endless. Take a look at the Mashable article for more ideas of companies that have carried out similar campaigns, and start considering how your business could do the same to promote its own products and services.