If you are a Metablocks client, you'll know we are no fans of "Sweepstakes by Documentation", in fact most of our social media sweepstakes and contests applications are all about automating sweepstakes in a meaningful way versus having users read and follow a long set of directions.

Here are list of the obvious problems with the "Sweepstakes by Documentation" approach:

• Requires users to read and follow a very long set of instructions
• Provides little or no confirmation that an entry was received
• Usually doesn't have a built in mechanism that helps promote the sweepstakes
• Lack front and back-end application functionality that helps collect user information and then automate winner selection or judging
• Provide not meaningful, measurable metrics or stats

Given the short coming of this approach, the only pro to this approach is the cost (or late thereof), but unfortunately you usually get what you pay for. Why then do some many (large) brands continue to put out "Sweepstakes by Documentation" on sites like Pinterest and Twitter that make up in documentation what they lack in creativity.

Country Living Pinterest Contest
Here is a typical example of the approach we are talking about. This sweepstakes by Country Living has the short comings:

• Documentation assumes the reader has a certain familiarity with Pinterest and asks them to do tasks that are not well explained
• Like many such sweepstakes the process can be laborious: join Pinterest, follow board, launch a new board, fill board with 10 pins, i.e.
• In addition to being laborious, the process of complex, and there is no automation. Sometimes instructions are hard to understand ("a minimum of 5 must be pinned from CountryLiving.com" -  how do i do that?) or are simply complete
• The "submission process" is entirely lacking or incomplete. There is little or no information gathering or age verification, and "submission" usually involves posting a comment
• Because such sweepstakes lake any application front or back-end, judging or winner select is manual, also there are no comprehensive stats. Our Pinterest contest platform solves all these problems.

American Heart Association Walk It. Pin It. Win It!
This Pinterest contest from the AHA also misses the point, even though it has very little "documentation" per se, here is why:

• Doing away with "documentation" doesn't solve the problem, in fact it create new ones
• Many "ad hoc" promotions fall short of general sweepstakes requirements. They lack information about rules and regulations, they do not spell out eligibility requirements such as age or location, and makes you wonder by large brands (and their partners) would take on extra (and unnecessary liability)
• Some, like this one, exhibit create problems by going "cross-social". This one asks you to post on Pinterest, then Tweet your Pinterest username or leave a comment on their blog! My goodness, perhaps they only announced the winners on Facebook?! Too many things to do, too many places

Sephora: 40 Days of Wishes
There were some things we liked about this promotion, mainly the fact that they did add a way to collect submissions and cut down on the amount of documentation. But here is what we didn't like as much:

• Provided no automation or acceleration, tasks as still all manual
• Unnecessarily complex. Sponsor could have made it easier (see alternative version of this sweeps we did for Sony)