How did this contest come about?

Now that the Monthly Contest has been announced and rules posted, I wanted to share few more details about the contest.  We have Ruffwear prizes lined up for the next 12 months so the contest will go on for at least that long.  The Committee members are hopeful that it will catch on, the contest will be extended, and more prizes can be given away in future.

Let me step back for a moment and trace how this contest came about.   

Back in early August, many of our members participated in the K-9 Backcountry contest.  We started to have many posts asking for our members’ votes.  I think the first such post I saw was for our group’s beautiful pup Chevy, followed by the utterly adorable Sierra.  By the time I entered my Saffron into the contest, both of those pups already had tons of votes and I remember saying to myself “oh well, let’s just do this for a good laugh.”  Later on the contest, another one of our group pup Dory will turn up the heat and the 4 of us ended up among the top 5 vote getters.  I became hopeful that pups from our group will have a sweep on the top 3 prize winning spots, but that was not to be… more on that below.

To promote Saffron I started off by doing what others did – shared the contest pic to this group.  That got me some votes but well short of catching up to the top runners.  I saw others using strategies like bumping and reposting.  Bumping is where you comment on your own post so that it will be repositioned to the top of the wall.  Reposting is where you (hopefully) delete the original post and share the same picture again.  I tried them myself, but those strategies were ineffective.  While the original post got Saffy dozens of votes, both bumping and reposting got just a few – such small return at the cost of annoying folks really.  My guess is that while the original post may show up on member’s home page, FB is smart enough to filter out the bumped and reposted pics.

I decided to switch gears and expand my reach.  I shared the pic in my own wall so that my friends and family can vote.  That was obvious.  Who else would vote for Saffron?  Since the picture was taken in John Muir Wilderness, I joined the John Muir Tail group.  She is also a Golden Retriever, so I joined that group too.  All totaled the groups I joined had more than 30,000 members and their passionate support eventually put Saffron over the top.  It felt pretty good and I became convinced of our group’s sweep.

Instead, here was the final result.

http://blog.backcountryk9.com/2014/08/and-winners-are.html

While all of our group pups mentioned above had 100+ votes, the top prize winner had mere 50+, followed by a pup that had only 8 votes. 

So, here are few takeaways from all that…
·        Our contest will be different.  It will be decided by your votes and your votes alone.  We will only disqualify a pic in the event of voting fraud.
·        Contest Committee will nominate from the top liked pics such that whichever the picture that ends up winning is truly excellent, loved, and reflects the mission of this group
·        Contest Committee will promote the contest album to this group, so there is less incentive for nominees to promote their pics on the group wall (it will be redundant).  If you do so, let’s be reminded that bumping and reposting is not just annoying but ineffective.
·        Here is another tip – some of your supporters will inevitably ask if they can vote more than once.  The answer is no, but there is nothing stopping those folks from sharing the album with  their family and friends and asking for votes.  Lots of votes for Saffy came that way.

Ever since that ordeal (or fun?) we became interested in hosting our own contest.  Our initial thought was to do just one-off, or perhaps just few contests based on themes.  We thought of themes like “the dirtiest dog” and “the worst picture of your dog”, but rejected the idea after further reflection.  I kept thinking “hum, it’s kind of sad to see some of our greatest pics eventually disappear into the bottom of our wall.  Is there a way to recognize and honor them even more?”  Such was my initial inspiration for starting the weekly collage/group banner.  Then I said “let’s not just do that weekly, how about honoring the best of the month?”

I also did not want to run the contest just for the sake of running it either.  I wanted the winner to take away a good prize.  So I contacted Ruffwear – what do I have to lose, right?  Some questions were posted asking if our group is owned by Ruffwear, but the answer is no.  I am a diehard fan, but I have no affiliation to Ruffwear beyond the prize arrangement for this contest.  I then asked Jody Sider and Storm to be our contest spokes hiker/dog – but the fact she professes to be a Ruffwear junkie is a mere coincident I learned after the fact.  So, rest assured – your pup doesn't need to be sporting the Ruffwear harness in order to be nominated J It just has to be a darn good pic that gets tons of likes from the group.

If you have not done so, see here for the contest rules
http://goo.gl/G2vEqe

The album with nominated pictures will be posted on the evening of 27^th.  Best of luck to everyone, and may the best photo (and the best campaigner behind it) win!

~ ro