How to do a free giveaway on instagram
How to Use Instagram Giveaways to Grow Your Following
People love free stuff.
It’s not just people who are into “extreme couponing,” either. Almost everybody loves the chance to snag some free swag, whether it’s a buy-one-get-one offer on coffee at the local supermarket or the chance to win a year’s supply of free oil changes.
Marketers don’t tend to like using words such as “manipulate” to describe what they do, but when it comes to pushing your audience’s buttons, manipulating – sorry, leveraging – people’s desire to get something for nothing is one of the most powerful techniques at your disposal.
Today, we’ll be taking a look at you how can use giveaways and similar promotions on Instagram to build your fanbase and reach new potential customers. We’ll go over the marketing basics you’ll need to consider when launching a giveaway, real-world examples of how this strategy can impact your Instagram growth, as well as some cautionary guidelines on pitfalls to avoid.
What Are Instagram Giveaways?
Instagram giveaways are limited-time promotions in which brands promise to give away a product or service to one (or more) lucky entrants according to a specified set of criteria.
An example of an Instagram giveaway post
If you spend any amount of time on Instagram, you’ve probably seen a giveaway in action firsthand. Household-name brands and small businesses alike use Instagram giveaways to create buzz about new product lines, reach new fans, and grow their social followings.
Sometimes the prizes are incredible, while others may be… a little lackluster. Regardless of what you’re giving away (or trying to win), Instagram giveaways can be a great way to create some buzz and attract some potential new fans.
Why Should I Consider Running an Instagram Giveaway?
Although you can run an Instagram giveaway for just about any reason you can think of, the two primary reasons you may want to consider this kind of promotion are:
- To encourage social sharing of a specific Instagram post
- To grow your Instagram following
Ideally, a good Instagram giveaway should accomplish both of these goals.
A highly shareable post will drive social shares by itself, which leads to greater exposure and impression share, while the giveaway entry criteria should accomplish the secondary goal of growing your Instagram audience.
The more people participate, the farther your post will be shared, which means more entries, which means more followers, which means more shares… you get the idea.
Why Would I Give Something Away for Free in an Instagram Giveaway?
If you’ve never used this kind of promotion before, you might be wondering if running an Instagram giveaway is a little counterintuitive. This is a fair point, but it’s one that’s worth looking at in a little more depth.
Original art/animation by Snowbacon
You’ve probably heard the expression, “You’ve got to spend money to make money.” This is true of the largest corporations and the scrappiest mom-and-pop shops alike. There are very few truly free ways to promote your business (though there are some), and whichever way you look at it, you’re going to spend something to grow your audience.
This includes investments of your time (which you’d need if you were to focus on growing your Instagram following organically), budget for paid social campaigns if you’re advertising on Instagram, or inventory if you’re planning on running a giveaway.
Only you can decide on the value of a giveaway. Viewing the experience as an investment, rather than a loss, however, may make it easier to reconcile.
How to Run an Instagram Giveaway
Okay, so you’ve decided to take the plunge and run your first Instagram giveaway! So now what? Well, now you have to actually set up and run your giveaway.
Step 1: Choose the Prize for Your Instagram Giveaway
Before you get started actually running your Instagram giveaway, you need to decide on a suitable prize for the lucky entrant(s) to win.
My wife Nicky recently ran her first Instagram giveaway to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the opening of her design studio and enamel pin company, CATPARTY (yes, all caps, and no, I won’t apologize for such a shameless plug).
Before she did anything else, she decided that she would offer a bundle of products known as the Party Pack as the prize for her giveaway. The Party Pack includes a limited-edition one-inch enamel pin, a one-inch button, and a vinyl sticker featuring CATPARTY’s lovable brand ambassador, Party Cat.
Party Cat – he’s here to party.
The total value of the individual items in the Party Pack is around $14, while the pack itself sells for just over $12. To Nicky, this was the ideal product for an Instagram giveaway; enough to entice people to enter the giveaway (more on this momentarily), yet not so expensive that it would be detrimental to sales revenues.
Choosing a suitable prize is a balancing act. You need to make sure people have enough incentive to enter your giveaway by offering something sufficiently attractive, but without taking a serious loss on the product you choose to give away.
Step 2: Decide the Entry Criteria for Your Instagram Giveaway
For her Instagram giveaway, Nicky decided that entrants had to do two things to enter:
- Follow CATPARTY on Instagram
- Tag two people when sharing the original post
Every person who completed both of these criteria was entered into the giveaway.
However, as a little extra incentive, Nicky also decided that for every additional person an entrant tagged when sharing the post, the entrant would receive an additional entry.
The main objective of Nicky’s giveaway wasn’t to boost sales, but to gain exposure and grow her Instagram following. That’s why following CATPARTY was the primary entry criteria. She had hoped that by combining this with the two-person tag criteria, she would increase her following considerably. Every additional person tagged by an entrant was another potential follower.
Similarly to choosing a suitable prize to give away, deciding on the entry criteria for your Instagram giveaway is about balance. You need to ensure that whatever you ask of potential entrants will help you achieve your primary goal, but you also can’t ask too much of people or you risk limiting the size of your entry pool.
This is just like optimizing a web form; include too many fields and you’ll probably turn off a sizable number of people who would have otherwise entered the contest (or clicked through from your landing page, to continue the web form analogy).
Include too few fields and you risk failing to achieve your goal of growing your following (or capturing too little data about your prospects).
Step 3: Decide How Long Your Instagram Giveaway Will Last
The next decision you need to make is how much time you’ll give your audience to enter your Instagram giveaway.
Nicky opted to run her Instagram giveaway for seven days. She had originally planned to launch the contest on a Monday – which meant it would have ended on the Sunday night – but due to an unforeseen last-minute complication, she had to push the contest back by a couple of days. In the end, she ran the giveaway from Tuesday morning to Wednesday evening, giving entrants a full seven days to enter.
The length of your Instagram giveaway might depend on several factors.
For one, there’s the size of your existing following. It may make more sense, for example, to run a shorter giveaway if you have thousands of followers. For Nicky, who has a much more modest following, a full week seemed the right amount of time.
It’s also worth considering that your giveaway may run out of steam or hit the wall of diminishing returns the longer it runs, so think carefully about this before making any public announcements.
Also, think about time zones and international audiences. Not all of your entrants are likely to be in the same time zone, so be sure it’s crystal clear precisely when your contest ends. You could also post reminders to help people remember that the contest is coming to a close – which is another way to encourage last-minute entries!
Nicky had to consider whether international entries would be accepted at all due to additional shipping costs compared to the overall value of the prize. In the end, she decided that she would accept international entries, but she had to include a short disclaimer about shipping costs to avoid nasty surprises if someone in, say, Australia won the contest.
Step 4: Create the Perfect Instagram Giveaway Post
So, you’ve done all the prep work, and now you’re ready to actually launch your Instagram giveaway.
Before you can do this, you’ll need an actual Instagram post to use.
The “perfect” Instagram giveaway post will vary widely from one account to another. However, there are a couple of elements that every Instagram giveaway post should include. These are:
- A strong, color image to serve as the basis for the post
- Efficient use of text announcing the giveaway
For her Instagram giveaway, Nicky used the following image:
As you can see, the main image of the post features a bold, colorful visual as well as text announcing the contest. Although she could have used more text in the image itself, Nicky wisely chose to keep the inclusion of text in the image to the bare minimum, instead using the caption section of the post to let people know how to enter.
While there are no hard-and-fast rules about how to create Instagram posts for giveaways, it’s worthwhile considering your post from the audience’s perspective. If you’re giving away a specific product, it makes sense to include an image of that product in your announcement post; it would be misleading to include an image of a Maserati sports car in an Instagram giveaway for a weekend yoga retreat, for example.
Once you’re happy with your post, publish it and start the clock!
Step 5: Create ‘Reminder’ Posts to Share Throughout Your Instagram Giveaway
Although Instagram posts may not be quite as “disposable” as tweets, the sheer volume of posts you can see at any given time on an Instagram timeline is considerable, especially if you follow a lot of people.
As such, Instagram giveaways aren’t quite “set it and forget it,” and you should be prepared to provide regular updates on how much time is left to enter your giveaway to ensure a steady stream of entrants continues throughout the duration of the competition.
Only you can decide how often to publish “reminder” posts. Nicky opted to publish a single reminder post on Day Three of the contest. She decided early on that, based on her research, multiple updates per day was way too much, and since her giveaway lasted for seven days, the single mid-week reminder worked well.
The reminder posts themselves should be primarily visually striking so that they catch people’s eye as they browse their timeline.
The captions should reiterate the rules of the giveaway, but it might be worth experimenting with the length of your captions depending on the frequency of your reminder posts. In Nicky’s case, a simple variant of the original post with a shortened caption was enough, but you may want to create more elaborate posts depending on your needs.
Step 6: Tally the Results of Your Instagram Giveaway
So it’s been a week (or however long your giveaway ran for), and you’ve amassed a list of Instagram followers who entered your contest. Now all that remains is to pick the lucky winner!
Tallying up the entrants of your Instagram giveaway can be a piece of cake, or it can be a logistical nightmare – it all depends on your entry criteria and the volume of entrants.
After her giveaway had concluded, Nicky went through her Instagram feed and entered all the names of entrants who had abided by the rules into a spreadsheet. Each entrant’s name was entered onto a different row. Individuals who only entered once – by following CATPARTY and tagging two other people – were entered on a single row, while other entrants who tagged more people were entered into multiple rows to reflect the number of entries.
The lucky winner and their swag
To find the winner of her Instagram giveaway, Nicky used a simple online name-picking tool to select a winner from the list of entrants. Unfortunately, none of the software tools we came across supported CSV upload functionality, meaning that each name had to be entered manually, with entrants who submitted multiple entries being entered the relevant number of times. (If you know of a tool that supports uploads, let me know in the comments!)
No matter which way you slice it, actually determining the winner of your Instagram giveaway is likely to be at least a little work, so choose a system that allows you to select a winner as efficiently – and fairly – as possible.
Step 7: Spread the News About the Winner of Your Instagram Giveaway
Well, that’s it. You’ve ran your first Instagram giveaway and selected a lucky winner from the horde of entrants. All that’s left to do now is notify the lucky winner!
Sure, you could just send the winner a direct message, but that would be a missed opportunity.
Why not make the announcement of the winner as much of a spectacle as the rest of the contest?
ALL ABOARD THE HYPE TRAIN
Letting the lucky winner know they’ve won your Instagram giveaway is yet another opportunity for exposure and growing your following. It lets the winner know they’ve won in a fun and exciting way, and also gives you the chance to thank the unlucky entrants as well as let your audience know about relevant forthcoming sales or future competitions.
Using Your Instagram Giveaway Data in Future Campaigns
Instagram giveaways aren’t just a great way to boost your following and create buzz about your store – they’re a veritable treasure-trove of data just waiting to be explored.
You probably already know that you can access analytics data for your Instagram feed if your account is a Business account. If you’ve never checked out this data, immediately after an Instagram giveaway is the perfect time to start.
Once Nicky’s Instagram giveaway had concluded, she delved into her analytics data to learn more about her audience.
Nicky learned all sorts of interesting information after her contest. For instance, she learned that she had a loyal (and growing) following in London, despite being based on the East Coast of the United States. This is largely because the enamel pin community is very tight-knit, and is generally pretty trendy in the British capital. Nicky has also made multiple sales to customers in London, which could also help account for this trend.
Next up, Nicky looked at some more audience demographic data. She learned that the majority of her audience is female, and between the ages of 25-34 – a very lucrative and desirable demographic.
Unlike some analytics data, demographic information may not be impacted as significantly by Instagram giveaways. Unless you’re offering a significantly imbalanced (or unfair) advantage to one demographic over another – say, giving women twice as many chances to win as men – you can probably be quite confident in the integrity of your demographic data before or after you run your contest.
It’s important to note that while Instagram analytics data can be immensely useful, you should approach this data carefully if you’re examining it after a giveaway. For example, you can see in the screenshot above that many of Nicky’s followers started following CATPARTY’s Instagram feed on Thursday afternoons. However, given that her Instagram giveaway ran from a Tuesday morning to a Wednesday night, this follower data could have easily been skewed by the contest.
That said, this data could also indicate strong interest in entries on Day Two of the competition – potentially valuable insight for future giveaways.
How Did CATPARTY’s Instagram Giveaway Go?
By now, you might be wondering how successful CATPARTY’s inaugural Instagram giveaway was.
I mentioned earlier in the post that the primary goal of CATPARTY’s giveaway was to increase the number of followers CATPARTY has on Instagram – any sales would be gravy, but boosting sales wasn’t the main objective.
Before the giveaway, CATPARTY had approximately 200 Instagram followers. Afterwards, it had 340 followers – an increase of 70%!
If we use traditional marketing metrics as a barometer of success, we can calculate the cost-per-acquisition of each new Instagram follower. We can do this by dividing the value of the prize Nicky featured in her Instagram giveaway (around $12) by the number of followers she gained during the contest.
CATPARTY attracted roughly 140 new followers during the competition, so we can calculate that each new follower cost just eight cents to acquire – not too shabby at all, especially when you consider that each of these followers is genuine and authentic (unlike followers Instagram profiles can pay to acquire), and has the potential to become a paying customer further down the road. In terms of ROI, this is pretty awesome, even if the figures themselves are rather modest.
Using Third-Party Instagram Analytics Tools
Out of sheer curiosity, I wanted to delve a little deeper into Nicky’s Instagram analytics data to see other aspects of CATPARTY’s Instagram presence had been impacted by the giveaway.
Although Instagram offers some decent tools of its own, it’s still a little lacking. I used a free online tool called Gabstats to evaluate other performance metrics during the week of Nicky’s Instagram giveaway.
During the week of the contest, CATPARTY made 10 posts to Instagram. In this time period, CATPARTY’s Instagram posts received:
- 536 total Likes
- 54 Likes per post on average
- 111 total comments
- 12 comments per post on average
We can take a look at each of Gabstat’s performance metrics individually. Below is a graph of Likes made on CATPARTY’s Instagram posts throughout the duration of the giveaway:
As you can see, Likes of CATPARTY’s posts during the contest rose dramatically between March 5 and March 6 – the day that Nicky published her reminder post.
We can also see which posts were the most popular during our custom date range:
Interestingly, in terms of Likes, each of the top three strongest posts performed similarly.
As you can see, however, comments were very strong for the announcement post, yet there was only a single comment on the reminder post six days later. (The second-strongest post was part of a month-long “Meet the Maker” series in which CATPARTY was participating.)
In the figure above, we can see which of the hashtags Nicky used throughout her Instagram giveaway that correlated with the most Likes. The hashtags #pinstagram and #pingiveaway were tied for second place (#pinstagram is a very common and popular hashtag among the enamel pin community, as is the third hashtag, #pingame). This provides you with further data to optimize your posts.
Rather frustratingly, Gabstats doesn’t offer graphed or tabular data for follower counts, so we’ll have to rely on other data for this information. Still, it’s not bad for a free tool. If you have recommendations for similar Instagram analytics tools, let me know in the comments.
Give It Away, Give It Away, Give It Away Now
No matter what kind of business you’re in, Instagram giveaways are an excellent way of reaching new prospective fans with your products or services, growing your social following, and engaging with your fans.
Obviously some kinds of businesses will be better suited to Instagram giveaways and promotions more than others, but hopefully, this post has given you some ideas for things to try during your next – or first – Instagram giveaway.
Have you used this kind of contest in your own social media campaigns? Get at me in the comments with ideas, suggestions, and tips of your own for running an Instagram giveaway.
How to Host an Instagram Giveaway: A Step-by-step Guide
If you want to grow your following on Instagram, hosting a giveaway can be one of the most effective tactics.
With the right strategy, you can reach thousands of potential new followers -- all while building a stronger sense of community around your brand.
Ready to get started? We're sharing everything you need to know to plan the perfect Instagram giveaway in this guide.
Table of Contents:
Why You Should Host an Instagram Giveaway
How to Do a Giveaway on Instagram
How to Pick a Winner on Instagram
3 Instagram Giveaway Ideas
Instagram giveaways are a powerful tactic for encouraging engagement from your community and reaching new audiences.
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Accounts that host giveaways hold the potential to attract hundreds, if not thousands, of entries and followers.
In fact, a study conducted by Tailwind found that Instagram giveaways can help grow your followers 70% faster in three months than if you didn’t host a contest at all.
Source: Tailwind
But brands and businesses can often see drop-offs once the giveaway is closed.
So it’s all about hosting intentional, well-planned giveaways that attract your target audience -- so you can reach people who actually want to stick around and engage with your content.
Find out how in our step-by-step guide below.
Plan and schedule your Instagram posts in advance with Later — get started today for free!
How to Do a Giveaway on Instagram: A Step-by-step Guide
Instagram giveaways may seem straightforward, but there's a huge difference between a good giveaway and a great one.
A great Instagram giveaway will support your overarching marketing goals, tap into your target audience, and support your brand values.
Step #1: Determine Your Marketing GoalsThe first step towards running a successful Instagram contest is to understand what you want to achieve.
The best and most successful Instagram contests are intentional and well thought out, with a clear underlying goal.
Do you want to grow your following? Give back to your community? Promote a product? Boost brand awareness? Raise awareness of a social issue? Increase engagement? Show affinity with another brand?
Having a crystal clear vision of your goals will help fine-tune your strategy and keep your campaign on track.
Step #2: Decide on an Instagram Giveaway PrizeNext up, it’s important to consider exactly what you’ll be giving away -- a compelling prize that elicits excitement and motivates users to enter is the name of the game.
Make sure the prize is relevant and fits your audience’s needs. Whether it’s a product, service, or experience, you’ll want to choose a prize that’s enticing to both your existing and target audience.
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You can get super creative here. if you were to partner with another brand, what brand does your audience really love? What products or experiences would make your community feel great right now?
And it doesn't have to be something directly within your industry. For example, beauty retailer SpaceNK partnered with a luxury retreat destination to offer their community the opportunity to win an exclusive getaway.
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When you have a few ideas lined up, test them out! Ask a few of your community members if they'd be excited by the opportunity to win the prize, and whether they'd be motivated enough to like, tag friends in, or share the post.
Once you've got your eye on the prize, you'll need to define how someone can enter your giveaway. This will all depend on your goals (see Step #1).
For example, if your top goal is to attract new followers, you'll want to make sure that following your account is part of the entry requirements. You might also want to specify that entrants must tag 3-5 friends to be eligible.
You’ll also need to cover some of the admin details, such as:
How long will the contest run for? Specify closing dates and don’t forget to include timezones.
Will your contest be open to certain countries?
Is there an age limit? If your contest is only open to ages 18 and above, note that.
Include Instagram’s
regarding promotions on the app.
These details may seem a little boring, but transparency is key for a successful giveaway.
Step #4: Promote Your Instagram GiveawayNow it’s time to launch your giveaway.
For example, if you’re on Instagram, announce your contest through a grid post, story, and Reel -- take advantage of all avenues.
Be sure to use a strong image for the post itself and include a clear call-to-action in your caption to encourage as many entries as possible.
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For the best results, don't forget to share your announcement post at your best time to post.
If your brand lives on multiple platforms (aka Twitter, TikTok, Facebook) consider cross-promoting for additional reach.
TIP: Re-promote your Instagram giveaway on stories before the contest ends!
Ready to find your best days and times to post on Instagram? The feature is available on all paid plans. Upgrade now!
How to Pick a Winner on InstagramIf you want to host an Instagram giveaway, it's important to have a fair and objective process in place to select a winner.
To do this, you can manually add all entries to a spreadsheet and use the random function to generate a winner. However, this can be quite a time-consuming process.
Alternatively, you can use an automated system to speed things up, such as:
Easypromos Easypromos uses the official Instagram API to import all the comments from your giveaway post to help determine if users entered the contest correctly and help you randomly select a winner.
Instagram Comment Picker This free and trusted tool does all the heavy lifting for you by selecting a random name from any contest ran through an Instagram Business or Creator account.
Wishpond Wishpond allows you to easily manage and monitor your Instagram giveaway by keeping track of all entries -- their tools will help you determine a randomized winner.
Whichever option you choose, always make sure your process is fair and (if required) transparent. Trust is important on Instagram -- and a sketchy giveaway can do more harm to a brand's reputation than good.
3 Inspiring Instagram Giveaway IdeasAs we've already covered, there are tons of ways you can approach an Instagram giveaway.
To provide some context, here are three different tactics you can take inspiration from:
#1: Introduce the Triple Threat: Tag, Follow, and Share to EnterOne of the most popular strategies to gain social traction is through a tag, follow, and share entry requirement.
This format is a super straightforward and clear way to gain tons of engagement from various lanes on a single post.
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F.Miller used this tactic like a pro by asking users to tag a friend for a chance to win their fifth-anniversary Necessity Kit.
#2: Partner with a Brand that Taps into Your Target AudienceNot only is teaming up with a like-minded brand an easy way to leverage their audience, it's also a great way to ensure you're attracting the right followers.
Think about it: double the traction, double the engagement. It's a win-win.
For example, Fresh Restaurants collaborated with their health enthusiast neighbor, Spinco to launch the ultimate workout package giveaway.
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In a combination of various social requirements, users had to follow both accounts, like the post, tag their favorite workout buddy, and share on their Instagram Story for five additional entries -- generating a lot of engagement.
#3: Generate a Social Buzz With a Task-based EntryFor a creative spin on an entry, you can ask your followers to whip up a caption, answer a question, or create a piece of content to enter your giveaway.
This type of entry requires a little more effort from users, but it's an awesome way to build brand loyalty and wider awareness.
For example, documentary maker Louis Theroux encouraged his audience to redesign the cover of his new book, Gotta Get Theroux This, for the chance to win a signed copy.
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This creative concept amassed over 13K likes and 585 comments, while the contributions were shared widely on social.
With a slew of audience-building advantages, Instagram contests are a treasure-trove for driving engagement.
Brands both large and small are taking advantage of Instagram giveaways to increase visibility, drive social shares, and boost brand awareness.
Turn Instagram into a traffic-driver for your content with Later’s Linkin.bio feature — available for free!
How to run a giveaway on Instagram in 2022
After creating an online store on Instagram, the page needs to be promoted to attract customers. One of the best ways to do this is by giving away prizes.
In this article, we will tell you how to conduct draws, about their varieties and the goals that they solve.
What is the purpose of Instagram giveaways and contests? But contests have their own special benefits, which are especially useful on Instagram. By using this promotion method, you will increase user engagement. They will start mentioning you, liking, commenting on your posts and sharing posts more often. Profile engagement and mentions are important success factors in the social network, without which page promotion is impossible. By making your profile more recognizable, you will attract subscribers and new customers. You can read more about this in the article about Instagram algorithms in 2022.
How to run an Instagram raffle based on comments
Before the raffle, it is important to decide on the prize that the winner will receive. This approach will be correct for any type of draw. In the case of an online store, the best gift will be a product or a discount on purchases.
After you choose a prize, you can think through the rest of the details of the draw.
The mechanics of the draw based on comments is extremely simple - the user needs to leave a comment under the post with the action. What kind of comment it will be depends on the conditions of the competition. If you want to add interactivity, then, for example, invite users to tell why they subscribed to you. It is not necessary to complicate the competition too much, so as not to discourage people from participating.
It's best to allow any comments, but with the condition that subscribers like the post and tag their friends. Clarify that you can leave an unlimited number of comments and this will increase the chances of winning. You will solve two problems at once - increase engagement and attract new users to your page. Thanks to active commenting, the post will be promoted on Instagram and attract additional attention.
MasterZoo prank got 1292 comments with 9 friends tagged0006 There is no need to delay the drawing by comments.
The optimal duration is one to two weeks. After that, you can choose the winner. To do this, use randomizers that will give out a random number and this comment will be the winner. Also, there are specialized services for choosing winners, such as YouToGift or LIZONAIR. The store posted a video with the process of choosing the winner in stories The draw through stories
The draw through stories is in many ways similar to the draw by comments. You need to make a post with a contest, and users need to write under it. The main condition is that they must repost the contest to their stories and mark your profile. The point is that regular reposts to the feed are less effective. Firstly, users make them reluctantly so as not to clog their page, and secondly, stories are viewed more often than regular posts.
Comfy combined the mechanics of drawing through stories and comments The winner is selected according to the already familiar scheme, with the help of a randomizer.
Stories are stored for 24 hours, so it is advisable to hold the draw in a short time. But even if the history disappears, you can still check if the user has fulfilled the condition. By going to direct, you will see a notification about the mark.
Despite the relative complexity of the organization of the draw, it allows you to reach a large audience. Thanks to the repost, the subscribers of your subscribers will see the post and, possibly, go to your profile. The draw through stories will give impetus to the development of new pages with a small number of readers. This effect can be enhanced by enlisting the help of popular bloggers. We wrote earlier about how to order advertising from bloggers.
Draw through hashtags
The essence of the draw through hashtags is that users make thematic posts on their pages, according to your conditions. For example, you will announce a competition for the best photo with your products and come up with a special hashtag for it.
To participate in the contest, the user must post a post, tag you and write a hashtag. The winner will be the one who gets the most likes or who you choose yourself.
The hashtag draw is suitable for profiles that already have an impressive audience of subscribers. The competition will further promote the brand. Pay attention to the prize - make it valuable so that users have an incentive to complete your task and be original. Here are some contest ideas you can use:
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a story about his acquaintance with the store;
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product display in action;
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unpacking of goods;
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short video review of the product;
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holiday themed photo.
Conclusion
Instagram pranks cost you little but promote your profile well. Start with a simple comment raffle that works for profiles with any number of followers. And then try all kinds of pranks and see which one will be the most successful. But remember that all efforts to promote the store on Instagram can be multiplied by zero if the account is blocked. To accumulate your success, we recommend opening an online store with a separate website where users from Instagram will go.
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How to run a contest or giveaway on Instagram
Contests and giveaways on Instagram provide an opportunity to increase the engagement of subscribers, reach new audiences and increase brand awareness. But before you start the first activity, you need to familiarize yourself with some important rules.
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How to run a contest or giveaway on Instagram
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Difference between a giveaway and an Instagram contest
between two terms. These are not interchangeable words at all, but completely different activities, with their own rules.
Draw is a free game of chance. Participants perform simple actions, for example, write comments, mark / repost in stories, subscribe, put likes.
Among them, the one who will receive the prize is randomly selected.
Competition is a prize promotion where participants complete activities or tasks that can be scored. Here you need to show your skills and show your skills. Unlike free giveaways, there can be different conditions for participating in a contest: paid entry, purchase of a product, a review about you or your service, a photo of a participant with a product, some kind of creative task, etc.
How to run a contest or draw on Instagram
In order for the contest/draw to go smoothly, you need to indicate all the conditions and organizational points so that you are not bombarded with questions in Direct, and users do not have questions about the honesty of the results.
Timing
Clearly define the date and time when you will start and finish accepting applications, taking into account the time zone.
Restrictions for participation
Announce the restrictions for participation, if any: age, location, type of account (for example, to keep it open during the contest/draw).
Conditions of entry
Describe all the steps to enter a contest or sweepstakes. For example, write a funny caption for a photo in a comment and follow your account. Like and tag friends in the comments, etc.
The winner and his prize
Specify how many winners are planned, how and when they will be chosen, randomly or according to some criteria. Will there be a recording of the summing up or a live broadcast will be organized. Explain how the winner will receive the prize and who pays for shipping.
Explain how the winner finds out about the prize. Maybe it will be a separate post dedicated to the results and you will mark the winner. Or just send the winner a private message in Direct.
It is worth considering that the more actions you ask participants to perform, the higher the value of the prize should be - people need an incentive. To have as many participants in the contest/draw as possible, you can run ads or use free promotion methods.
Before starting the draw/competition, we recommend creating response templates in LiveDune, they will allow you to quickly answer the same type of questions in Direct.
Prize options for contests and sweepstakes
The key to a successful contest is a good valuable prize for your audience, otherwise users simply won't want to participate. For extra stimulation, multiple winners can be made (depending on budget), as the more chances users see to win, the more likely they are to participate.
Gift options:
- Brands can give away some of their products. For example, a women's clothing store will present a dress from a new collection. If the company offers services - a certificate for a certain amount or access to the service.
- Bloggers can also give away a certificate for a store or their own information product. It can be anything: a place on a course, a personal consultation, an individual training program, a recipe book, etc.
You can also get ideas from competitors. Analyze which contest posts got the most comments and likes, most likely, it was the prize that helped to get such a reaction.
How to draw on Instagram comments
The purpose of the giveaway: increase engagement, reach and attract new subscribers.
Variations of conditions:
- participation from a real and non-commercial, open page;
- following an account and liking posts;
- repost in stories;
- tag friends in comments;
- in addition, you can ask in the comments to tell about yourself or share your opinion.
How to sum up the draw: connect your account to LiveDune and use the "Monitoring" module to upload comments from the desired post to Excel. This is a quick and convenient way, even if there are several thousand comments under the post with the draw.
Next, turn on screen recording or broadcast live. In the randomizer of numbers, enter a range of numbers - the number of participants in the drawing, in this case, the number of uploaded comments. For example, if you uploaded 2500 comments, specify the range from 1 to 2500. Click on the "Generate" button.
The resulting number is your winner. Go to the Excel file with comments and find the participant with the winning number (in our case 73). Check the participant for fulfillment of all conditions of the draw , announce the winner and write him the good news. You can duplicate the total in stories and post by adding a mention of the winner.
How to draw in stories
The rules of the draw for stories are based on the same principles as for comments. The difference is that there are only 24 hours to fulfill all the conditions. Also, drawing on stories is completely convenient, since you need to manually look at each mark and give the participant a serial number.
According to the standard conditions, the participant must repost the post with the draw or a screenshot, post it in his stories, adding a mention of the organizer. After that, the organizer receives a notification in Direct, where he awards the participant a serial number and sends it back in a message. The winner is then chosen using a randomizer.
Ideas for creative contests on Instagram
People willingly participate in contests where they need to show their skills. The main thing is not to complicate the conditions and make participation as simple as possible.
1. Selfie Contest
Ask participants to post a photo of themselves using your product, or with the product somewhere in the background. Create a unique hashtag that, according to the conditions of the contest, participants must use when posting a photo. At the end of the contest, choose the photo you like the most.
2. Caption Contest
You post a photo and ask your followers to come up with an interesting caption or title. It’s good if the picture captures a funny or funny moment, because. the audience responds much better to humor. The winner of the competition can be chosen in two ways:
- ask the participants to like the comments they like - the one with the most likes is the winner;
- choose according to your needs.
Contests and giveaways on Instagram are a good way to increase the number of subscribers and increase their activity, the main thing is not to abuse them so that the audience does not get bored with them.
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