How to run a successful giveaway on instagram
How to Do an Instagram Giveaway Well in 10 Easy Steps
Do you want to learn how to run an Instagram giveaway?
Running an Instagram giveaway is a powerful social media marketing tactic to boost brand awareness, increase customer engagement and get more followers. Plus, with the right hashtags, you can reach more of your target audience to generate leads for your small business.
In this post, we’ll show you how to do a giveaway on Instagram in 10 easy steps. We’ll also share the best way to pick Instagram contest or giveaway winners randomly.
Shall we get started?
How Do Instagram Giveaways Work?
Successful Instagram giveaways are limited-time promotions that promise to give away a product or service in exchange for users taking specific actions.
Those actions can include following a brand’s Instagram profile, leaving a comment, and even tagging a friend. Most high-quality giveaways also ask contestants to perform actions on other social media platforms to spread awareness and drive traffic to the initial Instagram giveaway post.
Why Should You Host an Instagram Giveaway?
The most successful brands host Instagram giveaways for the following reasons:
- Grow their Instagram followers
- Raise brand awareness with new audiences
- Promote new products
- Increase website traffic
Since giveaways and contests are a super engaging marketing strategy, it’s the best way to build relationships with your target audience. By offering something for free, users will not only find your campaign exciting, but they’ll also feel more valued.
That level of value will spur users on to become potential customers while improving your Instagram marketing efforts.
A recent study found that hosting an Instagram giveaway can help grow your followers 70% faster in 3 months than not running one at all.
Moreover, giveaways are super engaging. The engagement your brand gets can help the Instagram algorithm learn that your post is valuable, and as a result, it may display your post in more people’s Instagram feeds.
How to Run An Instagram Giveaway Step-by-Step
Now that you know what an Instagram giveaway is and the benefits of running one for your brand, let’s explore how to run a successful giveaway on Instagram.
- Step 1. Decide The Goal of Your Instagram Giveaway
- Step 2. Set Your Giveaway Entry Criteria
- Step 3. Choose a Prize to Give Away on Instagram
- Step 4. Pick a Good Instagram Hashtag
- Step 5. Set Your Instagram Giveaway Rules
- Step 6. Put a Time Limit on Your Giveaway
- Step 7. Choose the Best Giveaway Tool
- Step 8. Promote Your Instagram Giveaway
- Step 9. Announce the Winner of Your Instagram Giveaway
- Step 10. Track Your Giveaway Results
Step 1. Decide The Goal of Your Instagram Giveaway
If you want to learn how to run an Instagram giveaway, you should start by confirming your goals. The goal of your giveaway helps you tailor your strategy during the planning stages. It also helps you measure your results when the contest is over to see if the outcome aligns with your main aims.
Take a moment to think about what you want to achieve from your giveaway. You might have one or multiple goals.
Here are some examples of what those goals might look like:
- Run an Instagram competition to increase your follower count.
- Get more newsletter subscribers.
- Increase traffic to a particular webpage to grow your audience.
- Raise awareness about new products or services.
- Collect user-generated content (UGC) from fans to use in your promotion.
- Promote a specific product.
- Get more likes on Instagram to boost engagement.
The critical thing to remember about your goals is that you should measure the results quickly.
Don’t worry if you can’t think of how to measure your results right now. The entry criteria you set will play a big part in this, and we’ll cover that next.
Step 2. Set Your Giveaway Entry Criteria
An Instagram giveaway’s entry criteria are what actions you want people to take in return for entries.
Entry methods can vary and depend on your overall marketing goals.
Here are some popular criteria for entering a giveaway with examples of the goals you might want to achieve:
- Ask people to share the post for your giveaway if you want to increase brand awareness.
- Build your email list by asking people to sign up for your newsletter.
- Get people to follow your social profiles to grow your social media following.
- Ask people to leave a comment to increase blog engagement and traffic.
- Create a UGC photo contest where users have to upload a photo and tag friends in the comments section for bonus entries.
Whether your goal is to drive traffic to your site, raise awareness of your Instagram Stories, or get more Instagram followers, choosing the proper entry criteria can make a difference to your outcome.
Let’s face it; there’s not much point in asking people to sign up for your newsletter if your goal is to get more Instagram followers.
This Instagram giveaway example from Carmex is an excellent example of clearly stating how people can enter. Their criteria are in caps to help it stand out from the rest of the content.
With your Instagram giveaway goal and criteria set, choosing an exciting giveaway prize is fun.
Step 3. Choose a Prize to Give Away on Instagram
One of the essential steps for setting up your promotion is deciding what to give away on Instagram. What you choose largely depends on your goal.
Do you want to raise awareness about your product? In that case, giving away a copy of it to a lucky winner would be a good prize. Is it to celebrate the season? Then, a seasonally-themed prize or a gift card is a good choice.
Bomb Cosmetics did a great job with this seasonally festive giveaway post. Even the clever use of emojis helps to convey the time of year.
Alternatively, you could offer the chance to win an experience or meet a leader in your industry to win your prize draw.
Whatever it is, make sure your prize aligns with what you want to achieve for your business. People love free stuff, but if your prize isn’t relevant, you’ll end up with leads that don’t engage with your brand.
Check out these proven prize ideas to learn what else you can give away on Instagram.
Step 4. Pick a Good Instagram Hashtag
You might already know that hashtags are an effective way to find things on your Instagram feed. Using a popular Instagram hashtag might result in your giveaway showing up in the Explore channel. That would further help increase your contest’s visibility and make it easier for more Instagram users to find.
Consider using some of these widely used hashtags yourself:
- #giveaway
- #giveawaycontest
- #giveawaytime
- #giveawayalert
- #win
- #winitwednesday
You could also consider creating your own branded hashtag to associate the contest with your business.
Coca-Cola’s #shareacoke branded hashtag campaign proved to be wildly popular.
They even ran it as a Facebook Ad with fantastic results.
With your hashtags in place, it’s worth setting up some contest rules. Let’s look at that next.
Step 5. Set Your Instagram Giveaway Rules
Before you host a giveaway on Instagram, you must have clear rules. Your contest can get messy without any rules or terms, with entrants unclear of what you expect of them and their eligibility.
More importantly, Instagram has its own set of rules for promotional activity.
Instagram’s promotion guidelines say that you should include a disclaimer releasing Instagram from any responsibility.
Do you have to put a disclaimer on Instagram giveaways?
Yes, you should include a disclaimer on your Instagram giveaway. Your giveaway should say something like this:
“As per Instagram’s rules, this promotion is not sponsored, administered, or associated with Instagram in any way. By entering, you confirm that you are at least 13+ years of age, agree to Instagram’s terms of use, and release Instagram of any responsibility”.
As you can see from the example above, they’ve followed Instagram’s promotional guidelines by clearly marking their giveaway rules and stating they have no affiliation with Instagram.
You should also make sure you don’t ask entrants to tag themselves in your content or something that isn’t in the photo. If you do, Instagram will likely penalize you for it.
Fur a complete list of Instagram’s rules and regulations, take a look at their promotional guidelines here.
Step 6. Put a Time Limit on Your Giveaway
With the rules taken care of, telling people how long they’ve got to enter your giveaway can avoid unnecessary confusion.
You can do this by stating your time limit in your giveaway rules. Or, you can use RafflePress to cross-promote the giveaway on your website.
RafflePress is the best tool on the market for making an Instagram giveaway because it has a wealth of options designed to create fantastic viral giveaways and supercharge your growth at the same time.
The easy-to-use giveaway widget in RafflePress lets you set your contest duration. Simply set a start date and end date within the widget so you and your audience know when your contest ends and what’s happening at all times.
Another good thing about creating a clear giveaway timeline is it creates a sense of urgency with your followers. Knowing they only have a certain amount of time to enter makes them more eager to participate for fear of missing out on a grand prize.
Having people enter your giveaway more quickly will keep your post at the top of your followers’ feeds.
So how about we look at how to launch your Instagram giveaway next?
Step 7. Choose the Best Giveaway Tool
Now it’s time to set up your giveaway on Instagram, and the process is pretty simple when you use RafflePress, the best giveaway plugin for WordPress.
RafflePress makes it easy to create any type of contest on your WordPress website. Plus, it comes with various giveaway templates to make the setup process a breeze.
It has everything you need to accomplish your Instagram giveaway goals, whether to grow your Instagram followers, your email list or even grow your audience.
If you’re wondering how to set up an Instagram giveaway with RafflePress, here’s a step-by-step guide.
1. Create a New Giveaway
Click here to get started with RafflePress and download the WordPress plugin to your computer. If you need help doing this, here’s a step-by-step guide for installing a WordPress plugin.
Once you’ve installed the RafflePress plugin, navigate to your WordPress dashboard, click the RafflePress icon, and select Add New.
2. Choose the Instagram Giveaway Template
You can give your giveaway a name and choose a giveaway template on the next screen.
RafflePress offers a range of templates designed to meet specific business goals, such as Grow Your Facebook Page, Grow Your Email List, etc.
For this tutorial, we’ll choose the Grow Your Instagram Following template. So hover your mouse over the Instagram giveaway template and click Use This Template.
3. Enter Your Instagram Giveaway Prize Details
After choosing the Instagram giveaway template, you’ll go to the RafflePress contest builder, where you can set up your Instagram giveaway. The first thing you should do here is to enter your prize details.
So go ahead and click on the pencil icon under the Giveaway Prize Details section.
You can enter your prize name and add a description for participants to learn what the prize is all about in this area.
You can also include an image of your prize by clicking the Select Image button under the description box.
When you’re happy with the prize details, click Done Editing.
It’s also possible to set the giveaway duration under the Start and End Time heading on the left.
Click the Save button now and then to store your settings.
4. Choose Your Giveaway Entry Methods
As mentioned earlier, RafflePress makes it easy to add ways for users to enter your Instagram contest. Plus, by using the Instagram giveaway template, you already have several entry actions added automatically, such as:
- Visit us on Instagram
- View Instagram Post/Video
These actions are fully compliant with Instagram rules for giveaways, as they don’t require anyone to like or share. It’s completely optional.
That said, the chances are anyone using those actions will like your profile out of instinct, making it a win-win situation.
Depending on your contest goals, you might want to add bonus entries to your contest, such as visiting your Facebook page, referring a friend, etc.
Click the Actions tab and click any action to add it to the giveaway builder.
You can then click each action in the widget to enter the entry options. It includes changing the action label, choosing a value (how many entries the action is worth), making the action mandatory, etc.
Repeat this process for each entry action and click Save to store your settings.
5. Design Your Instagram Giveaway
Next, click the Design tab to customize the look of your giveaway. You can choose from 2 different layouts and several font and button colors.
If you’re creating a standalone giveaway landing page, you can select a page background color or upload your background photo.
When your contest looks how you want, click the Save button.
6. Choose Your Instagram Contest Settings
Upon clicking the Settings tab, you’ll see several options you can configure. It includes your giveaways’ general settings, giveaway rules, success tracking, social logins, and more.
One of the most important settings you’ll need is the Giveaway Rules.
RafflePress makes creating rules for your Instagram giveaway easy. While it doesn’t offer a specific Instagram giveaway rules template, it does have a giveaway rules generator to get a head start on creating your rules quickly.
Clicking this button will allow you to type in the sponsor name, email, address, eligible locations, the minimum age to enter, and more.
Once you’ve finished editing your settings, click the Save button.
7. Publish Your Instagram Giveaway in WordPress
Now it’s time to make your Instagram giveaway live. RafflePress offers 3 easy ways to publish your contest in WordPress, including:
- RafflePress WordPress Block – Embed the giveaway widget in your WordPress post or page (new WordPress block editor).
- WordPress Shortcode – Embed the giveaway in the classic WordPress editor, sidebar widgets, or inside your WordPress theme.
- Giveaway Landing Page – Create a distraction-free landing page on your website for your giveaway.
Publishing your contest on a dedicated Giveaway Landing Page is the easiest option. Since it has nothing to distract page visitors from entering, you’ll generate many entries and leads.
Creating a landing page for your giveaway is also an excellent way to help your website rank on Google.
Go ahead and choose the Giveaway Landing Page option. Then click the View button to see how your Instagram giveaway looks.
Step 8. Promote Your Instagram Giveaway
You can’t just sit around and wait for people to enter your giveaway. It would help if you began promoting it immediately to generate excitement and get tons of entries.
The easiest way to promote your Instagram giveaway is to add your giveaway page link to your Instagram bio and share an announcement post on Instagram, asking people to check the link in your bio to enter the contest.
You can also promote your Instagram giveaway by:
- Sharing the giveaway page on your other social media channels (Tailwind or buffer are good solutions for scheduling posts)
- Creating a popup with OptinMonster
- Sending an email newsletter
- Adding your giveaway to sweepstakes and contest directory websites
- Reaching out to bloggers and influencers to repost your contest post
- Writing a blog post giveaway announcement
Start promoting your giveaway weeks before it goes live to generate tons of interest and entries from day 1.
Step 9. Announce the Winner of Your Instagram Giveaway
With your Instagram giveaway over, it’s time to choose a winner and announce it to the people who entered.
A popular way to choose a winner for Instagram giveaways is to use a random number generator. However, this is often time-consuming for busy website owners.
Users of RafflePress can take advantage of having the plugin draw a winner for you and display it live on the widget. Simply use the built-in random winner picker, then email the winner right from your WordPress website.
You can also announce the winner of your Instagram giveaway in a new Instagram post.
Most businesses ask winners to contact them via Direct Message to arrange to deliver their prize. But, if one of the requirements for entering included having participants provide their email addresses, you can contact the winner via that method.
When you announce your winner, don’t forget to thank everyone else for entering. A good way to reward the contestants that didn’t win is to give them a coupon or discount.
That way, you’ll benefit from new sales.
Related: How to Email Non-Winning Giveaway Contestants (5 Tips)
Now, remember those goals you set? How are you going to find the results? We’ll learn that in our final step.
Step 10. Track Your Giveaway Results
Wondering how to keep track of Instagram giveaways? Finding the results isn’t too tricky.
If your goal was to drive more traffic to a product or web page via Instagram, MonsterInsights is the best analytics tracking plugin for WordPress websites.
It gives you the ability to track traffic to your giveaway landing page, referral traffic from your Instagram account and other social platforms, product sales, and more.
You can easily compare how many new followers you gained over the competition’s duration. The same goes for growing your email list too. Just measure the difference in email subscribers when you began and ended your giveaway, and you’ll get your results.
You can learn more details in this MonsterInsights review.
You can also see which giveaway actions drove the most entries with RafflePress’s Entries Report. Just click the Users link under any contest that has ended in RafflePress. Then the top of the screen, click the Entries Report link.
It will show you a pie chart that breaks down which actions resulted in the most giveaway entries. As a result, you’ll know which actions are more successful and use them in your next contest.
Congratulations! You’ve now learned how to run a giveaway on Instagram.
Doing so provides an excellent way to understand the likes and dislikes of your followers. It also helps you increase brand awareness and send more traffic to your business.
Instagram Giveaway FAQ
Are Instagram giveaways legal?
Instagram giveaways are perfectly legal if you abide by Instagram’s promotional guidelines.
How long should you run an Instagram giveaway?
Ideally, your giveaway on Instagram should last between 1 to 2 weeks.
What are good Instagram giveaway ideas?
Some of the best giveaway ideas for Instagram include:
- Photo contests
- Like and share contests
- Leave a comment giveaways
For more, check out these social media giveaway ideas.
If you’re interested in running a contest using RafflePress, take a look at this step-by-step guide.
And don’t forget to check out our YouTube channel. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter for even more great giveaway ideas.
7 Winning Instagram Giveaway Ideas (And How to Plan Your Own)
There are few methods more reliable in growing an Instagram following than running a contest.
Instagram giveaways create interactions with your existing audience while drawing in countless new views and followers. They’re a tried and true way to drive engagement in a way that Instagram’s algorithm can’t help but notice.
1. Like and/or comment to win
2.
Photo caption contest
3. Tag a friend
4. User-generated content
5. Trivia
6. Share this post
7. Hashtag contest
Grow on Instagram
Bonus: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps a fitness influencer used to grow from 0 to 600,000+ followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear.
Why you should run an Instagram giveaway
Instagram giveaways can help you hit a few different Instagram KPIs. Here are the top reasons you should consider including Instagram contests in your strategy:
Grow your following
Running a giveaway on your Instagram account is a great way to grow your audience. Contests tend to bring in new viewers to your page.
In the example below, Bulletproof coffee asked contestants to tag a friend in a comment to enter their giveaway:
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Bulletproof® (@bulletproof)
Some of the tagged users went on to tag their friends, further extending the reach of the giveaway. After all, who doesn’t love a contest? The prospect of winning something draws users in and gives them a chance to familiarize themselves with your brand.
Engage your audience
Giveaways, by nature, give your audience a chance to interact with your brand and your content. They can bring in algorithm-friendly engagement in the form of likes and comments, sure. But more importantly, they can encourage the sort of engagement that can’t be measured by statistics.
Contests and giveaways can allow authentic user engagement, bringing your audience closer to your page, brand, and ethos. It gets people talking on and off social media about what your brand is doing and can increase overall brand awareness of both web and brick and mortar retail.
They’re also a great way to let your audience know that their support is appreciated.
Collect user-generated content
Contests can be a great opportunity to allow your audience to generate (free and creative) content for your page. Whether it’s caption contests, photoshops, or art, it’s a way to get the creative side of your followers going.
Plus, your followers will love to see it — UGC serves as social proof, showing your followers and first-time account visitors that your brand is loved by the community.
How to set up an Instagram giveaway
1. Plan your contest
You’ll want to start by outlining the plan for your contest. This will involve picking out what kind of contest you want to run. You’ll also need to set time constraints. Make sure the time and date the contest ends are clear and adhered to in selecting your winner.
Perhaps most importantly, you’ll want to set a goal. What are you aiming to get from this contest? More followers? Increased sales numbers for a specific product or service? Whatever it may be, figure out early on what you want to gain.
That will make tracking the success of the contest far easier.
2. Set the rules
Every contest has rules. Yours will be no different. Whether it’s entry deadlines or what your followers need to do to enter, make sure they are clear and legible.
When posting about the giveaway on Instagram, it may be best to include the guidelines in the caption (like in the example below). This will make them easy to find for your followers.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by The Trendy Store US (@thetrendystoreus)
When sharing the contest on your website, a dedicated landing page, or other social media platforms it may be best to include any important rules upfront. If this isn’t possible, direct users to the giveaway post’s caption or wherever else the rules may be outlined.
If your contest is only open to certain geographic areas be sure to include that information clearly.
3. Pick a prize
This part should be fun! Decide what it is your followers will be competing for. It could be a product or assortment of products, a gift card, or something else. Just make sure you choose a prize that makes your Instagram contest worthwhile.
It’s also wise to make sure the prize is related to your brand. General prizes like cash or Amazon gift cards will lure in random followers looking for a chance to win a quick buck. Offering products and prizes related to what your page revolves around is more effective. It ensures that anyone who enters and follows you for the contest is engaged with what it is you do.
That will ensure plenty of leads come to your page – and that your current followers are rewarded for their loyalty!
4. Promote your contest
Now that you’ve decided what to give away, it’s time to make sure people know you’re giving it away, to begin with! Promote your Instagram contest as widely as possible.
You’ll want to share it on your Instagram Stories as well as any other social media platform your brand uses.
Bonus: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps a fitness influencer used to grow from 0 to 600,000+ followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear.
Get the free guide right now!
In this example, the Daily Hive promotes an Instagram feed post that outlines their giveaway with a matching Story:
Source: Daily Hive Vancouver5. Track entries with a social media management tool
If you’re running a contest, you’ll probably want to see some concrete numbers when it comes to seeing how it helps your page’s traffic.
Hootsuite is the perfect resource to help run and track contests. Contest posts can be scheduled with the Planner. Comments can be tracked and answered in the Inbox, and mentions/hashtag usage can be tracked via Streams.
Learn more about how Hootsuite can help you with Instagram contests (and, well, all of your other social media efforts):
How to create Instagram giveaway rules
Before you launch your Instagram contest, you need to make sure you’re following both the rules and the right advice. There are, after all, laws surrounding contests that you’ll need to be sure you’re following.
Here are some dos and don’ts when it comes to Instagram giveaways.
DO follow the law
It might seem silly but there actually are laws surrounding contests held by brands, even over Instagram. It is only further complicated by the fact that those laws are often specific to locations. They can vary state to state and get especially tricky when dealing with international entries.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to making sure you aren’t breaking any laws by hosting your contest.
You’ll have to do the research on your own and may even find it worthwhile to have a lawyer help you out. Making sure you are covering all your legal bases can be vital in holding a successful Instagram giveaway.
DO make it clear that Instagram is not involved in the contest
This one is important! Instagram has a set of guidelines for promotions of any kind being run on the app. You must clarify that your giveaway, “is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Instagram.”
DON’T ask Instagram for support
Because of the above rule, Instagram is pretty hands-off when it comes to giveaways. They make it clear that, “If you use our service to administer your promotion, you do so at your own risk.” This is why it is vital to make sure you outline your rules in advance and that you have done your legal research. If problems with the giveaway arise, they will be on you to fix.
Instagram also won’t answer any of your contest-related questions.
Instagram’s contest policy states that they, “will not assist you in the administration of your promotion and cannot advise you on whether consent is required for use of user content or on how to obtain any necessary consent.”
Again, this is why you need to make sure you have your rules figured out before launching the giveaway.
7 Instagram contest ideas
Now that you’ve gotten the boring part done, the fun can begin! Instagram contests and giveaways can be an exciting way to engage with your target audience. Here are some of the best and most reliable giveaways to run.
1. Like and/or comment to win
There’s no need to overcomplicate things.
One of the most common forms of Instagram giveaways is pretty simple: you instruct your entrants to like and/or comment on the post to enter. This contest format is easy for everyone involved. Entrants don’t have to do much to get their name in the mix. Plus, you don’t have to track Instagram hashtags or anything like that to keep track of entries.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Film Companion (@filmcompanion)
Film Companion’s contest is a simple and effective form of fan engagement. All any of their nearly 300K followers need to do to enter is like the post and drop a favorite Bollywood movie quote in the comments.
The addition of adding a comment to the requirements is a good way to weed out Instagram bots and anybody simply entering random contests in mass. Any requirement for a specific sort of comment like the above Bollywood movie will do just fine. It also drives engagement with the post which assists in the algorithm favoring your content.
2. Photo caption contest
Caption contests are perfect for creating direct engagement with your audience. They’re simple: post a picture and ask your users to add the perfect caption.
Because the winner is often decided based on quality, it brings out the best in the entrants. You can judge the winner yourself or tell the users to like for their favorite caption, with the winner being the person with the most likes.
Caption contests also encourage engagement between users. You’ll often see your followers replying to captions they enjoyed, which can serve to build a community around your page.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by 😈 Pokey the Boston Terrier (@petitepokey)
This caption contest held by Pokey (an Instagram-famous Boston Terrier) is an excellent example. It yielded great engagement with the page’s community. It brought out a ton of creative content in the comments. That’s really all you can ask for from an Instagram giveaway – this one was clearly a success!
3.
Tag a friendUltimately the aim of Instagram giveaways is to bring new viewers to your page. Why not have your followers do it for you? All you have to do is tell people to tag a friend (or two, or three) in the comments to enter your contest.
Doing this gives the tagged friends a notification, leading them to the comment they’re tagged in as well as your post. Oftentimes it will lead to the tagged friend following your page – and maybe even tagging some new friends of their own as an entry.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by The Hive Bouldering Gym (@hiveclimbing)
It’s worth noting that tagging is often incorporated into other types of contests as well. The above example from Pokey required friends to be tagged to enter in addition to a funny caption. That’s the beauty of using this method in your giveaway.
It’s versatile and can be integrated into any existing contest.
4. User-generated content
Whether you’re asking for photos or text, a user-generated content giveaway is a great way to create community engagement. It will also give you lots of unique content to post to your page moving forward.
If your page advertises products you can ask entrants to post a photo with your wares. You can also encourage your followers to post a photo that simply adheres to a theme.
Contests like these are also a great way to collect testimonials. You can ask users to share their favorite personal stories surrounding the brand, product, or ones that relate to your page’s ethos. The choice is yours, just make sure it’s made clear in the rules that you have the right to repost any of the entries.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by 𝘽𝙧𝙪𝙩𝙚 𝙈𝙖𝙜𝙣𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙨 (@brutemagnetics)
Brute Magnetic’s photo contest is one of the more unique ones you’re likely to encounter.
Still, it’s kind of a perfect example of one of these contests. It engages with a very specific community. It asks for user-generated content that falls under that community’s net of interests. And the entries are pretty entertaining on their own.
5. Trivia
People have been running trivia contests offline for ages. There’s no reason you can’t take something that is tried and true and use it on your page!
Instagram trivia giveaways allow your followers to show their skills. You could have them answer questions about your page and brand or even a current trending topic like sports or pop culture.
Generally, you’ll want to format it so that the winner is a randomly selected correct answer. Giving the prize to the first person who answers correctly shortens the window of time in which your post is effective.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by North Shore Kia (@northshorekia)
North Shore Kia’s recent trivia contest is short and sweet — the perfect accessible trivia contest.
It tests its audience’s knowledge of the Kia brand and draws new eyes to the page by adding a “tag your friends” requirement.
6. Share this post
When someone shares a post via the repost app or to their stories you’re notified of it on Instagram. It provides a savvy way to run an Instagram giveaway. Create a contest post and tell your followers to share it via Repost or to their stories.
It’s super easy to track entries and pick a winner. More importantly, it gets your post shared around in massive quantities. This puts more eyes on your contest and therefore your page.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Venmo (@venmo)
Venmo has recently made waves with semi-regular cash giveaways. All they require is that you share the contest post and drop your tag in the comments.
7. Hashtag contest
Like many social media platforms, Instagram’s algorithm and user interface utilize hashtags.
Given how easily they compile posts that fall under similar topics, they make for a great way to host giveaways. Like a user-generated content contest, hashtag giveaways require entrants to post to their page or stories under a specific hashtag (you determine what that is yourself).
Ideally what you’ll end up with is a hashtag with sizeable traffic. This format does not just allow you to easily keep track of entries. It also drives engagement with a specific hashtag, which the algorithm tends to take note of. A well-performing hashtag will drive traffic back to your post and your page.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Destify (@destifyweddings)
Destify Weddings did it right with this contest.
They branded the contest with a unique hashtag, #WhereDidYouWed. Posts under the hashtag shared some great UGC that the brand took advantage of on their page. They even used some of the entries to further promote the contest.
The one thing to keep in mind when planning a hashtag contest is that there are a LOT of hashtags out there. Make sure the hashtag you use for your contest is unique to you. You’ll have a lot more trouble keeping up with entries if you don’t. Plus you want to make sure the traffic your giveaway’s hashtag generates leads back to you.
Use Hootsuite to run your Instagram giveaway. From a single dashboard, you can schedule your posts, answer comments and DMs, and monitor engagement in real-time. Try it free today.
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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.
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.
Draw difference from the competition
How to run a contest or giveaway on Instagram
How to draw on Instagram comments
How to draw on stories
Creative contest ideas
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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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