10 Ways To Run An Instagram Giveaway

Instagram has become the social media platform of choice for over one billion users with the majority of them being young consumers brands would like to build a long lasting relationship with that could turn into a lifetime of purchases. Brands and small businesses are desperate to strengthen their followings on Instagram as they begin to realise the value and power of app and how it can aid in growing your business. 

If you’re struggling to gain traction on Instagram and your daily posts aren't helping much, perhaps its time to do something a little more interactive like running a giveaway. After all, everyone loves free stuff, right? Especially social media users. When done well an Instagram giveaway will result in more likes, follows, and shares – plus, these contests can be a lot of fun for you, too and make for a great brand building opportunity.

Instagram is a pretty simple and easy to use platform so play into what it already does and create simple contests that users can enter from their mobile phones without much hassle.

How do Instagram giveaways work?

There is a range of different approaches when it comes to running an Instagram giveaway, and there’s no right or wrong way. Your strategy for the Instagram giveaway is based on your objective and the types of actions that you ask your target audience to make. Take your audience’s preferences and desires into consideration; you can choose one of the following mechanisms.

As the popularity grows, you may want to consider doing variations or combinations of the following entry mechanisms.

1. Follow contest

Probably the most popular entry mechanisms and one brand should look at doing first to improve the size of their audiences is follow competitions. Asking users to follow your Instagram account within a short period like a week or a month and remain a follower will see your follow numbers improve and could be cheaper than buying followers or running follow ad campaigns. 

Protip! You can also use Instagram ads in combination with your contest to double down on growth. 

2. "Like to win" contest

These are the simplest Instagram giveaways to run since you’re asking people to perform the most popular function on Instagram, which is liking a post. If you're still in the early days of building your audience and account, then this is a great option since you’re not taking the risk of alienating anyone by asking them to do too much.

3. Tag a friend contest

To double the reach of each entry you can use a tag a friend mechanism. In this giveaway, followers are asked to leave a comment and tag a friend in your post for a chance to win. This helps improve the reach of your competition and expose your brand to users you may not have reached. Otherwise, it also has the added benefit of having a friend endorse your profile to another.

4. Post a picture contest

If you have a more active audience, you can begin to ask for more of them and make your contests more interactive or exclusive. Ask followers to post a picture relevant to your brand (such as using or wearing a product) along with a contest-specific hashtag.

Note: If you do not require selfies, you’ll get better engagement by including those selfie-averse followers.

5. Create an Instagram story contest

Instagram stories are still fairly new, and adoption of the medium continues to grow, more users are starting to view and create stories, and the reach can last even longer since they live above the fold. Ask users to create a story and pin it to their profile for the competition period and then to tag your account. This will help you leverage your followers' network to grow your brands reach.

Users who enter can let you know they've entered via a comment on your original post, and you can pick the winners that way which improves engagement on your posts.

6. "Share this post" contest

Post an image specific to the competition and enter anyone who shares and tags the post with your #ContestHashtag in the giveaway. There are plenty of reposting apps or users can re-post a screenshot which will get your brand in front of their network and improve your reach.

7. Comment contest

Another simple contest entry mechanism is asking users to comment on your posts, this could be the contest post or for them to comment on tomorrows post or a week's worth of posts. The added engagement works favourably with Instagram engagement which will give you additional exposure.

8. Instagram live contests

If you have a larger audience and would like to grab their attention in real time by running a live video and asking your users to enter within the live feed chat. This could be to answer a question or comment on your latest post.

Note: Don't just spring a live contest on your users but promote it with posts up until the day so users can prepare or make the time to enter

9. DM contests

DM's are one place Instagram allows you to share clickable links for free and allow you to send users from your Instagram to a webpage or website of your choice. Getting your users to DM you so you can share a competition link on your site can turn Instagram into a great source of referral traffic.

Note: If you want to filter out your contest leads and make sure you're giving away reaches users of your geographical location then DM contests are your best option. You can then chat to your entries get to know them and make sure they qualify for the giveaway. 

10. Sign up contest

Reaching your Instagram following is heavily reliant on the fact that the user needs to log in and check their feed or your profile which means you cannot directly reach them if you have sales or specials. Building a direct audience is one of the most important marketing strategies you can implement if you want to grow your business.

Running a competition to get email addresses or phone numbers so you can reach local clients directly can help build your database. Run a giveaway post and add a link in your bio or a short link in your post description which sends to a survey tool or embedding a survey on your site can help you gather email addresses or phone numbers.

Users can then add their details, and you can keep the contact details for future marketing use like direct emails, retargeting or remarketing.

Keep your eyes on the prize

Social media followers love a freebie and giveaways are a great way of grabbing attention and creating a hype around your profile or brand on a platform where plenty of users now spend their time. If you want to make the most of your contests or give them a little extra visibility, then make sure you use the correct hashtag for contests.

Remember once your competition is over it is important to announce the winner, tag them and show that your contest is indeed legitimate. This will encourage those who did not win previously to try and enter again. While lending credibility to your brand.

Have you run Instagram giveaways before? How did they work out for you? Which entry mechanism did you use? Let us know in the comments.

List your business for FREE

Don't have a place to send your Instagram traffic? Create your free business listing on nichemarket. The more information you provide about your business, the easier it will be for your customers to find you online. If you require a more detailed guide on how to create your profile or your listing, then we highly recommend you check out the following articles.

• How to create a nichemarketer profile
• How to create a nichemarket business listing

Contact us

If you want to know more about social media for your business, don’t be shy we’re happy to assist. Simply contact us

Recommended reading

If you want to know more about growing your Instagram and have time to dive deeper down the rabbit hole, then we suggest you check out the following articles:

• How To Calculate The Cost Of A South African Social Media Influencer
• How To Find The Right Instagram Influencers For Your Business
• Instagram Launches QR Code Name Tags
• Instagram Post Best Practises For Maximum Reach
• What Are Micro-Influencers and Why Businesses Should Care

Tags: social media, instagram , contest, giveaway