I’m sure you’ve heard by now that Instagram is without a doubt one of the top social media platforms for retailers. According to Forbes it’s even beating the likes of Pinterest in terms of user engagement and daily hits.
If you’re looking for ways to boost your following and engagement on Instagram, running a giveaway is something you might be interested in considering. But what type of giveaway will work best for your business you might ask? We’ve wrapped up the 3 most common Instagram contest approaches for you, so you’ll be on the road to insta-contest success in no time
How to run an Instagram competition
1.) Re-gram to win
Have people share a specific photo of yours, or any photo from your Instagram feed, and ask people to share this on their own Instagram account and tag the business and a special hashtag in order to enter.
Armadillo & Co have a prime example of this type of competition done well.
2.) Photo competition
Have people take a photo and share it on Instagram, and tag a specific hashtag in order to enter. For example, if you are an outdoor furniture brand, you could ask people to take a photo of what they love about their own backyard and include a special hashtag to enter.
Or ask people to share a photo of a piece they had bought from your store in the past. This option will obviously limit the number of responses you get but can be fantastic for obtaining new imagery of your products which you can share later on!
Here’s a great example from Zohi Interiors who asked people to share a past purchase.
3.) Tag a friend
Design up a special graphic like the below example and simply ask people to tag friends to enter. You could also say that each tag counts as an entry, so the more the merrier.
See Cranmore Home for example – https://instagram.com/p/082Rj1vduM/?taken-by=cranmorehome
Our top tips for running a successful contest:
- Bigger is better! Obviously, the higher value the bigger the appeal so if you want a huge response, try and give away a larger value if you can.
- Give yourself enough time. Competitions which run for more than 24 hours will receive a bigger response so give it a week or so.
- Don’t over-complicate it. If you’re asking people to do too many things in order to enter, it can be a big put off. Keep your focus on reaching new people.
- Promote on all channels. It might be an Instagram contest but that doesn’t mean you can’t shout out about it elsewhere. Share in your email newsletters, blog, facebook and twitter accounts!
Instagram contest examples
For more tips on running an Instagram competition, we’ve rounded up some really helpful posts for you too:
- How to Run a Successful Instagram Contest
- How to Run Instagram Contests
- 10 Amazing Small Business Instagram Contest Examples
Hopefully, this has inspired you to have a go at running your own giveaway or opened your mind to the different types of contests you could run.
If you’ve had success doing a campaign like this we’d love to hear which approach you took! Drop us a comment below 🙂
