How to run contests on Instagram is a question faced by most business account holders aimed at making a profit from Instagram. Contests and giveaways on Instagram are one of the best methods to attract the target audience and quickly grow followers on your profile. Today we will talk about what options for competitions exist. Namely, about 3 popular varieties.
The best option, in my opinion, today. The mechanics is very simple and effective, as it has a small percentage of unsubscribes after the end of the contest / draw and perfectly engages the target audience and increases the reach of your profile.
The mechanics is this: a person must subscribe to your profile, like (you can also save) the post with the contest and tag a friend or friend in the comments (or better, 3 at once) and you can make an infinite number of marks (the main thing is that they do not repeat).
To increase the effectiveness of the contest / draw, you can prescribe in its conditions so that people, in addition to the mark, write that they want to win, in 2 words, for example, as in the case of one of my clients networks of laser hair removal and LPG massage salons: (“I WANT LPG”) when drawing a free procedure for LPG (vacuum-roller) massage.
Or here is an example of a makeup prank:
Thanks to this mechanic, those people who have been tagged receive a notification and immediately understand what is at stake and are consciously involved in such a draw on Instagram.
A creative contest on Instagram is when your subscribers (or generally those who saw the post) have to take a photo with your logo, products, or in your salon or shoot some kind of video (flashmob), come up with a comment on the post or write a poem. In general, I think you understand.
This competition is aimed at recognizing your brand or obtaining unique content (when you can’t create it yourself, ask others). In general to popularize and recognize you or your brand.
This type of contest / draw attracts really involved people who very often participate not for the sake of winning, but they just like to participate, stand out, create - the very atmosphere and involvement in the contest / draw.
But you should understand: The more conditions in the competition, the fewer people will participate in it. So don't over complicate the rules. Make a contest / draw with an interesting idea and the simplest possible conditions.
The scheme came to Instagram from Vkontakte. The mechanics are clear, but...
Firstly, Instagram is bad at reproducing identical images, and secondly, most people don’t know how to repost at all (you need to download the application, or take a screen and crop it).
This type of competition is ineffective and is used only by beginner SMM specialists or by those who manage their own accounts and have read somewhere about this type of competition.
But if you add a “raisin” to this mechanic, then it can also work well. Keep 2 useful points for holding a contest / draw with a repost:
- Placing a photo of the host account in the member account with a unique description of why you follow this or that user, or why you use the product / services of this or that insta brand.
More often this mechanic is used by bloggers (Put your favorite photo from my account in your account and write why follow me). - Repost a post in Stories describing why you follow this or that account. Minus the mechanics that Stories hangs for 24 hours, which complicates the summing up of the competition.
Do not forget to specify a prerequisite: the mark of your account. To select a winner, use random number service(about them will be below) and is counted in the directive according to the marks in Stories manually, the amount that fell in the service
Unfortunately, no other method has yet been invented, but the mechanics are working.
Here is what you need to describe in the conditions of the Instagram contest/draw:
- Actions required to participate
- Competition dates
- Prize draw method
- What prize will the winner receive?
A couple of tips for the competition:
Be sure to select a prize before launching the contest.
Users are getting worse and worse involved in contests because they are not interested in prizes. Small companies are starting to team up with each other to make the prize pool more diverse and attractive.
But in the competition, it is not the cost of the prize that matters, but its significance for your audience. Do you understand?
The prize can be inexpensive, but be very interesting for subscribers.
It is important to think on the part of the participant of the contest: What would I like to get or win if I were my own subscriber. What are these people interested in? What are the challenges ahead of them?
Remember that the prize also cuts off unnecessary contestants, so the potential target audience of the prize should be the same as yours.
How to take stock and choose a winner on Instagram
An important point that will make your life easier and automate the selection of the winner in your contest / draw - BEFORE START choose a service to determine the winners, take into account the details of its capabilities and voice the method of choosing the winner in the post with the contest itself.
Here are 4 services you can use:
First service the most attractive for audience coverage in Russia and includes:
- Check marks in comments
- Publication of the competition on the website and in the social. project networks
- Competition page on the Internet
- Profile photos of participants on the contest page
- Removing unwanted participants from the competition
- Automatic determination of winners and display on the site
But for this you will have to pay 599 rubles. Not such a big amount for such a scale.
The second service will help you unload Instagram followers:
The analytics service includes:
- analysis of the complete list of your subscribers
- providing list ID and name
- number of incoming subscriptions of subscribers
- number of outgoing subscriptions of subscribers
- profile type (personal/business, open/closed)
- determination of the gender of individual subscribers
- calculation of the approximate coverage of posts without falling into the recommended
I have not used this service yet, so there is nothing more to add besides the description.
Fourth service this is a simple number randomizer originally made for Vkontakte contests. But if you need to choose a certain number, then it will suit you. The service is free.
Outcome
Contests and giveaways on Instagram are a good and effective method of attracting subscribers and target audience. Do not gesture with the frequency, otherwise there will be only freeloaders or you will simply kill the value of your service / product, which will affect the number of orders.
Try not to use contests with reposts in the feed, this is a complex and ineffective mechanic.
Choose an interesting and meaningful prize for your target audience for the draw.
Think it over, approach contests with creativity, test, come up with interesting combinations (for example: post + stories), combine, because really effective methods are discovered in this way.
By the way. I found an awesome service that greatly simplifies the administration of several Instagram accounts at once, which has everything you need:
- Linking several accounts - it is very convenient for me, since several of my clients have a network of instagram accounts)
- Sending messages (greeting new subscribers, mailing to your subscribers, mailing to the list)
- Answering machine
- Dialogues are the dialogues of all accounts in one place, which means that at least 40 people can reply to messages from one place - safe for the account. This is exactly what I was looking for.
- Autoposting - posts to your accounts from one place
- Monitoring of comments - you can follow the comments of your own or the comments of a competitor
- Mass following - subscription, likes of the target audience, etc.
Okogram Service(like everything good in this world) is paid, but it's worth it. You can see for yourself, and for free. The service gives you 3 free days to test. When registering, enter the promo code instacool and use the test period without restrictions.
In general, wait, in the coming days I will post a review of this service and how to work with it!
If you think that the information is useful, share the link to this article with your friends on social networks. Thank you!
About working on Instagram. Today designer and smm-specialist, Evgenia Ashirova, will tell us about the intricacies of holding draws and contests on Instagram.
Viral activities on Instagram
The social network Instagram is now developing very rapidly, and each participant of this site is in a hurry to make themselves known. One way to launch viral information is to run a contest or giveaway. This method is also very well suited for rewarding account subscribers and increasing their loyalty. Everyone loves gifts!
There are a lot of options for such events at the moment, let's look at some of them in more detail and study all the pros and cons.
The general rule for all activities of this kind is the correct design: the banner should be bright, stylish and interesting. You can put basic information on it: the word “giveaway” or “competition”, the timing and, if desired, a description of the prize.
Instagram giveaway options
The first option is the easiest - this is a repost draw with a unique hashtag(it is possible without it). Its mechanics are very simple:
- A banner is posted in your account;
- The text of the post briefly describes the event to which the lottery is dedicated and provides a detailed description of the prize.
Conditions (we write them in the text):
- Be subscribed to an account;
- Repost a photo with a unique hashtag and account name (or just the account name);
- Put a serial number under the photo in your account. It is possible that you yourself distribute numbers by clicking on the hashtag - in this case, the hashtag is required and only unique.
Pros of this option: very good virality and growth of new subscribers, it is easy to identify the winner. Cons: there is a percentage of prize winners, sometimes it is technically difficult for people to repost.
Second option: similar to the first, only a large and well-known account takes part in the event, and you act as a sponsor and provide a prize.
The conditions indicate a subscription to both accounts, and all other actions are similar to those indicated above. A huge plus of this contest is that you enter a new platform with an audience loyal to the blogger, and this attitude is transferred to you.
Third option: circular give away. You have probably already come across a similar option, when several accounts of similar topics and the number of subscribers are combined to conduct a large draw.
I’ll tell you about the pros right away: a large prize fund allows you to increase interest in the gift, and the intersection of many audiences leads to a rapid and significant increase in subscribers.
There are quite a few cons:
- the participant needs to perform a large number of actions, subscribe to many accounts,
- high percentage of prizes;
- it is necessary to indicate friends, which Instagram users do not really like to do;
- there is difficulty in identifying the winner and it is difficult to check all the actions.
In the classic circular giveaway, the conditions and pictures of the draw are the same in each account, only the names of the accounts you need to switch to differ. But now other options are common. The event can be held on a newly created account for the draw. Or, one of the participants' accounts acts as a leader, and then all the rules and activity are localized with him.
The participation procedure can be one of the following, and there is also room for variations and combinations:
- It is necessary to subscribe to all participants in the circle, repost the entry from the prize account, leave the number under the specified photo;
- It is required to subscribe to all the organizers of the draw, in the comments indicate links to the accounts of friends (depending on the conditions you have chosen, you must indicate one or more friends, also indicate the number of comments - one or more from one participant) in the prize account;
- The mechanism is the same as described in the second paragraph, only comments are left in each sponsor's account under the draw post.
The main thing that will be required of you when organizing a circular GiveAway is the need to clearly define the rules and determine the procedure for choosing the winner. Be sure to indicate these conditions in the description of the draw, even if the mechanism for choosing the winner is “magic finger poke in the comment”.
Fourth option: drawing without reposts. In this case, as a condition of participation, it is required to indicate the accounts of friends in the comments to the entry. The choice of the winner is determined randomly or in another way convenient for you. Pros: no need for reposts, insignificant percentage of prizes. Cons: low virality and the need to indicate friends.
The fifth draw option is to encourage subscribers. Its condition is to indicate the number under the prank post. One or more prizes are raffled among the participants. The winner is determined using any random program (random number generator).
Draws in accounts specially created for this stand apart.. The mechanics of the second option works here, only the percentage of prizes will significantly exceed the number of real subscribers.
And the next kind of activity is contests and flash mobs(I already talked about the latter in).
Running contests on Instagram
Contests on Instagram, as in any social network, have less involvement, since people are too lazy to do a lot of actions. Therefore, you should interest the participants either in a significant prize or in the fact that the execution will be convenient and logical. Well, such activities take place in children's accounts, when parents and their children are offered to do something together and post the result in the form of a photo or video.
In order to be known about you, the condition for participation must be an indication of a link to your project in the report. And so that you can find the competition entries, be sure to create a unique hashtag and ask the participants to indicate it in the description of the photo. The options for choosing a winner can be different: either you choose the winner yourself, or ask your subscribers to vote for the best performers, in their opinion. The main advantage of such contests is the generation of content for your page and, of course, the dissemination of information about you.
In fact, various variations of drawings and contests are possible. Just turn on your imagination and create. Here is a prime example:
Above, I tried to briefly describe the main variants of viral activities that are easy to use in the early stages of development on Instagram. Most importantly, remember:
- The rules of the draw or contest should be intuitive. They were prescribed - let other people read so that there are no discrepancies and conflicts when summing up;
- Be sure to ask to indicate your account, since the main goal is to launch viral information about you;
- If you are using a hashtag for a giveaway or contest, make sure that it is really unique so as not to complicate your work;
- Immediately determine for yourself how you will sum up the results and be sure to describe this in the rules.
See you in the next articles!
Drawing gifts ... How much negativity I feel in these words. And you? If not, then you are either a lucky person, or you have never run social media contests.
It seems, out of the kindness of your soul, on a purely altruistic basis, you want to give all these strangers a brand new iPhone and at the same time increase sales or attract subscribers, and after summing up the results, a lot of discontent in the comments, the boss hits the hat, because sales have not grown and everything is like - that's not ice. So what's the problem?
I propose to go through all the stages of the competition and understand where you made or can make a mistake.
PURPOSE OF THE INSTAGRAM CONTEST
Let's assume that you still dare to conduct some kind of activity on Instagram. But why? Why business usually decides to run contests on Instagram:
- Rapidly grow your profile subscriber base
- Audience re-engagement and loyalty growth
- Additional viral reach and promotion
- Because everyone does it
- Sales growth
Most make a contest just for the sake of fourth and fifth points, but due to the lack of understanding of the specifics of such events, disappointment eventually comes.
Holding a competition just because your competitors are doing it is stupid and threatens with financial losses.
4. Instagram Contest Rules and Post Design. Remember the main thing - there is simply no too detailed set of rules for the competition. Detailed filling of the rules will save you in the future from controversial situations and "popandos with the competition." Better to be overdressed than underdressed.
Determine in advance the exact timing and conditions for determining the winner. Just like in the army.
Making a competitive post is another component of success. Always start the text with the keyword "CONTEST" or "Giveaway" and others like them. You should not tell the story why you decided to hold a contest and write out its conditions somewhere in the basement. There it is banal nobody will finish reading.
First the competition and its conditions, then the lyrics. Only in this way, it happens differently only in bad contests.
What must be in the conditions of the competition:
- A clear description of the prize or prize pool
- Competition conditions: what the user must do in order to take part in the competition
- Date, time and place of debriefing
- Winner Selection Mechanism
- Participation restrictions, if any (citizens of which country, age, etc.)
The extended conditions of participation should contain information about the conditions for the delivery of the prize, taxes if the prize is more expensive than 2990 rubles, options for resolving disputes, the most accurate description of the prize, and so on.
NEVER DO THIS!
Never, no, never... NEVER do not run a contest in which participants can wind up indicators. A contest with distribution of prizes for the number of likes, or choosing the best photo based on likes and comments, voting in an open profile for a participant - all this will be screwed up with a probability of 99%.
I left one percent in case no one suddenly participates.
I still regularly stumble upon contests where, according to the conditions, the winner is the one whose photo collects the most likes.
To begin with, such competitions are absolutely dishonest. Obviously, the winner will be the one with the most followers (so it seems to the contestant), which means that no matter how beautiful the photo you take, you will not win.
Then cheating begins and you are between two fires. On the one hand, there are conditionally honest losers, who got a few likes, on the other hand, there are winners, who got enough likes. Everything is negative for each other, but first of all for you. It is beautifully unrealistic to get out of such a situation, so it is better not to fall into it.
Do not change the rules during the competition. If you have not prescribed the required minimum number of participants in order for the drawing to take place, then you cannot cancel the competition due to 50 participants instead of 500, which you expected. You will be accused of fraud, and then a lot of negativity in the comments.
If you did not make a point about promotions and profiles that you consider alive, you cannot refer to this during the contest either. We rise a couple of paragraphs above and read about the rules of the competition :) They don’t change horses at the crossing.
HOW TO LAUNCH A COMPETITION IN INSTAGRAM FOR THE GROWTH OF SUBSCRIBERS?
Mechanics:
- Contest post with a cover that makes it clear that this is a contest and the prize is visible
- Conditions: post repost in Stories, active profile mark, any comment under the post
- Competition duration up to a week
- Active involved audience in the profile, or starting reposts-announcements of the post to target bloggers
- Additionally, you can ask to add a story to the Actual
Summing up mechanics:
- Uploading a list of comments through Getcombot or any other service for collecting comments
- We choose a random winner through random.org or built-in functionality
- We are looking for the winner through the search in Direct, make sure that he reposted our post
- Additionally, you can request a screenshot from the archive
Tag-a-friend-in-comment contests rarely go viral and bring in new subscribers, often provoking massive unsubscribes in the active phase.
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If you already have a successful business page, then you must have seen that Instagram is the perfect way to attract new customers. Promoting a brand or service in the vastness of social networks is far from a new marketing ploy. Increasingly, new methods are being used to increase sales. One of them -
There are several ways to organize a promotion or a raffle. Believe me, this method of advertising will surprise you with its effectiveness, and it will not be difficult to organize a contest.
Contests on Instagram: organization secrets
Depending on the type of business you have, your marketing goals, and the time of year, you should run a variety of contests. As you know, drawings are an integral part of promotion. Here are a few strategies for organizing contests, from which you can choose any suitable one.
Watch the video: Common Instagram Mistakes
1. Product photo
Invite customers to take a picture with the purchased product and complete the picture with a captivating story. For the best post, the user will receive a generous reward.
Don't forget to come up with a hashtag, which should be included under the photo. Such a competition is suitable for products that have already been introduced to the market and
2. Based on the weather
As you know, in hot rainy weather, people almost never leave the house and postpone all important things “for later”. So why not use it to your advantage? Popular clothing brand Helly Hanson launched a competition in which their customers had to take pictures in the rain. Thanks to this, users began to associate their sneakers with rain.
People began to perceive the brand as a manufacturer of high-quality and durable shoes that are suitable for any weather.
Watch the video: How to get 100,000 followers on Instagram