Sponsored Social Media Enter to Win Post

Instagram accounts that concord contests can achieve upward to 70% faster follower growth than accounts that don't concord contests.

If you lot want a popular Instagram account, coming upward with and executing some Instagram contest ideas is a great outset.

In this post, we'll explore how you can apply Instagram contests to raise brand awareness for your business.

We'll too swoop into some of the best practices to continue in mind when running your contests.

By the end, y'all'll know how to run a successful Instagram contest that will bring your business organisation the attention information technology deserves.

Why Instagram Contests Are a Expert Idea

There are other ways to get more Instagram followers, of grade, merely few other methods tin can increment your follower numbers so chop-chop, and with such minimal endeavour.

Not only that: Instagram contests can as well assist you achieve more engagement.

Posts that are related to Instagram contests tend to earn roughly 64x more comments and iii.5x more likes when compared to 'normal' content.

On top of that, 91% of the posts that have achieved i,000+ comments are contests.

All of these stats bear witness that running Instagram contests is ane of the all-time means to improve brand awareness.

If you're worried about being stuck in a bicycle of constantly churning out contests, all in the proper noun of boosting brand awareness, don't worry; you don't need to continuously run contests to reap the benefits that adept Instagram contest ideas can offering.

That'southward because you'll notice a trickle-downward effect on the rest of your normal content as a upshot of running contests. People will feel a greater affinity toward your make due to the goodwill you've generated with your contests.

As a result, they'll be more likely to share and engage with your normal content.

Plus, because contests generate more than followers, at that place will naturally be more people exposed to your content. This increases the likelihood that share and engagement levels will be higher than 'pre-competition levels.

Best Practices for Running Contests on Instagram

Before you lot run your first contest, you need to be aware of some important all-time practices. Failure to follow some of these best practices could mean that you lot're going against the rules of Instagram.

It could as well lead to your contest producing lackluster results, which tin amount to a lot of wasted effort.

What are these best practices?

The offset is to make certain that you write a clear and detailed description for your contest.

When writing the description for your contest, be sure to cover:

• What the rules are
• What people need to do to exist eligible
• Whatsoever restrictions on who tin can enter
• The prize
• The deadline
• When yous volition announce the winner

Doing things this way makes it piece of cake for you to stay on the correct side of the promotion guidelines provided by Instagram.

It is important that you lot don't stray from the guidelines, as doing and then could put your business relationship at hazard.

Here'southward a keen instance of a contest description.

They've done a expert job of making this detailed, and so it'southward difficult to fit into one image.

Here's the first function, which helps establish a reason for the contest while as well describing what's on offer.

This second part does a good job of letting people know what they need to practice to be eligible to win.

The next bit tells people how they tin can gain an extra entry. The terms of the competition are conspicuously shown, while also indicating how the winners of the contest volition be announced.

By studying how others are writing their contest descriptions, y'all'll acquire a lot about what separates a bad clarification from a good one.

You as well need to ensure y'all're giving away relevant prizes that your target audition will feel compelled to take.

If y'all focus on giving away prizes that are relevant to your target audition, your contest will generate better results.

If the products you're giving away aren't specific to your target audience, y'all run the take chances of attracting followers that don't care almost your business or the products or services information technology provides.

In the long term, this arguably does more impairment than good.

Such individuals may unfollow your account afterwards a contest, or simply non engage with your profile in the future.

By picking the right prizes, you can reliably concenter the right kinds of followers and generate brand sensation amid the all-time demographic for your business concern.

All of which helps increase the odds of you earning a render-on-investment from your efforts.

As y'all might have guessed, giving away items of high value tends to produce college levels of appointment.

The chart below shows that prizes worth $1,000 or more than generally achieve v.8 engagements per 100 followers.

This figure is quite high when compared to the 1.seven engagements that brands enjoy when they give away prizes worth $99 or less.

If you want to give away a high-value prize, but you don't take the funds to invest in one, consider arranging a partnership deal with another brand. Provided that you accept a big enough follower count, at that place will be brands that are willing to provide a prize for your contest in exchange for some promotion.

The style you promote the brand that provides the prize should exist low-key. In the description of the contest, simply mention that the contest is sponsored past a particular company.

This Instagram postal service shows how you can pull this off.

Y'all likewise need to put some thought into how you're going to denote the contest.

It's a good idea to use a custom epitome within the post that announces the contest.

Here's an example of how you can do that.

Every bit shown to a higher place, there'south besides the pick of adding the terms of the competition to the image, also.

With all of that out of the style, allow's bank check out some of the contest ideas you lot can utilize.

Instagram Contest Idea #i: Tag to Win

The tag-to-win competition idea is nice and straightforward.

All yous're doing is asking people to tag a friend in the comments section so that they can enter the competition, too, and become eligible to win the prize.

This competition format does a keen job of improving your profile'due south organic reach.

That'south because once people are tagged by someone, they'll likely receive a notification.

These people will so check out your profile and potentially get a follower.

They may as well tag others. This will create a viral feedback loop, bringing more people into the competition.

To increase the impact of this feedback loop, you tin also inquire people to follow your account in addition to tagging someone.

Here is an example of a make that uses this strategy.

If you want to be brave, y'all tin can ask people to tag ii people. This, over again, increases the potential achieve of your contest.

The contest beneath shows how this can exist done.

Here's some other example.

Once the contest is over, pick someone at random from the comments department. You lot can use an automated system to do this and so that the contest remains objective.

If one of the entry atmospheric condition is to follow your contour, cantankerous-reference the winner's business relationship with your follower list to make certain that everything is in order.

An culling accept on this format, the 'nominate a friend to win' contest, can work every bit well.

Instead of asking people to randomly tag someone, you can instead propose that they tag someone they believe deserves to win.

With this kind of format, the winner of the contest volition be the person who has been tagged, and not the person who left the initial comment.

Instagram Competition Idea # 2: Like to Win

With this Instagram contest, you ask people to like your content if they want to enter the contest and have a chance of winning.

You lot tin even utilise the phrase 'double-tap to win' since, on the Instagram app, double-tapping a photo automatically likes it.

At that place'southward as well the option of asking people to like your brand on Facebook, making it like shooting fish in a barrel to increment the visibility and, therefore, the impact of your contest.

If you want to heave your follower count, mention that people besides demand to follow your profile if they want to exist eligible to win.

Here's an example of how that can exist done.

This contour has used the combination of asking people to follow and like, thereby increasing the potential engagement this contest can produce.

Instagram Competition Idea #iii: Selfie Contest

Instagram is arguably the dwelling of selfies, so this kind of contest is a great friction match for the platform.

It's a type of competition that works especially well with products.

With a selfie contest, you enquire people to mail a movie of themselves while they're using your product, or with the product somewhere in the groundwork.

This competition format is particularly useful for a business considering it helps testify potential customers how a production can be used. It'due south an splendid form of user-generated content.

When writing the description for a selfie competition, create a unique hashtag and then ask people to use this hashtag whenever they post their photos.

You can observe the pictures people have uploaded for this contest past searching for the hashtag on Instagram.

At the end of the contest, pick the picture that you recollect is best.

Brand sure that, when you create the rules for a selfie competition, y'all add that you might employ the content at a after date.

User-generated content can provide an fantabulous source of social proof. Long after the contest is over, you tin repost the content that the contest generated.

Here's an instance of how you can do a selfie contest.

Like to the 'like-to-win' example from earlier, you can combine the format of the selfie contest with the other contest formats nosotros've already covered.

You could mention that people need to like the post that announces the contest too as posting a selfie.

Instagram Contest Idea #4: Photo Contest

The photo contest is closely related to the selfie competition we just covered.

The difference, however, is that you're not asking people to have a selfie. Instead, they tin can have whatsoever type of photograph they wish.

Like before, you inquire people to submit photos using a relevant hashtag that you create.

Yous then search Instagram using this hashtag so that yous tin can find a winning photo.

With this kind of contest, you don't e'er take to offer a physical prize for the winner.

You can only allow people know that the prize is that you'll feature their content on your contour.

Here's an example of a photo competition of which relates to a Boston News channel.

Here'due south another one from the Empire State Building Instagram account.

Information technology may be that you lot have a product or niche that is perfectly suited to photo contests. GoPro is an case of such a production.

If and then, you should place a special focus on running photograph contests.

That'southward because this format volition be peculiarly easy to pull off while also providing yous with an affluence of user-generated content that yous can feature on your Instagram business relationship.

Instagram Competition Idea # 5: Voting Contest

A voting contest revolves around the post-obit steps:

1. You lot ask people to upload a piece of content alongside a designated hashtag. You lot likewise ask people to tag your profile in the description.
2. Your followers and then search Instagram using this hashtag and vote for the one that they call back is all-time. The easiest way to collate votes is to enquire people to similar the photo that they think should be the winner.
3. The person with the well-nigh likes is deemed the winner of the contest.

Here's an example.

This contest format is great at generating engagement because you're request people to take a lot of social actions. Plus, the people who enter the competition will promote their own entries through their social channels.

Nevertheless, y'all could argue that such a format is potentially asking too much from people.

Because of this, you may desire to use this competition format only when you have a highly-engaged audience that cares about your profile and its content.

With that being said, another way you tin run this contest is past having people submit photos first, and then but you lot notice them using the assigned hashtag.

Based on what you find, yous choice 3-5 finalist images and host them on your ain contour.

Y'all then ask your followers to like the one that they think is best, and the photo with the most likes wins.

This approach can help you lot achieve neat results with a voting contest without request likewise much of your followers.

Here's an example of a profile that is doing something similar, but instead asking people to submit the photos to the host's account directly.

Hither's a fleck more context.

Here'southward an instance of how someone might mail their own content in the hopes of obtaining a vote.

When running this kind of competition, you can also ask people to mail service their contest content to Facebook, as well.

Then you can count the likes that people have gathered on that platform and combine them with what they've achieved on Instagram.

Doing things this way tin can help expand the attain of your contest, improving your power to generate brand awareness.

Instagram Contest Idea # vi: Caption Contest

A caption competition is a contest in which you ask people to caption a photograph that yous've uploaded.

From that point, y'all can either:

1. Pick the best explanation using your ain judgment, or
2. Tell others to like the best caption.

The explanation with the almost likes is the winner.

While the second choice can exist a good way to appoint your audience, the starting time option can help forbid people from artificially inflating their likes.

Here's an case of a caption contest:

You may want to edit the image you employ to announce the contest and so that information technology highlights the fact that you're in need of a caption.

The oral communication bubbles in the above post are a practiced instance of how this tin can exist done.

Instagram Competition Thought # vii: Challenge Contest

If y'all're in a position where you need to put together a contest in a brusk amount of time, a claiming contest can work wonders.

With this competition format, you just demand to come up with a simple claiming for people to meet, and the person who solves the challenge wins.

The challenge doesn't need to be complex. In fact, simpler contests by and large describe more than social engagement and participation.

The post below shows how this can be done.

All that's beingness asked of in this contest is that people guess which number the account owner is thinking of.

It'due south uncomplicated and fun. The spontaneous feel helps to increase the authenticity of the profile, too, which helps heave long-term appointment.

Here's some other example, this time using a 'guess the marbles' claiming.

This competition format is elementary and low-endeavor, making information technology a proficient choice for anyone who is new to running contests on Instagram.

Conclusion

You lot should now understand how to use Instagram contests to grow make sensation.

As soon as you run your kickoff contest, you'll notice that the whole process is a lot of fun. It's likewise probably much easier than you expected.

Decide on a contest theme, create the rules, and found a dedicated hashtag. Increment user engagement by cross-posting the contest on Facebook.

If you're feeling nervous well-nigh setting upward your first Instagram competition, get in impact and we can aid y'all strategize (and help y'all with your other digital marketing efforts).

If you lot can encourage people to invite their friends to participate in the contest, do so. The more people who see your contest and content, the better.

Exercise you have any tips related to running Instagram contests?

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