The 101 On Running a Successful Instagram Contest

If you’re looking for a way to grow your audience and engage your existing one on Instagram, try running a contest. It’s a great way to generate some excitement about your brand and get user generated content that you can share and use in the future.

There are a few simple steps to ensure that your Instagram contest is a success:

1. Make sure to tie your contest theme and prize to your brand in a meaningful way. You don’t need to giveaway a trip to South America to get people’s attention. If you are launching a new line of accessories give people a chance to win a necklace or a ring. Make the image requirements closely related to your campaign and it will be straightforward and memorable for your fans.
2. Create a contest hashtag. Your followers will need to include a hashtag with their picture to be entered. You will set up a search for this hashtag to collect entries, so make sure once again that it is meaningful to your campaign and also unique enough that people wouldn’t be using it for anything else.
3. Create a contest page on your site. This can be either a landing page or a blog post, but it should be relatively easy for your fans to find. You’ll want to include:
   – How they enter. Be sure to explain what the uploaded photo and accompanying caption must include. Note that you can make it a requirement that the winner must be following you.
   – Contest Dates
   – How you plan to choose a winner. Will you choose your favorite photos? Will you draw randomly? It’s important to decide first and be upfront with the audience to avoid any disputes.
   – Rules and terms. You will want to draft up some simple terms of the contest, again to avoid disputes. You can find a good example of generic contest rules here. Modify these to fit your needs.
4. Promotion! Share your blog post or landing page on all of your social media channels, not just Instagram. Do this regularly over the contest period to attract more people. And don’t forget to interact with your followers. Like and comment on the submission photos, and follow your new fans back.
5. Select a winner. Once you’ve chosen a winner and contacted them, share the news on your blog and social media channels.

If you anticipate over 100 entries in your contest, use a tool like Iconosquare or Nitrogram. These tools not only help you manage large or multiple contests and select winners, they also offer robust engagement analytics.

Running an Instagram contest is easy to setup and monitor, and a great way to build loyalty with your fans.