How to run an Instagram Giveaway effectively.

Let's kick off with the legalities of running an Instagram Contest.

Instagram makes it relatively easy to run contests, compared to Facebook regulations that limit entry requirements and conditions.

When it comes to Instagram contests, a dominant rule to adhere to, and which most people are unaware of, is the statement of release. The following statement (or a similar one) MUST be included on all contest posts shared to Instagram:

Per Instagram rules, this promotion is in no way sponsored, administered, or associated with Instagram, Inc. By entering, entrants confirm that they are 13+ years of age, release Instagram of responsibility, and agree to Instagram’s terms of use.

Be sure to insert this statement at the end of your Instagram contest caption.

Pro Tip: If you plan to regularly run contests, consider copying this verbiage and posting it in a note or app on your mobile device for easy access for future contest posts.

Instagram requires you to run your contest legally, ensuring you don’t violate any federal, state, or other laws applicable to your area. In addition, Instagram requires you to include official contest rules and terms of eligibility.

Remember that you can’t tag anyone in the contest post who’s not actually in the post itself, and you can’t ask users to tag themselves in a photo in which they do not appear. Users can mention people in the comments of a post but can’t tag others in the actual post itself.

Now that you know the restrictions and requirements for running a contest, here are the steps to take to run a contest on Instagram.

#1: Choose a Goal for Your Instagram Contest

The first step is to define a goal for your contest. For instance, you might want to:

• Generate more engagement on your posts.
• Grow your Instagram following.
• Get more people to sign up for your email list.
• Produce user-generated content (UGC).

In general, contests are a great way to grow your audience and expand your reach on Instagram. When using contest requirements to “tag a friend in the comments,” as in the post above, your existing audience does the work of sharing your content with their friends. And if their friends have similar interests and like your Instagram contest, they’ll enter and tag their friends too. Your follower count then grows exponentially.

Instagram contests will usually boost your post engagement, resulting in multiple benefits in relation to the Instagram algorithm. With your post performing well, it may rank higher in hashtag searches, allowing new audiences to find your content. And if your audience isn’t typically responsive to your normal posts but engages with a contest post, it can help bump your regular content higher in their feeds for a period of time.

#2: Plan Your Instagram Contest

Once you’ve chosen a goal for your contest, you’re ready to plan it.

Select a Relevant Prize or Incentive to Participate

Your Instagram contest prize should be something related to your business or brand. Don’t give away an iPad just to get traffic; it won’t bring in quality participants who will actually in turn become patients of your practice. However, you want to choose a prize of significant enough value to warrant the level of participation, and something that is different to your competitor practices in your surrounding area.?

The more valuable the reward, the more participation and participants you’ll get. For example, Chairside Whitening vs at home Whitening.

#3 Determine How Users Will Participate

You also need to decide how users will enter the contest. Some possibilities are to follow your account, like the post, @mention one or more other users in the comments, and so on. Entry requirements can be one or any combination of these criteria.

The key is to make it easy for users to participate so limit the entry requirements to three or four steps.

Pro Tip: Leverage the audience of other local businesses who aren’t competitors. E.g. A local florist, a local restaurant and so on. In this instance, you could ask entrants to follow both (or more) accounts, like the post on each account, and tag two friends in the comments of the post.?

#4: Launch and Promote Your Instagram Contest

In your contest post, you can communicate your contest or giveaway with text in the image or graphic. This way, it won’t be dismissed as just another photo when people are scrolling through their Instagram feed.

Choose an image that’s related to the theme/content of the campaign. In your contest post caption, include the terms of entry and legal disclaimers mentioned above.

It’s important to note that most contests won’t go viral and generate massive results for you overnight. Your first contest may only get a few participants. If your audience isn’t used to you hosting contests, they may be hesitant to enter or may not even notice it’s a contest you’re hosting. Repetition and consistency in hosting contests will help build momentum for your brand.

Pro Tip: To ensure more people see the contest, cross-promote it to your Instagram Stories, your Facebook group or page, your newsletter, or in your practice.

#5: Evaluate Instagram Contest Results

Track the results of all your contests to measure the participation, increase in followers, clicks to your website, and other criteria. You can begin to compare the data from each contest to determine which types of prizes, times of the year, content, and types of participation drive the best results for your business based on your individual goals.

#6: Close Your Instagram Contest

When the contest wraps up, there are two ways handle the original post when it’s over. You can either archive the original contest or giveaway post or you can edit your contest post caption to add “Contest CLOSED” at the very beginning of the post description.

Conclusion

Following the framework above will help you run an Instagram giveaway that draws the right participants, achieves your goals, and stays on the right side of Instagram promotion guidelines.