If you manage a business or creator account on Instagram and want to boost your reputation as well as your follower count and engagement statistics on the platform, then this article is for you.
Giveaways are a great marketing tool that business and creator accounts can use to boost their following, their engagement, or their conversion rate both quickly and effectively. In short, followers are asked to complete an action in exchange for being entered into a competition to win a prize – and the beauty of an Instagram giveaway is that both the action and the prize can be whatever you want!
Keep reading for our advice on how to successfully run a giveaway on Instagram.
The Benefits of Hosting a Giveaway
Business and creator accounts rely on loyal followers in order to grow.
Instagram is a platform where quality matters just as much as quantity – with followers needed to both boost the prominence of the account, and to engage with content and ensure that the account is viewed as a reliable authority figure.
A giveaway offers a chance for an account to grow in the account manager’s chosen direction – exchanging a goal action or activity for a prize.
An account that hosts a giveaway has the potential to reach countless new followers and potential customers or connections. What’s more, a giveaway can be a great way to reignite interest in your page and to inspire and remind followers about your content.
For businesses, a giveaway can translate to more followers and more conversion, which equates to more business and profit.
For creators and influencers, a giveaway can lead to a boost in followers which is great for sponsorships, for profile boosting, and for collaborations.
What To Ask Followers For In a Giveaway
There are a number of things that you can ask your followers to do in order to enter and be in with a chance of winning the prize during a giveaway.
The best place to start when deciding what you want followers to do, is with your end goal.
Do you want to boost your following? Do you want to increase your Instagram engagement? Do you want to collect email addresses to make direct marketing campaigns more effective? Do you simply want to reward your followers and thank them for supporting you?
All of these are potential goals that you might be striving for with a giveaway.
Here are some ideas for things to ask for in exchange for an Instagram giveaway…
- Ask followers to tag a friend in the comments. For every individual account that sees the giveaway and enters, another account will be directly linked to your page and your content. This is an excellent format for boosting followers directly.
- Ask followers to complete an email form. Asking followers to give you their email address as entry criteria for a giveaway is a good way to take your marketing out of Instagram, giving you another way to contact prospective customers.
- Ask them to comment an emoji or single word on your last three posts. This is a quick and easy action for followers but will help to boost the engagement stats on your content. This will translate to better visibility for your content – with Instagram viewing you as a valuable authority figure in your industry.
When determining the entry criteria for your giveaway, you should also consider how long you will run the giveaway for and how you will choose the winner.
More on that in the next section…
How to Choose a Giveaway Winner
Once you’ve promoted and launched your giveaway, it’s easy to revel in the flood of new followers and comments – and forget the most important part of the giveaway for your followers.
The prize.
Picking a winner is more complicated than it sounds because you have to be 100% fair. The best way to select a winner is with an automated system, which allows you to upload all of the entries and then click a single button to randomly select a winner.
For full transparency, it is highly recommended that you live stream this part of the giveaway, to prove to your followers that the winner selection is completely random. What’s more, live streaming this will boost your engagement and viewer figures further, as entrants tune it to find out who won the giveaway.
When to Host a Giveaway
A giveaway is a great way to celebrate a milestone in your business or on your profile. It could be an anniversary or a follower count milestone – or simply a way to celebrate a new week / month / year.
You get the picture.
Depending on your end goal and what you want to achieve, a giveaway is an easy and effective way to ignite interest in your account and profile, and to drive followers to follow or to engage with you.
And finally, make sure the prize is worth the entry criteria!
Make your mark on Instagram. With Twicsy, enjoy enhanced likes, followers, comments, and views.
