This post on Instagram Giveaway Ideas was written by our newest Marketing Coordinator, Cassie Alaimo.
What would your customers say to this question: “If you could win one thing through an Instagram Giveaway, what would it be and why?”
Before you can get to the fun part of deciding on what to give away in your brand’s next promotion, you must do a few things. When running a promotion that involves a giveaway through Instagram, it is important to set it up so the promotion follows the Instagram promotion guidelines. It is important to make the consumer clearly aware of the different requirements to enter, and what is permissible. The entry criteria is key but not the only important factor, you must also state how long the promotion will run for and to describe the prize in the official rules, so people know what they are signing up for. A clear post with a call to action for the giveaway on Instagram is also helpful, so people know what to do. You cannot hide things in the beginning and release information as you go – you need to be up front about everything in the beginning.
But with that being said, Instagram is a fun and easy way to promote your brand, and it is open to everyone. Well, everyone who has an account – be sure to put in your rules how to open a free Instagram account. Social media can be a cost-effective way to get a quick read. Social media allows for you to easily create a buzz, get a following, or run a promotion all in real time. You can focus on certain demographics like targeting certain age ranges or locations, or people who follow certain pages, by using the Instagram platform’s tools. One of the benefits of using a social media platform like Instagram is that you can change your directive on the fly in real-time based upon your target audience’s engagement with your promotion. This way you are sure to keep your target audience engaged during the span of your promotion. You do not want the buzz to go away, so it is important to market towards what the people want. What do your followers want, what will make them grow with you?
Here are 5 ideas to consider for your next giveaway:
- Ask people to post a photo of your brand’s products and tag you and use your giveaway hashtag.
- Make it into a challenge by asking for posts saying, “travel to”, “take a picture ‘with or of’”, or “take a picture at” and post it using the promotion hashtag.
- For Influencers running an Instagram Giveaway they may ask entrants to follow their favorite brands, pages, etc.
- If it involves college students, you could ask them to post photos of their perfect “study spot” or “favorite food or coffee”, whether it be on campus or at home.
- Support a small business in your community, post a picture or comment on what they are doing to help their community.
Prizes offered can be relative to the promotion theme/ask.
Once you have an idea for your giveaway, give people a call to action. Be sure to give them a unique hashtag, so that entries meet FTC guidelines. And encourage them to make their post public – they cannot use a private account because then it is not trackable or informational. Some things that may not work include using special characters in hashtags, not using unique hashtags, or making the call to action something too complicated and time consuming. If it is too time consuming, it may seem like spam or it may break guidelines. It is very important to be aware of mechanics for participation and what might not work when running a promotional giveaway.
Now to the fun part which will be deciding how to share your promotional giveaway. Instagram gives you many different options. Let people know about your giveaway in posts, stories, highlights, comments, and hashtags. The options are endless.
When trying to decide what to give away in an Instagram Giveaway, it is important to be exciting and engaging. Do a countdown, build up to the grand prize giveaway, make it worth it. You can cater it to your customer and ask what they would like, or assume based off your following. There are two different routes you can go with a giveaway – tangible or intangible items. A tangible item is something to keep, like an everyday item. Things such as gift cards, ecodes, workout gear, clothing, a sweatshirt, cars, bikes, scooters, phones, etc. An intangible item is something to do, an experience. Things such as a vacation, dinner, a concert, etc. If the prize has some type of monetary value, and it isn’t a regulated item like alcohol, the prize can be whatever you want it to be, within reason.
Whatever you decide to do, if you keep it legal and have fun you can’t go wrong!
The next time you want to run an Instagram giveaway, contact us! We can help you from ideation to execution.
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