How to Organize a Competition or Giveaway on Instagram.

Do you know how to organize a competition or giveaway on Instagram? Instagram, with its visually-driven platform and engaged user base, is an ideal space for hosting competitions or giveaways. These events can boost brand visibility, foster community engagement, and attract new followers. But how do you ensure your Instagram competition is not only fun but also effective? Here’s a step-by-step guide.
Define Your Goals
Before diving into the details, outline what you hope to achieve. Are you aiming to increase followers, promote a new product, or simply boost engagement? Having clear objectives will guide your competition’s structure and metrics for success.
Choose the Prize
Your prize should be enticing enough to motivate participation. It could be one of your products, exclusive merchandise, or even a collaboration with an influencer. Ensure the prize aligns with your brand and appeals to your target audience.
Set Clear Rules
Clarity is crucial. Clearly outline:
- Eligibility Criteria: Age, location, or other demographic details.
- Entry Methods: Should participants like the post, tag friends, share a story, or perhaps post their own content with a specific hashtag?
- Duration: Clearly state the start and end dates.
- Winner Selection: Will it be random, judged, or based on community votes?
Design an Engaging Post
Your competition announcement should be visually appealing and attention-grabbing. Use high-quality images or graphics, and consider incorporating your brand colors and aesthetics. The caption should succinctly convey the excitement, with a call-to-action encouraging participation.
Promote Across Channels
While the competition is hosted on Instagram, don’t limit its promotion to just one platform. Share it on your other social media accounts, email newsletters, and even your website. The broader the promotion, the higher the participation.
Engage with Participants
As entries start pouring in, maintain engagement. Respond to comments, share entries on your stories, and keep the excitement alive. This not only boosts the competition’s visibility but also fosters a sense of community.
Announce the Winner Transparently
Once the competition concludes, select the winner as per your stated method. Announce it transparently, preferably with a post or story showcasing the selection process. This ensures participants trust your brand and are more likely to engage in future events.
Analyze and Learn
Post-competition, delve into analytics. Did you achieve your objectives? What was the engagement rate? How many new followers did you gain? Analyzing these metrics will offer insights for future campaigns.
Follow Legal Guidelines
Instagram has specific guidelines for contests and giveaways. Ensure you:
- Include a clear statement that your contest is not sponsored, endorsed, or associated with Instagram.
- Avoid asking participants to tag themselves in content they aren’t depicted in, as this goes against Instagram’s policies.
- Familiarize yourself with local laws regarding contests and giveaways.
Show Gratitude
Lastly, express gratitude. Thank everyone who participated, and consider offering a small discount or exclusive offer as a token of appreciation. This leaves everyone with a positive impression, regardless of whether they won.
Organizing a competition or giveaway on Instagram can be a powerful marketing strategy, offering a blend of fun and engagement. By ensuring clarity, transparency, and genuine appreciation, brands can create memorable events that resonate with their audience and achieve their marketing objectives.
Connect with our team at 98 Buck Social today!

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Have any questions?
We have answers.
Can you help me grow Instagram followers?
We partner with Socialboost to help build Instagram followers. Click the link below to enroll. Plans start at $59/mo.
What photos or videos do you use?
By default, we can use the photos you have on your website as well as utilizing the plethora of photos available to us within our royalty free library.
If you have photos or videos for us to use, depending on your subscription, we welcome you to upload them into a Google Drive folder and share that link with us!
Looking for custom videos? Some of our plans include videos or you can add them to any plan starting at $98/mo!
How do you mimic my branding colors and style?
As mentioned above, depending on your plan, we can use whatever you’d like to provide us! If not, we’ll resort to using your website or our royalty free library.
That being said, we can come up with custom graphics that suit your branding style as an add-on to your posting subscription.
$98/month for 3 custom graphics each week
$148/month for 5 custom graphics each week
Note: The cost of custom graphics is on top of your monthly subscription cost
What is content review & approval?
Content review and approval is where your social media content creator sends you a weeks worth of posts, prior to their designated publication time the following week.
This way, you will have the chance to give us feedback on each post in case you’d like us to make a minor edit.
Note: One round of editing per post permitted, depending on your plan.
What are the results I can expect from your posting services?
The idea behind consistent posting onto your social media pages is to keep them active with content that promotes your business solutions, educates your audience to showcase your expertise and to also keep things lighthearted, it’s social media after all!
There’s nothing worse for a business than to earn someone looking into what you do, only for them to see a barren social media page. To them, it may appear that you are out of business or potentially a scam.
We are often asked about growing followers and generating sales or leads. These are great goals to have but please understand that those goals are better obtained through paid advertising campaigns.
For more information on paid advertising, please visit our paid advertising services.
Do you use a posting scheduler and how do you get access to my business pages?
We are fortunate to be partnered with CloudCampaign.com to utilize their excellent scheduling platform.
By signing up for our content services, we will set you up with your own Cloud Campaign workspace depending on your plan.
During onboarding we request admin access to your social accounts using a secure platform. This allows us to manage the occasional disconnect when the platforms push out updates.
Furthermore, with your own workspace you are welcome to view and edit content at your leisure!
Why do my posts say “Posted by Cloud Campaign”
We use Cloud Campaign, which is a 3rd party app, to scale social media management and posting. When a post says “Posted by Cloud Campaign”, it is only the admins of your company page that can see this and not your followers.