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If you use Instagram to promote and grow your business, you can gain popularity among your followers by holding Instagram contests. But for your competition to have the best performance, you must fully follow its principles and rules. Today in Ded9, we will review all the very practical principles and tricks for holding a successful Instagram contest, so stay tuned for the rest of the article.

Principles of holding an Instagram contest

First, you should read the Instagram rules and instructions (Instagram rules and legalese) about holding contests and advertisements. To declare its neutrality in the competitions that are held, this social network has set a lot of rules for the parties, which we will briefly discuss in the following:

You are responsible for the legality of the Instagram contest.

Avoid tagging incorrectly in photos.

You must declare the neutrality of Instagram to all your participants. You should also note that the contest is not sponsored or sponsored by Instagram in any way.

Instagram does not help you in holding the contest.

You run the risk of running an Instagram contest.

Ideas for a successful Instagram contest

You need to plan for an Instagram contest and specify how users will log in and the benefits to your business marketing strategy. In general, there are several ways to hold a contest on Instagram, some of the best of which we will introduce in the following:

1- Like, comment, and follow

One of the most popular ways for contestants to join is to ask users to like one of your photos or comment under your posts and follow your account. For example, in the image below, you can see one of the CAUSEBOX brand competitions:

In this case, you can wait for users to participate in the contest after explaining the contest’s rules and listing the prizes. You can also ask participants to tag their friends in the comments section to win the prize. Of course, tagging friends alone is one of the best ways to run Instagram contests. We’ll cover it in more detail in the next section.

2- Tagging friends

If you want your Instagram contest to make a lot of noise, ask participants to tag a few of their friends under the contest posts. Then they tag their other friends under your posts, which increases Brand Awareness and the popularity of your Instagram contest.

You can also launch a friend tagging contest on Instagram so that users can tag the person they deem worthy of the award below your post. For example, the doll10beauty account does this very well.

The brand has asked its users to tag a doctor, nurse, grocery store operator, and other people who work non-stop in the coronavirus pandemic under the post.

3- Using users’ content

If you’re looking for a campaign to share your user content (UGC), holding an Instagram contest is the best way to do that. Ask your audience to share their content with a specific hashtag or tag your page name so you can find all relevant entries in one place.

Not only does this make users happy, but you also have access to a huge amount of users’ Instagram posts, and you can use them in your plans.

4- Cooperation with other brands

Collaborating with similar brands to compete is another effective way to expand your audience and visitors. In this way, users are forced to follow both brands involved in the Instagram contest. For example, the following competition, which was held jointly between the Ring Concierge and Elemis brands, is one of the best examples of this method:

Most Instagram influencers also run their competitions collaboratively to help their followers get to know new brands and bloggers.

5- Instagram story

Although the main philosophy of Instagram contests is based on audience support, holding it will have many benefits for your marketing strategies. For example, you can ask users to share one of your posts in their story to enter the contest. It will attract the attention of other users and ultimately increase your audience.

How to hold Instagram contests

Now that you are familiar with the best ideas for Instagram contests. You can easily implement them on your page by following the steps below:

1- Specify the goals of your Instagram contest

First of all, you need to make sure that the overall goal of your Instagram contest is defined so that you can measure its success at the end of the course. For example, ask yourself if you want to increase audience engagement with your content or if you want to increase your followers. In general, remember your main goal during the competition process so that all your work is done in line with that goal.

2- Choose the method of participating in the competition

In the previous section, we introduced you to the methods of participating in the Instagram contest. It would help if you chose how your users will participate in your Instagram contest based on the general goals you have already set. Keep in mind that the conditions for entering your Instagram contest should be easy because users are not interested in participating in contests that are complicated to enter.

After choosing how users enter the contest, you should also plan for its details. For example, in the first place, you must specify the contest’s duration. Pre-determine the arrival time of users and desirably inform them.

The next step is to determine if you intend to use hashtags in your campaign. For example, you might ask users to enter a specific hashtag in the comment section or publish a post with the specified hashtag. In general, you can use this method to introduce your brand to the contestants through regular posts.

The next point is that you have to specify the theme or design of your contest. In other words, this issue is very important in UGC campaigns or the sharing of users’ content. The audience finds out what kind of posts they must publish to participate in the contest.

The last step is to determine the winners in advance. For example, you can tag them in the comments section or publish their names in a separate post.

3- Choosing an award

Before launching the Instagram contest, you must prepare the related prizes. You can choose awards that are appropriate for your target audience. For example, everyone loves cash prizes, iPhone or Samsung, while gift cards or products related to your business may be exciting only for users who buy from you.

It will make your target audience more engaged, ultimately increasing your brand awareness if the winners publish photos of your products that have won the competition. The interaction of users with your brand will be more than before.

4- Graphic design of the contest

Use attractive graphic designs to hold an Instagram contest to publish. In addition, always try to publish the content of your contest in the form of images in the Feed and Story so that all your followers can see it.

5. Specify who will manage the competition

Not many people should manage and hold an Instagram contest on your page. You should identify the organizers and share your marketing goals with them.