One of the best ways to create engagement and reach out to more people is by hosting Instagram contests. These Instagram contests can help you beat the Instagram algorithm and get your content to be seen by a larger number of people.
It can boost your follower count in a short period of time. When you open up contests, people will want to engage with your content more because you have so much to offer. Hence make sure not to run multiple contests at the same time.
Instagram Contest Ideas With Examples
Here are 20 Instagram contest ideas along with dos and don’ts for each:
1. Photo Contest
Description: Ask followers to post their best photos related to a theme and tag your account.
Do: Encourage creativity and provide a specific hashtag for entries.
Don’t: Make the theme too broad or too narrow.
2. Caption Contest
Description: Post a photo and ask followers to come up with the best caption.
Do: Choose a fun, engaging photo.
Don’t: Choose a photo that might be confusing or difficult to caption.
3. Giveaway
Description: Offer a prize to a randomly selected follower who likes and comments on your post.
Do: Make the prize relevant to your audience.
Don’t: Make entry requirements too complicated.
4. Tag-a-Friend
Description: Ask followers to tag a friend in the comments for a chance to win.
Do: Ensure the prize is appealing to both the original poster and their friends.
Don’t: Set an excessively high number of tags required for entry.
5. User-Generated Content
Description: Encourage followers to create and share content featuring your product or brand.
Do: Feature the best entries on your page.
Don’t: Forget to give clear guidelines on how to participate.
6. Story Contest
Description: Ask followers to share something in their stories and tag your account.
Do: Create a highlight reel of entries.
Don’t: Ignore entries; engage with participants.
7. Hashtag Challenge
Description: Create a branded hashtag and challenge followers to post content using it.
Do: Promote the hashtag across your platforms.
Don’t: Forget to monitor and engage with the hashtag.
8. Poll or Quiz
Description: Use Instagram Stories to create a poll or quiz.
Do: Make it fun and relevant to your audience.
Don’t: Make the questions too difficult or unrelated.
9. Comment to Win
Description: Ask followers to comment on your post with their opinion or answer to a question.
Do: Respond to comments to increase engagement.
Don’t: Make the question too vague or unrelated.
10. Like and Share
Description: Ask followers to like your post and share it in their stories.
Do: Provide a clear call-to-action.
Don’t: Overcomplicate the sharing process.
11. Video Contest
Description: Ask followers to create and post a short video related to your brand or product.
Do: Provide a clear theme and hashtag.
Don’t: Set video requirements that are too complex.
12. Fan of the Month
Description: Recognize a loyal follower each month with a prize.
Do: Announce and feature the winner on your page.
Don’t: Make the selection process unclear.
13. Best Selfie
Description: Encourage followers to post their best selfies with your product.
Do: Create a specific hashtag for the contest.
Don’t: Choose an overly specific product requirement.
14. Creative Writing
Description: Ask followers to write a short story or poem and post it with a hashtag.
Do: Offer a theme or prompt.
Don’t: Make the word count too restrictive.
15. Recipe Contest
Description: If relevant, ask followers to share their best recipes using your product.
Do: Provide a clear hashtag for entries.
Don’t: Exclude dietary preferences or restrictions.
16. Holiday-Themed Contest
Description: Create a contest around a holiday (e.g., Halloween costumes, Christmas decorations).
Do: Announce the contest well in advance.
Don’t: Make the theme too niche or irrelevant to your audience.
17. Product Review
Description: Ask followers to post a review of your product.
Do: Encourage honest feedback.
Don’t: Require overly positive reviews to enter.
18. Art or Drawing Contest
Description: Invite followers to submit original artwork related to your brand.
Do: Showcase the entries on your page.
Don’t: Forget to provide a theme or guidelines.
19. Fitness Challenge
Description: Ask followers to share their fitness progress or routine using your product.
Do: Create a motivational hashtag.
Don’t: Make the challenge too intense for beginners.
20. Travel Photos
Description: Encourage followers to post travel photos featuring your product.
Do: Offer a travel-related prize.
Don’t: Exclude those who might not be able to travel.
Instagram Contest Rules –
Before you launch an Instagram contest, you need to understand and follow the rules and guidelines of the contest. Here are some dos of running Instagram contests:
Do’s –
- Do follow the law: The laws and regulations governing the contests and giveaways can be complex — especially when the platform is used by people from all around the world. You want to restrict your contests to a certain area (most preferably yours). But if you plan to allow entries from people outside your area, and especially people from other countries, you’ll be entering the jurisdiction of custom laws. You will want to hire a lawyer to understand the contest rules. If you plan to collaborate with influencers and provide them with a sample of your product that you plan on offering as a prize, make sure to sign non-disclosure forms.
- Do create a set of official rules: Be sure to tell your audience what the rules of the contest are. And make sure it is easily available to them. You could add it as the first comment on your post.
- Do let your audience know Instagram is not involved in the contest: According to Instagram’s promotion guidelines, you must let your potential participants know that your contest “is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Instagram.”
Dont’s –
- Do not encourage inaccurate tagging: Do not ask your audience to tag irrelevant tags to your photos. They can either tag themselves, their friends, or brands that associate with your niche. But you can’t ask others to tag you in pictures that don’t have your products in them
- Do not request Instagram support: If you choose to use Instagram as the platform for a contest, you need to figure things out yourself. Instagram’s promotion guidelines specifically say that they “will not assist you in the administration of your promotion and cannot advise you on whether consent is required for use of user content or on how to obtain any necessary consent.”
Contest Ideas For Instagram
After having considered everything, you need to select what type of contest you would want to run (and what is preferably more profitable for your goals).
1. Like/Comment To Win
This is one of the most common Instagram Contests ideas. It’s also one of the easiest for people to enter. All the participants have to do is to like your photos. This will ensure an increase in the likes on your post. It is also easy to track the entries. You can also ask them to comment on the pictures, to make sure they are genuinely interested in your products.
Example Contest – Like to win
Example Contest – Comment to win
2. Photo Caption Contests
A Photo Caption contest is when you ask the participants to caption a picture that you post. It will judge their sense of humor. The most relatable, humourous, and witty caption shall win.
Example Contest – Photo Caption Contest
3. Tag-A-Friend
The concept of this contest is really simple. You’re asking people to tag their friends in the comments section to be able to win. This will allow your content to reach people who might have not heard of you before. Tagging will send notifications, and the person tagged will most likely check the post. If they like your content, they might end up following you.
Here, You can ask them to share a story behind why they use your product or a story as to how they use your product. Make sure you let your users know that you will be sharing their content on your feed/stories.
Example Contest – Tag a Friend
4. Instagram Stories Contests
You can use Instagram Stories to post contests that will last for 24hrs. The users will be provided with an engaging prompt, and you can use the ‘questions’ feature to collect entries. Based on the rules of your contest, the correct/ best answer will win.
Example Contest – Instagram Story Contest
5. User-Generated Contests
Instagram is probably the best platform for selfies. You can take advantage of that and launch a selfie contest. You ask people to post a picture of themselves while they’re using your product, or with the product somewhere in the background. This is a way to flaunt the usage of your products to others who will view these. To administer the entries, you can ask people to tag your account, or you can create a hashtag, and ask participants to tag the hashtags.
Example Contest – Contest with Product and User
Example Contest – Report Picture using Product
6. Voting Contests
Voting contests are a great way to engage your audience. You can ask people to vote for pictures submitted under a certain hashtag by liking the one they like the most. The picture with the most likes wins.
Alternatively, you can post these pictures on your feed/stories, after finalizing the top 3/5/10. And you can let the audience choose their favorite.
Voting contests are highly beneficial because the people who submit their entries will promote their entries on their social media pages, creating high engagement with your posts.
Example Contest – Voting Contest
7. Challenge Contests
In these contests, you challenge your audience to answer a question for you. And the person who solves the question wins the contest.
It’s simple and fun. The spontaneous feel helps to increase the authenticity of the profile, too, which helps boost long-term engagement.
Example Contest – Here’s an example of a challenge contest where the users were asked to guess the number of seashells in a jar.
Points to Remember For Instagram Contests
- Set clear goals. –The first step to running your contests is to remember what you are trying to achieve. Are you looking for ways to gather more followers? Are you looking for user-generated content to post later? Are you looking for customer views on your products? This will help you understand the purpose of your contests. And you can focus your contests on achieving your goals.
- Write clear descriptions about the contest – Keep in mind the following, and to answer these questions on your post description.
- What the rules for the contest are?
- What do people need to do to be eligible?
- Any restrictions on who can enter?
- What is the prize to be won?
- What is the deadline?
- How and when will you announce the winner?
- Make it easy for people to enter the contest – Minimize having to type too much. Do not overburden your potential participants. Make your rules to enter mobile friendly.
- Choose relevant contest prizes – If you focus on giving away prizes that are relevant to your target audience, your contest will generate better results. The prize should have enough meaning for people to be motivated to enter and win the prize, but not too valuable that it loses its charm.
- Reach out to people on other social media platforms – You might have different followings on different social media platforms. When you’re hosting a contest on Instagram, you can reach out to your followers on other social media pages such as Facebook and Twitter, to make them aware of your giveaway.
Leave a Reply