In this digital era where million-dollar business are being created online from scratch, you might want to keep your followers happy in order to gain engagement from them to your brand. Contests are a great way to do so because, let’s face it: everyone likes free stuff, especially when it comes from their favourite brand. If you’re not a big fan of all the process that a contest implies, you might want to think it twice: according to a study made by Tailwind (an app to manage your social media), Instagram accounts that hold contests can experience 70 % faster follower growth.
But how do I make a contest for my followers if I haven’t made one before? What should I know to not make mistakes that lead to the loss of confidence from my followers to my brand? These two questions are really important, especially because Instagram have certain rules that you don’t want to break.
First of all: Create an online video contest that you can publish on your social networks, with you explaining how is it going to work and what your followers need to do to participate. Take this opportunity to give as much information as you can: the rules, the things people need to do in order to participate, the things people can’t do, what the prize is going to be, the deadline and the day you’ll announce the winner.
Second of all: choose wisely the prize, much better if is your own. Although it might seem a little bit obvious, the prize you’re giving need to be something that your target audience want. Sometimes fashion bloggers, models or influencers make give-away contests sponsoring someone else’s product, and that usually have great results, but if you can offer something of your own brand it’ll go much better. Also, if you manage to give more than one prize, your followers will love you even more!
Third thing to have in mind: a custom hashtag. This is the best way to keep track of all the people participating and is also the best way to put you contest out there, make it visible and accessible to other people that don’t follow you yet to find it. You can also ask your followers that share it on their own social networks and help you make it trending topic.
Last but not least, be aware of your country limitations, especially if the thing you’re giving away have language as one of its main features.