All of us want to reach the golden 7-figure on our Instagram follower count, or even more. But the purpose for each of us is different. Some do so for marketing, some for brand awareness or some just because they want to be the next big thing or become influencers. Whatever the reason may be, we have all tried-and-tested various tricks and techniques to achieve the specified.
Here’s one technique that has a proven track record of generating outstanding results – Instagram contests. They initiate user engagement and prove to be really effective, in comparatively very little effort. Let me take you through some of my favourite type of contests that are conducted on Instagram:
Tag to win contests
In these contests, you are asking your audience to enter into the contest by tagging someone in the comment section. It’s intriguing and simple, plus the benefits are amazing. You are increasing your company’s organic reach manifolds. In basic words, the mechanism is that the tagged person would likely get a notification and responding to their first instinct, they will check out the post, followed by your profile and most likely hit the follow button. It’s even better if the cycle continues and they go ahead and tag another person on that post. On a good day, it would create a loop, and you will see the impact on the rising numbers of your followers. This is by far the most effective way to get more followers on Instagram. At the end, when it’s time to distribute the prize, make sure you pick the ‘tagged person’ in the comment list. Because that was the main purpose of the contest.
Here’s a quick example by Foundwildproject for your inspiration:
Like to win contests
In this, the format goes in a combination of asking people to either follow or like you on Instagram. It can be both. Basically, you are asking people to like or,double-tap as it is said on Instagram, your brand, to participate in the contest and win the specified prize. You can also initiate your Facebook campaigns over here. This will not only boost visibility but also intrigue engagement.
Take a look at this contest initiated by a famous fitness blogger:
Selfie contests
It wouldn’t be wrong if I just term today’s era as the ‘Selfie’ era. So why not initiate a contest that asks your audience to post selfies with your product in return for a surprise gift. You can add your own creativity for better reach and improvised engagement. For instance, start a spree of your own unique hashtag, it has a proven record of generating outstanding results. It is a great contest idea for promoting user-generated content. Also, if you want to increase likes and followers, ask your audience to do so simultaneously. After the contest ends, give away the prize to the best picture and of course don’t forget to add that hashtag.
Check out this post by our pizza favourite Dominos:
Caption Contests
This type of contest generates maximum user-engagement. In caption contests, brands ask for user’s recommendations for the caption of a given picture. The users comment their creative art lines and the best caption maker wins a prize. On deciding the best caption, it could either be your pick on the one you like the most, or, the caption in the comments which get the most likes. I personally recommend the second one as it compels your audience to go through the comment section as well.
Challenge contests
This type of contests requires almost zero-time to conceptualize. You just need to think of a simple, yet engaging challenge, which your audience needs to pull off. Challenges can be extremely basic but ensure it is of interest are of your audience – say for a fashion blogger, you can put up a picture of yours wearing clothes of some brand and ask your audience to guess the same. People will drop their guesses in the comment section, and then you can announce the winner with the correct answer.
Here’s what king Marvel did:
By now, you must be thorough about the different types of Instagram contests. Don’t restrict yourself to the mentioned ideas, brainstorm and create something of your own – nothing works better than your own creativity.
