How to Properly Execute an Instagram Contest, Campaign, or Promotion

There are a lot of reasons why I love Instagram. You know that. But one of the reasons I love it so much for businesses is because of the utter ease and freedom Instagram users have in running campaigns. Whether you want to run an Instagram contest, giveaway, promotion, or other form of campaign, Instagram doesn’t restrict you to a bunch of rules and hoops to jump through like other sites do.

But, there are still some things you need to know in order to execute an effective campaign!

So, if you’ve decided that you are ready to host an Instagram contest or other promotion on your account, keep reading to make sure you understand what you need to do to plan and set up the campaign, how to execute the campaign, how to analyze the campaign for success and performance, and how to protect yourself legally.

Rules for Hosting an Instagram Contest

First and foremost, Instagram requires that you include specific verbiage releasing them of any participation in the campaign. This is a very simple statement that you need to include in your campaign promotion post(s).

Per Instagram rules, this promotion is in no way sponsored, administered, or associated with Instagram, Inc. By entering, entrants confirm that they are 13+ years of age, release Instagram of responsibility, and agree to Instagram’s terms of use.

You can copy and paste this statement to reuse in your campaigns.

Include this statement at the end of your campaign post caption to keep yourself in agreement with Instagram’s terms.

Another criteria that Instagram imposes on your campaigns is that you cannot not require any participants to inaccurately tag content or users. For example, you can’t ask users to tag themselves or others in a post in which they are not actually included.

If you have any additional rules that are specific to your contest (certain age restrictions, geographical restrictions, etc.) include these in your post caption as well.

I also recommend you take some time to review your federal and local (state, provincial, etc.) laws regarding contests and online promotions. You’ll want to know what your legal rights are to promote under these circumstances. And you know the disclaimer “void where prohibited by law”? You should include this in your post caption as well, protecting you in those cases where federal or state laws prohibit participation.

If you are running a contest where entry requirements involve a user posting content and/or using a hashtag on their post, you are required by the FTC (for US users) to tell participants to include a disclosure. Essentially, if you are asking someone to promote your product or service, they are obligated to state that they are doing so in conjunction with your company. This is to differentiate from when someone personally posts or promotes something of their own volition. This is something that nearly all companies neglect to include in their contest rules but is something that can get you in legal trouble if you neglect to do it. You can read more about this requirement and the legal aspects of it here.

I also recommend you read this article from Mark Schaefer’s blog on the legal issues of running contests. There is some valuable information including what you call your campaign: contest vs. sweepstakes.

Setting Up Your Campaign

The most work you will do around hosting an Instagram contest will be the process of setting up the campaign. There are a number of steps you need to consider and complete before you can actually host your contest.

I’m going to list each of those steps here to help ensure you have everything covered.

1. Define the end state.
   • Are you trying to get more engagement on your posts?
   • Are you looking for more Instagram followers?
   • Are you attempting to get more people to sign up for your email list?
   • Are you interested in sourcing user generated content?
     
2. Choose a “prize” or incentive to participate.
   • This should be something related to your business or brand. Do not give away an ipad just to get traffic. This won’t bring in quality participants that will actually benefit your business.
   • It should be of significant enough value to warrant the level of participation. The more valuable the reward, the more participation and participants you will get.
     
3. Determine how participants will “enter” or participate in the campaign.
   • Do they need to follow your account, like the post, @mention one or more other users, post something with a hashtag, go to your website, etc.?
   • Entry requirements can be one or any combination of these criteria.
   • Entry requirements should be easy to do and complete.
   • Limit the number of steps to 3 or 4.
     
4. Define any contest rules or conditions.
   • Going beyond the information listed in the previous section, do participants have to be a certain age or are there certain restrictions (like US residents only)?
     
5. Determine how long the campaign will run.
   • Will the campaign be a one day, multiple day, one week, two week, etc. campaign? Numerous studies have shown that for large scale campaigns, one to two weeks is the optimal length of time.
   • Determine your start date and end date.
   • Will you wait until you reach a certain number of followers? This will affect when the campaign will start.
   • Is it seasonal or based around a specific theme? This will affect your run time.
   • If the requirements to enter involve the participants sharing an image or other more time consuming action, you may need your campaign to run longer.
     
6. Determine how many times and at what times you will promote the campaign.
   • This will depend on how long the campaign runs.
   • Will you post multiple times a day or once daily?
   • Based on your analytics, determine the best times of the day to post (it may differ for different days of the week).
     
7. Choose a campaign hashtag.
   • This is paramount in promoting your contest and sourcing content shared as entry in the contest as well as tracking your success and analytics.
   • The hashtag should be related to the campaign, the theme, the product or service, and/or your business.
   • The hashtag should be exclusive to each individual campaign. Make sure it isn’t being used by someone else.
   • Hashtags for campaigns can be longer than usual but should be easy to recognize and spell.
     
8. Design your campaign image(s).
   • You should include that it is a contest or giveaway with actual text in the image or graphic – this way it won’t be missed as just another photo when people are scrolling through Instagram.
   • If using an image (rather than a graphic), it should be related to the theme/content of the campaign.
     
9. Craft your post content captions for each promotional post.
   • Include all the details of the campaign, hashtag, and other relevant information.
     
10. Decide how winners will be chosen and how you will notify them.
    • Will you use a random generator tool (free online tools are available) or will entries be judged?
    • Will you email the winners or DM them on Instagram? Or will you use another method?
    • Once the winners have been notified, you can publicly announce them on Instagram via a campaign post. I always recommend informing winners privately before publicly displaying them on Instagram.
      
11. Determine who will respond to and engage with customers and participants on the campaign posts.
    • If there are multiple people managing your account or if you manage the campaign for a client, it’s important to establish who is responsible for engagement and answering questions related to the campaign.

Administering the Campaign

Now that you have everything in place to run the campaign smoothly, it’s time to actually execute the campaign on Instagram. Here are the things you need to do to start and execute the campaign over its duration.

1. Post your first image to launch the campaign.
2. Cross-promote the campaign to your email list and other social media sites if this will benefit your campaign.
3. Monitor engagement and respond to comments and questions.
4. Post subsequent campaign posts based on the schedule outlined for the campaign.
5. Track your results and levels of participation
6. Adjust your posting schedule if required to better serve your campaign.
7. Continue to monitor comments, engagement, and levels of participation

Closing and Reviewing the Campaign

Once the campaign has reached the end date and time, you need to close out the campaign, announce the winners, and review the whole campaign. Here are the steps to complete the process.

1. I recommend going back to any posts shared as part of the campaign, editing the caption, and adding “Contest Closed” (or other similar phrase) to the top of the caption.
   • This way, anyone coming to your account or posts after the fact will recognize that the contest is no longer running.
   • Add symbols or emojis to make this statement stand out in the caption.
     
2. Pick your winner(s) based on the criteria you established before launching the campaign.
   
3. Announce your winner(s) in whatever manner you established before launching the campaign.
   
4. Review your campaign analytics to determine the success level of this campaign
   
   • How many new followers did you gain over the period of the campaign?
   • How much engagement did you have on the campaign posts?
   • How much traffic did you send to your website?
   • How many new opt-ins or sales did you generate?
     
5. Once you’ve done more than one campaign, compare the results and campaign analysis to each previous campaign to determine additional data.
   • Do certain prizes generate better results?
   • Do certain themes, times, or lengths of campaigns generate better results?

Seems like a lot of work, doesn’t it? Well, do an Instagram contest or campaign well, it will take some significant time and preparation. But once you’ve done one, the next one will be easier, and you’ll get more comfortable with each additional campaign.

And nothing says you have to start out with a complicated and long-running campaign the first time. You can host your first contest on a smaller scale, with easy entry requirements, and a short time frame. This will allow you to get the hang of it and then you can expand on your next campaign.

Use the steps outlined above to prepare and execute a contest or campaign of any size and you’ll easily ensure you have a smoothly run campaign every time!

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13 Ingredients in the Perfect Social Media Contest

With the competition for attention within social media at an all-time high, the struggle to keep “fans” and “followers” engaged with your company’s social outposts is real, and ongoing. In addition to smart use of visuals (see our “Social Media Image of the Week” blog series for inspiration), businesses often turn to social media contests and promotions to stir passion and activity within their online audience.

But it’s not as easy as just tweeting “who wants to win an ipad!?” Excellent social media contests require substantial planning and nimble execution, and have many moving parts and potential points of failure.

Here’s a checklist of 13 ingredients you’ll need before launching the perfect social media contest:

Venue

Where will this contest take place? Facebook? Instagram? Twitter? Or will it be present in multiple venues, like a photo contest where participants can enter on Facebook or Instagram? Remember, that each time you add a venue for participation, your oversight responsibilities grow geometrically.

Entry Mechanism

How do people qualify to enter your social media contest? There are hundreds of variations, but there are six main categories of participation mechanism. They are: Sweepstakes (nothing required – most common on Twitter); Connect (like/follow the company’s social account to enter); Like (like a particular piece of content to enter); Share (share a piece of content to enter); Vote (state preference from among multiple pieces of content to enter); Create (develop user-generated content and upload to enter). Remember, the more you ask your audience to do, the fewer will do it. Remember too, that the younger your audience, the more comfortable they will be creating content for your contest.

Theme/Name

Is this contest seasonal? Does it tie into a particular product or service? Remember, the theme/name will guide the rest of the creative, so take some time to come up with something that resonates. Also, try to keep your contest name short, as long names eat up valuable characters in tweets and social media ads.

Timeline

This is where you coordinate the major elements of the social media contest. The best approach here is to work backward from the date that you want to announce winners. From there, figure out when judging starts/ends (if applicable), when entries close, when entries open, when promotion starts, and other key milestones.

Graphics

Unless you are planning a very simple Twitter promotion, you’ll need graphics to support your contest. These may include cover and profile images, logos, headers, landing pages, emails, promoted posts and other forms of native advertising. To make sure your design team doesn’t mutiny, use your timeline from step 4 and give them ONE list of everything you need, including specific pixel dimensions and required language. For Facebook, remember the 20% rule when creating graphics for promoted posts.

Prizes

What will winners receive? This is a place for you to be creative, and most social media contests are far too obvious here (see “win an ipad” above).

Remember, the prize itself can be the theme for the contest, as with the legendary “best job in the world” campaign from Tourism Queensland. The best contests have prizes that tie directly back to the company itself, and this becomes particularly important when you consider the downstream results of this effort. You want to activate and attract people who are genuinely interested in your business, not just “contest hunters” who enter everything they can find. So, if you sell fishing gear give away fishing gear as a prize, not an ipad.

Editorial Calendar

Here’s where you map out (via Excel, a special Google calendar and/or your social media management software) all the social media messages, email messages and other communications about your promotion. You don’t necessarily have to write all of the messages in advance – although it’s not a bad idea, and your legal team may require it. Remember that your social media contest (and corresponding communications) has five phases: pre-launch; launch; last chance; completion; winners. You need to plan multiple messages in multiple platforms for each phase.

Seeding Strategy

This applies to the pre-launch and launch phases of your social media contest, and is where you figure out how to give your promotion the best chance of lift-0ff in the critical early days of the promotion. What you’re trying to do here is make sure that the people who already love you, and the people who have disproportionate number of social connections are fully aware of the contest and are ready to participate and spread the word the minute the promotion begins. This could include special “shhhh, coming soon” emails to key customers and social influencers, making sure all employees are aware of the event and other opportunities. You do not want to “soft launch” a contest, especially on Facebook where the algorithm dictates that slow starters get buried.

Amplification Strategy

With the exception of simple Twitter contests and basic Facebook contests that are managed within your timeline, you will probably need some sort of amplification to ensure that your contest has the reach (and garners the attention) you desire. This may include Facebook ads (think about custom audiences ads shown only to your email subscribers), Facebook promoted posts, Twitter promoted tweets, ad opportunities on Instagram and Pinterest, amplification networks like Outbrain, Taboola and Stumble, and other options. Remember that even if your social media contest is taking place on one platform, you can use multiple platforms to amplify it.

Rules

I purposefully put rules and legal advice 10th on this list because I have found it is much easier to have legal weigh in on the entirety of the program (including seeding, editorial, amplification) all at once, instead of having them look at the mechanism and prizes first, and then going back to them later with a second round of inquiries about the other elements. As with the design team, make legal’s job easier by giving them the total picture up-front. Nice post here on the new rules governing Facebook contests, specifically.

Community Management

Participants and prospective entrants will have questions and comments about your contest. Some will be easy to address. Others may not be so simple. It is absolutely critical (even for simple contests) that you have a defined plan for who is moderating and overseeing your social outposts (and not just the one(s) where the contest is located), and when. What is your plan for nights and weekends coverage? Your day-to-day community management realities will likely be modest compared to what you need to accomplish during a contest. Plan for this.

Crisis Plan

You should have a social media crisis plan anyway, but if you’ve never created one the launch of your new contest is an excellent fulcrum to get it finished. Will something go massively awry with your contest, causing you to need to activate your crisis plan? Probably not. But if it does, and you don’t have that crisis plan to turn to in that critical moment, the chances you’ll ever get to do another contest are just about zero. Consider this to be the “I’m not about to get fired because of a contest” ingredient of this recipe.(see my popular “8 steps to manage a social media crisis” post and slides here)

Software (sometimes)

As with amplification, you may not need software if your social media contest is very straightforward. But for any sort of contest that requires data collection as part of the entry mechanism you’ll need software to help build and manage the affair. There are literally dozens of software packages that help you do this, either as their sole function or as part of a larger suite of social media management capabilities. Here at Convince & Convert we’re familiar with most of them but haven’t used them all first-hand.

But, software I can personally recommend (please feel free to nominate others in the comments) includes:

• Agorapulse (for small/mid-sized companies on Facebook. Their founder Emeric Ernoult is my favorite frenchman, and has written several great posts here)
• OfferPop (for mid-sized companies on Facebook and beyond. Great guys, and they’ve done some nice promotion of my new book, Youtility)
• ExactTarget Marketing Cloud (for large companies on Facebook and beyond these folks – also terrific clients of mine – can do it all (formerly Buddy Media))
• Google Wildfire (for medium/large companies on Facebook and beyond, these nice people may be the market leader and have also done some cool stuff with me on Youtility)
• Statigram (for medium/large companies on Instagram and Facebook. Outstanding for serious Instagram contests)
• Piqora (for medium/large companies on Pinterest. The leaders in Pinterest-specific contest oversight – and metrics)

Those are the 13 ingredients of the perfect social media contest. What did I miss?

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