How to organize an Instagram contest? A quick guide

If you run a company profile on Instagram, you definitely want to promote your brand and reach as many potential customers as possible. A great way to do this is to prepare a contest that will help you increase your profile’s reach and gain new followers. Organizing a contest on Instagram, however, often raises many doubts. Are you wondering how to carry out such an action properly and legally? What to do to bring the expected results? What should you remember and what mistakes should not be made? You will find the answers in the article.

How to prepare an Instagram contest?

An Instagram contest should be carefully thought out. Sometimes a contest is unattractive to the audience, so that very few people take part in it. It also happens that the action does not bring satisfactory results, and the organizer only bears the costs. So when you decide to organize a contest, there are a few things to think about first.

Determine what the purpose of the contest is

Let’s start with the fact that you should always define the goal of the competition at the beginning. What is the brand supposed to achieve thanks to the competition? So think about whether you want, for example:

• increase brand awareness,
• increase sales,
• can it increase the number of followers?

Of course, it may be that one competition has different goals. However, it is always worth choosing one superior and basing your actions on it.

Specify the audience

The next step is to define the audience. Obviously, it should be consistent with the target group of the company/brand. However, there are two options: the contest is directed to a new potential customer, but also … to people who are already a customer.

In the latter case, the competition task may be, for example, the publication of a photo with the purchased product. This idea sometimes uses, for example, by fashion brands that ask for an interesting outfit that includes a specific item of clothing (for example, a handbag, shoes, or a dress). So think about who you want to reach and what goal to achieve.

Choose the appropriate reward

As you know, the competition cannot take place without a prize. First, the prize should be attractive to the target audience. Secondly, it must be related to your brand or product offer. Some offer very costly rewards that do not apply to their industry. Such competition may and may attract many people, but does it bring any real benefits to the company? Not necessarily. The user who take part in the campaign usually leave the profile immediately after its completion and are no longer shows interest in it.

Apart from the jackpot, it is also worth offering, for example, prizes for second and third place, or several “consolation prizes”. This way you will appreciate the work of many people. Thanks to this, there is a chance that the competition will be more popular.

Come up with an interesting competition task

The competition task is the factor that has the greatest impact on how many people will take part in the competition. It shouldn’t be complicated. The large number of conditions met can be discouraging. So the rules must be simple and clear.

In addition, the task is to be constructed in such a way that it can be assessed later and the winner can be selected. Better to avoid drawing winners. Why? You can read about it later in the article. It is a good idea to have an “answer question …” style task to choose the most creative answer.

Frequent conditions for contests on Instagram are marking a selected friend in the comment under the contest post and observing the organizer’s profile. These are actually very simple rules, but are they worth using? Not everyone want to tag a friend in the comment, just as not everyone like to tag.

As for the condition that applies to the observation of the profile, in fact, thanks to this, you will gain new followers in a short time. The only question is for how long. After the hand is over, these people may leave you just as quickly.

So maybe it’s better if you don’t force them to follow you, and instead suggest that you just please when a participant sees your profile. If someone really shows interest in your profile, they will click the “Follow” button anyway and stay with you. It is better to build a valuable and engaged group than to gain random followers.

Don’t forget about the competition rules

Remember that in order to be able to legally run a competition on Instagram or on another social networking site, you must prepare detailed regulations. You can publish it on your website, for example, and inform the contestants that they can find it there. The rules of the competition should include :

• organizer data,
• requirements for people who can take part in the competition, e.g. restrictions on age or place of residence,
• exact rules of the competition,
• criteria / rules for selecting the winner,
• list of awards,
• competition schedule,
• complaint rules,
• rules for the processing and protection of personal data.

In addition, in accordance with the promotion guidelines, the terms and conditions should also include “full release of Instagram from liability by each participant” and “information that the promotion is not sponsored, endorsed or carried out by Instagram or associated with it in any way. ” 

How to organize a Instagram contest in accordance with the law?

On Instagram, you can often come across lottery deals where fate is the deciding factor for winning, not specific criteria. However, it is better to avoid this form of giving out prizes. Why? Well, a promotional lottery, which resembles a gambling game, is governed by completely different rules than the competition. Organizing a promotional lottery is not prohibited, but requires permits and payment of a fee. In the event of failure to comply with numerous formalities, a high fine can be awarded for an inconspicuous competition. You can read more about this in the Gambling Act.

So, as you can see, it is better to give up these types of deals and the aforementioned conditions of participation in the competition, which are: tagging friends, observing the profile, and sharing the competition post.

In conclusion: what should a legal Instagram contest look like?

• The winner of the contest should be SELECTED, not RANDOM.
• It is best if the competition task requires creative thinking from the participants.
• The competition must contain regulations with all the necessary information and elements.
• The competition should comply with the Instagram regulations and the law (GDPR, copyright).