When we say social media, Instagram is probably the first thing that comes to your mind. With an active user base of more than 800 million people, it is one of the best platforms for marketing and growing your business through social media.
Every person in your surrounding probably uses Instagram and that’s why it is wonderful because you know your target audience, but sometimes you may not know how to reach them. But how to increase Instagram engagement and reach an audience.
The best way to highlight your small business or branding page on Instagram is to hold and organize contests. According to statistics, there is an average of 200% increase in engagement and reach when accounts hold Instagram contests but only a very tiny fragment of accounts that is 2% actually realize this potential.
This is why today we will talk about 5 ways you can hold Instagram contests.
Participating by comments
One of the basics of the Instagram algorithm is that the more the number of people that comment on your post, the more Instagram will display it on the feeds of people with similar interests and their followers.
All you have to do is make an attractive post and an announcement of a giveaway of a product that your store /brand sells.
Highlight the two rules in bold
- Comment on the post
- Follow the account
This method of giveaway will benefit you in three ways, firstly, it will increase your following and help you gain real and active followers on Instagram, secondly, your reach will get a significant boost and thirdly, if you post something worthwhile, the people who discover your product might just end up buying it instead of waiting for the giveaway.
Tip: To boost your engagement to the sky, promote your giveaway post through Instagram at extremely reasonable rates. You could also offer a discount to first-time buyers to encourage greater sales.
Participating through likes
This is the easiest form of Instagram contest and merely requires just liking the giveaway/contest post to participate. Data from Instagram reveals that contest posts generally receive around 80% more likes than a usual post.
The low effort method motivates everyone to participate and the high like count will significantly increase the reach of the account and become a favorite in the eyes of Instagram’s algorithm.
Make sure to write your rules clear to avoid any confusion and live stream your choice of the winner in a completely random manner. This will enthrall thrill and excitement in the participants and your contest will become a huge success.
Participating through Reels
Reels are the new talk of the town on Instagram and you deserve a piece of the pie. Not a lot of people have fully realized the potential of Instagram reels and this could be your way to shine.
You can start with making a post about an exemplary product that people would go crazy for and announce that the only way to participate is by making a reel related to the contest or you could establish a trend and ask all participants to follow that trend and make reels on it.
You could announce the winner on the basis of the best reel made or one with the most views.
Not only would this skyrocket your engagement but also create hype and awareness about your giveaway.
Reels views even go up to 30 million+ so if you play the right cards, you would definitely win.
Participating through tagging other people
This method of Instagram contests is perhaps one of the oldest and that makes it successfully tried and tested. The rules are simple, you make an Instagram post about the product and anyone who desires can be a part of the giveaway by tagging a minimum of three friends in the comment sections.
People could tag as many people as they want as the higher the comments, the higher the chance to win. This enables the account to be discovered by a lot more people who had previously no idea about the restaurant. A winner could be chosen at random and the results of the giveaway should be posted in a continuation post.
Participating through Instagram stories
Through data released by Instagram, we know that Instagram stories have an average of more than 80 million users a day and the great thing about stories is that they’re highly interactive and customizable.
You can make your slide attractive or post a poll for a higher engagement strategy. More people will tend to follow you as they would not want to miss your stories and would be excited about the result of the contest.
Participating through hashtags
A Contest on the basis of hashtags is another wonderful idea. This is the only method to get your page or brand on the trending list and as the scale of the giveaway grows, it will eventually get on the explore page of Instagram users with similar interests and particularly your target audience.
You can start by making a post and mention the rules clearly that anyone can participate by using the hashtag in your caption and sharing it on their posts related to it.
The person with the highest number of likes on their post by the deadline would be the winner of the giveaway. This would incentivize users to send it to their friends and ask them to like the post and it would naturally skyrocket your engagement on your Instagram account.
So overall, if you are seeing dull numbers on your account and want to boost that number then Instagram contests are a great way. Marketing the post/giveaway and making it grow is equally essential. Reels are a growing platform and would be the best place that you should use to grow your page and boost engagement.