We are always looking for fun ways to bring attention to our client’s social media channels, and contests are a great way to maximize exposure and bring new fans to an account. With the implementation of our first Instagram account for a client, we have begun our first Instagram contest for Tricoci University! When planning an Instagram contest, there are a few things to remember:
- Create a graphic that describes the rules of the contest. It should be simple and to the point. You can then share this with your Facebook, Twitter and Instagram following.
- Create a hashtag for the contest so you can track entries. A popular prefix is #Insta(Unique Name). For this contest we chose #InstaTricoci because there were currently no photos with that hashtag.
- Have the user tag your Instagram account in their post, this way you are notified as soon as they post a photo.
- Make sure you give the user guidelines on what to post. For TricociUniversity, we asked users to tag hair, makeup or nail photos since that is in line with the brand of the University.
- Create a deadline for entries. We would suggest running a contest for one to two weeks.
- Offer an incentive or prize to the winner. I can’t tell you how excited I was when I tagged my gameday photo with #Instagameday and the New Orleans Saints official Instagram account used my photo as one of the winners. You can read my post about that here.
- Lastly, use the photos on other social media streams. You are sure to get a lot of submissions, don’t let them go unseen!
