Social media platforms attract more than 80% of users worldwide. Many users use social media platforms mainly for entertainment and socializing purposes. However, a large percentage also uses them to promote their products and services. One of the ways they promote their brands and serviced is by offering giveaways to their followers.
Facebook remains the most popular social networking site for businesses. However, Instagram is rapidly gaining popularity and boasts of more than a billion users worldwide. Today, numerous businesses are figuring out how to engage with the fast-growing Instagram community to gain genuinely invested clients who will return for more in the future.
Why use Instagram giveaways?
Every person likes a freebie, but some think that all the contests and giveaways on social media are fraud and only meant to woo followers. If there are any scams, they are minimal because most of the contests and giveaways are genuine.
Social media influencers and brands are all out to gain more followers by using contest strategies to stay ahead of their competitors. One of the most popular strategies is Instagram giveaways. Using giveaways not only builds your brand awareness but also improves engagement with your followers.
It is for this reason that no one would risk running a fake scam. You would lose followers and get a bad reputation. Instagram contests and giveaways are extremely entertaining. The contests receive more than 50 times more likes than a regular Facebook post or any other social media post.
Also read: What are the Benefits of Adding an Instagram feed on Shopify?
Instagram stories giveaways
In the past, Instagram marketing was all about branded content and posts. Today, published stories on user profiles stand out as the best marketing strategy on Instagram. Instagram stories are engaging, and they reach a wider range of users.
The dynamic nature of the marketing strategies and the social media platform makes it hard for the users to gauge the next Instagram move. However, the platform is always adding extra tools to boost engagement. With that being said, questions still arise as to how easy and genuine it is to run contests and giveaways on Instagram stories. After all, just like a Facebook story, an Instagram story stays up for only 24 hours.
An Instagram story must be engaging and attractive enough to attract followers. Once you manage to put up your engaging story and contest that attracts all the right people, the next step is to pick a winner.
There are different ways to offer giveaways on Instagram stories. The first thing to do is indicate the giveaway on your Instagram story. Then direct the users to your profile for more interaction. You can offer giveaways after reaching a specific number of followers or just before a festive seasonal sale.
Furthermore, once an Instagram profile hits the thousand-plus mark, users will know that it is an account they need to follow. You can also request a new audience to follow or refer another follower for them to get a freebie.
Your giveaways should have the same offering for each of your followers or a potential buyer. A call to action of what you want your followers to do always follows the giveaways. Other steps added to the giveaways base their objectives on what you want to gain for your brand or service. That means anyone reading your Instagram story will visit your profile and do the needful.
Now comes the question many followers ask. How do you pick a winner for the giveaway? Before entering into any Instagram story contest, you should know that there are no automatic selectors of giveaways. The platform uses a random winner picker for an Instagram story giveaway based on comments by the followers. Doing this will remove any bias.
How are Instagram stories different from regular posts?
Instagram stories are different from traditional regular posts. They include several unique characteristics and stats that distinguish them from a standard post. If you make a new post, you first pick a good photo.
Instagram then asks you whether you want to share it with your IG story or your newsfeed, depending on your preferences. When you publish to your feed, the post will remain on your account for an indefinite period of time and will display on your followers’ timelines.
Also read: The Best Time to Post on Instagram
The biggest difference between an Instagram story and a newsfeed post is that the former is time-sensitive. Stories stay up on your profile for only 24 hours. Of course, you can repost the story after the expiry of the 24 hours if you still want to reach more audience, note that you cannot retrieve the same story after the 24 hours unless you post a fresh one.
Unlike regular posts, you can add music and fun GIF animations to your Instagram stories. You can also add hashtags, question boxes, location tagging, quizzes, polls, countdowns, and live streaming. Only a few of these features are available on both Instagram and other social media regular posts. The popularity and continued growth of Instagram stories are all due to these amazing features. Therefore, conducting giveaways on Instagram is far more effective than other social platforms.
Wrapping Up
Instagram is gaining popularity with many users worldwide because of its amazing features such as live-streaming, GIF animations, hashtags, and music. The features make the social media platform more entertaining and unique.
Moreover, the social media platform reaches different age demographics with billion-plus users, which is a big boost for brand marketing and social media influencers. So far, it beats other social media platforms with popularity, making it the best for contests and giveaways.
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