First, let’s talk about your marketing objectives for Instagram. There are several ways to organize Instagram hashtag contests and giveaways, depending on your specific brand strategy and goals. If you’re considering a hashtag contest, it’s probably for one of these two reasons:
- You want to collect user-generated content
- You want to make your brand more visible on Instagram
The good news is that with Easypromos, these goals are achievable. However, the participation dynamic will differ depending on whether participants have a public or private profile. Let’s take a look at how it works.
Organize an Instagram hashtag contest
For starters, let’s take a quick look at how the Instagram Contest app works. Participants upload a photo or video to their Instagram feed, mentioning your brand and using the campaign hashtag you have previously established and communicated. If the user’s profile is public, the content will automatically link to the contest. If it is private, participants will need to access the contest microsite, register, and select the content they wish to participate with from their feed.
Participating photos or videos will then be displayed in the contest gallery, where you can enable voting to involve a greater audience and make your Instagram contest go viral. Finally, you can reward everyone for taking part with a prize draw, pick a winner by popular vote, or ask an expert jury to choose their favorite.
What are the benefits of an Instagram hashtag contest?
- Virality. Using a hashtag and mention automatically makes your campaign more visible on Instagram. It’s easy for users to find other competition entries, check your original post about the contest, and look up the terms and conditions.
- Followers. Including your brand mention in the photo caption means that users create a direct connection between your profile and theirs. You can learn more about them with a single click.
- Loyalty. Once your profiles are connected by the brand mention, you can contact users with direct messages. Set up Instagram Quick Replies to respond to competition entries, answer common questions, and be more responsive.
- Versatility. You can combine Instagram and Twitter posts in your mention + hashtag contest. So long as you use the same hashtag on both networks, and connect your profile for Twitter and Instagram to the app, all posts will be collected.
- Transparency. Adding your mention, as well as the hashtag, shows that users are intentionally joining your competition. They haven’t just used your campaign hashtag by accident! And, because they can easily find your original post, the contest rules are transparent and easy to find.
Turn consumers into brand ambassadors with an Instagram Contest with Hashtag
There’s no better way to promote your brand than to have happy customers post about it on their favorite social media channels. By sharing positive experiences about your company, social media users become your brand ambassadors, helping you reach and positively influence new prospects. And here’s an example from SHAD, a motorcycle case and seat producer, showing how to use hashtag contests to grab the attention of a considerable number of Instagram users.
The company based in Barcelona wanted to reach more motorbike riders and expand its Instagram reach. They opted for an Instagram Contest + Hashtag in which they gave away a $300 SHAD voucher. Users participated in the contest by uploading a picture of their SHAD product to their Instagram account, using the hashtag, and mentioning @shad_motorcycle_cases in the post description.
How to run an Instagram photo contest with registration form
The Instagram Contest with Hashtag app also allows users with private Instagram profiles to participate in the same promotion as users with public profiles. Albeit with a slightly different participation flow. Firstly, participants with private profiles have to post a photo or Reel on their profile. In this case, including a hashtag or a mention of your brand is not mandatory. It is up to you to require it or not depending on your campaign objectives.
Then, participants access the promotion’s URL and fill out the registration, link their Instagram profile, and choose the post the post they wish to participate with from their feed. The application allows the organizing brands to display the Terms & Conditions and the necessary check boxes to obtain participants’ explicit consent to user their participating posts.
What are the benefits of Instagram hashtag contest with registration form?
- Leads. You can’t collect users’ contact details from Instagram. But when you ask people to connect with your contest app, you have the opportunity to ask for more personal details, such as email address or age.
- Access to private profiles. When users post to private profiles, you can’t share their posts – even if they use your hashtag. But when they share photos to the app, you can add them to the public gallery and reuse content as you choose.
- Express consent. The app includes checkboxes for terms and conditions, privacy policy, and even image rights. So you can be totally confident that users consent to your use of their data and original content.
- Wide array of participation possibilities. The registration form allows you to combine your contest with other dynamics. For example, distributing coupon codes to participants.
- Segmentation. Limit your promotion app to specific countries, or set a minimum age for participation. Add extra questions to the registration form so that you can segment and qualify your new leads.
Examples of Instagram Contest with entry form
Take a look at this Hashtag + Entry form photo contest organized by Inaba, a pet treat brand. As part of their 2023 Halloween campaign, the brand organized a photo contest among its audience. To participate, users had to post a photo of their cat enjoying one of the brand’s treats using the contest hashtag and fill out the registration form available on the brand’s Instagram BIO. The brand also made a point of clearly stating all participation requirements as well as how winners would be chosen.
The next example comes from ZT Hotels in Spain. The chain launched a contest to promote their hotels, increase brand awareness, and boost their presence on social media. To participate, users had to post a photo of their holidays at one of their hotels along with the hashtag #vacacionesenzt for the chance to win a 20% discount voucher for their next stay.
The Instagram contest is ideal for gathering User-Generated Content (UGC) as it requires the explicit consent of participants so that the brand can use it. It also does wonders to engage your online community through online voting and provides a clear channel to turn followers into brand ambassadors. Take a look at the chart below which shows the differences in the participation flow between users with public and private profiles.
We hope you found this article useful to help you get your hashtag contest going. If you still have doubts or need further information don’t hesitate to contact us via live chat. We will be happy to help.
