How To Make Winning Instagram Hashtag Strategy?

When Instagram originally came out in 2010, it was only a novel method to show off your photography skills to your pals. The social media site now earns over $6 billion annually and has more than 1 billion active members each month.

And the corporate world has taken notice.

According to data compiled by Oberlo, Instagram is used by over 70% of businesses as a marketing tool.
Instagram hashtag contests may be one of the most successful ways to acquire followers and promote brand exposure as more businesses migrate to the platform.

When do you use a hashtag on Instagram?

To participate in an Instagram hashtag photo contest, participants must post an eligible photo to their account and include the contest’s designated hashtag in the caption. The approach makes it easy for the company holding the contest to view entries by simply searching for the contest hashtag.

Participants are still required to adhere to the rules of the competition, but the reach of a hashtag contest is much bigger. They’re also simple for users to participate in because no registration or submission is required. They can submit their work by simply sharing it on their regular Instagram feed.

Businesses stand to gain the most from user-generated material, which can spread to hundreds or thousands of Instagram accounts. This user-generated content broadens exposure to the brand and may potentially increase the number of contest entrants.

Some Suggestions For A Successful Instagram Contest

Are you prepared to create an Instagram hashtag contest to expand your brand’s social reach, boost your brand’s visibility, and boost sales? Here are four ways to make your Instagram hashtag competition even better.

Picking the Right Instagram Hashtag

Use a part of your brand name or something easily recognisable in your hashtags to make them more memorable. Hashtags that include the year, like #yourbrandcontest2020 or #yourbrandphotocontest20, are more likely to be noticed.

There are a few other things to keep in mind when picking a hashtag for your Instagram competition:

• Check for trademark infringements.
• Don’t only utilise your brand name, or others will tag it with irrelevant terms.
• Verify its availability by conducting an Instagram search using the hashtag.
• Avoid accidentally using poor wording in tags, like singer Susan Boyle did with her album release.
• Determine a victor by popular vote.
• How will you determine who wins your Instagram competition? You might have an internal poll or a drawing to decide. However, if you want to increase participation even more, you may pick a winner depending on which photo receives the most likes.

This will inspire participants to spread the word about the contest (and the company) by sharing their images and asking their friends to “like” their contribution.

However, you should proceed with caution and clarify any rules, such as whether or not participants may use automated systems or several accounts to boost their odds of winning. Set the parameters for their participation in Facebook groups and other forms of online discussion.

Create a Reliable Instagram Ad Campaign

A field of dreams, this is not. Not everyone who hears about your contest will feel compelled to share it with their networks and become brand advocates. You need a solid approach for promoting your Instagram contest if you want to see the best results possible.

Some suggestions for promoting your Instagram competition:

• Make a post to your Instagram stories announcing the giveaway.
• Launch an email marketing campaign announcing the contest and prompting participants to submit their entries in the final days.
• Disseminate to your other social networks
• Embed your Instagram handle in your bio.
• To get the word out about the giveaway, use a popup on your site.
• Market your business with some paid adverts.
• In addition to announcing the contest via email, you can publish submissions as they come in via Instagram stories, tagging the original poster. This will get people excited, and it will also show contestants that you read their entries carefully.

Need More Ways to Participate and Win

People’s will to succeed makes contests highly successful. Providing more entry options is a surefire method to boost participation in your giveaway.

You don’t need to give away automobiles like Oprah to get people excited, but having multiple prizes in the queue will help.
You may have a prize for the winner, runner-up, and loser, for instance. Or maybe just one fantastically valuable gift (like a year’s worth of gin)! plus a slew of lesser prizes like coupons and freebies. This makes your contest more exciting and enhances the odds of winning for everyone who participates.

Conclusions on Instagram Hashtag Competitions

Businesses of all sizes can benefit from holding contests to grow their fan bases and spread the word about their products and services. Because of its massive user base, Instagram is perfect for running competitions. Here are some tried-and-true methods for running a successful Instagram hashtag competition:

• Take caution when selecting your hashtag.
• Winner selection should be based on popularity rather than chance.
• Create a plan for advertising
• Include more ways to succeed