Give It Away – Give It Away- Give It Away Now.
Today is National Give Something Away Day, and in the spirit of coworking we thought we would celebrate in a couple of cool and collaborative ways.
- We’re hosting an Instagram Giveaway
- We’re going to teach you how to host you’re own powerful giveaway in this blog.
- We’re hosting another giveaway if you take our tutorial and host your own giveaway in July 2019! Use hashtag #coworkyxcgives if this blog inspires you to take action today! We’ll give every entrepreneur who hosts an Instagram giveaway a week of FREE COWORKING!
We’ll announce the winner on Tuesday August 6th 2019
So here’s how it works.
Head over to our Instagram feed and enter to win a $97 1month Express Membership. You’ll get:
- 24/7 access to our cool coworking space
- Power up with coffee + fast wifi
- Amazing staff *pats herself and her teammates on the shoulder*
- Creative and inspiring coworkers
- Fun Events
Think a giveaway can help you grow your customer base and your audience? You’re totally right. But to be successful you’ve got to follow the 8 step formula I’m about to share with you.
1. PURPOSE IS IMPORTANT
Hosting an Instagram giveaway is amazing for your followers, it can also be a huge benefit to you if you plan it right! The best way to make sure you’re giveaway is in alignment with your goals you have to get clear about the purpose of the online event. Examples of great goals for giveaways are:
Increase your followers
Get audience feedback
Grow your email list
Drive traffic to your website
Develop brand awareness
The goal you choose is totally up to you depending on what your current focus is. The last time we held a giveaway we were in our start-up phase and it was national coworking day! The goal of that giveaway was brand awareness
2. THERE’S PRIZES!?!
It may seem obvious, but this is a really important step! Make sure your prize is something your audience will think is totally awesome. The idea is that by choosing a prize that appeals to your followers and target market so you attract awesome people to enter. Don’t go crazy – pick something reasonable and interesting to your ideal audience.
3. KISS – KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID
Now you need rules. I know, I know…BORING. This can really impact the amount of people who end up entering. Too many rules may cause your audience to keep scrolling! Instead, you want to make sure your giveaway instructions are short and simple to follow.
The most common Instagram giveaway rules require all participants to follow you, like the giveaway post, & tag a friend in the comments. Stick with something similar. Don’t forget to let them know when you’ll be choosing a winner.
After deciding your rules, type them out clearly underneath your giveaway post so people know exactly what they have to do to win. Following that, you are required by Instagram to include a disclaimer stating that your contest is in no way affiliated with or sponsored by Instagram (read Instagram’s promotion guidelines here).
4. SHORT & SWEET
When deciding on a length for your Instagram giveaway, don’t assume the longer it lasts the more people will enter. Limited time offers are hot for a reason – because they give your audience a sense of urgency. Try 3-7 days. If you’ve already got a highly engaged audience, a 24 hour contest can be great, too!
5. SPREAD THE WORD!
Simply creating a post for your Instagram giveaway may attract some entrants but if you really want it to reach the widest range of people you have to get serious about promotion! Here’s a few things to consider:
∙ Make mention of your giveaway before it happens. Let your audience know something big is coming their way to build anticipation, excitement and have them watching your feed for new posts!
∙ Utilize Stories before, during, and after the contest to keep your audience aware and interested.
∙ Send an email to your list to tell them about the giveaway and encourage even more entries.
∙ Share the giveaway to any other social platforms you’re active on, such as your Facebook page or Twitter!
6.WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINER
Once your Instagram giveaway has ended, you’ll need to pick a winner. Collect all the entrants (copy & paste usernames, tally the total likes, export your newest subscribers, etc) then put them into a random generator like this to find your winner.
Once a winner is selected, verify that they’ve followed all the rules and contact them to give them their prize! Then you should announce the winner – if you fail to do this people may think that no one actually won and that can reflect poorly on you, so don’t forget this step!
7. #CHOOSEATAG
Just like with regular Instagram posts, you want to carefully consider the hashtags you’re choosing for your Instagram giveaway. Using hashtags like #giveaway or #contest are a bad idea because they attract people who are entering any giveaway they can find. These people are not likely to be your target market and probably won’t stick around for the long run.
There you go! Some tips for hosting a successful Instagram Giveaway! I hope you feel better equipped and ready to tackle your next contest! Want to try coworking for a free for one month?! Go enter our IG giveaway, and show us how awesome you are by hosting your own! Don’t forget to tag #coworkyxcgives so we can give you a week of free coworking!