Are you looking for ideas for Halloween Instagram contests? Want to build some momentum for your brand going into the even bigger November and December holidays?
An Instagram hashtag contest is the way to go.
Instagram and hashtags go together like Stephen King and It, and adding a contest to the mix can make your marketing efforts scary effective. Instagram contests are entertaining, but they also motivate people to follow and engage with your business – and perhaps promote your products and services too.
In this post, we’ll look at three ideas for Instagram hashtag contests that’ll grab your fans’ attention.
1. Basic hashtag contest
To run a hashtag contest, all you have to do is ask people to post an image on Instagram and include your branded hashtag in the caption. That’s it.
Once they post, they’re entered to win. If you’re using a software tool you can collect all the entries in a database and use a random entry picker tool to choose the winner. If not, you pick a winner randomly. Just be sure to spell out in your bio, or on your rules page, how the winner will be chosen (here’s a template you can use to post rules.)
As you formulate the posts encouraging people to enter, make sure to also include several industry-related hashtags in your captions. Hashtags help you gain access to a wider audience.
Not sure which hashtags to use? Research popular hashtags that’ll help people find your business and contest, and include a couple of them.
Here’s an example of a simple hashtag contest – notice how the caption clearly communicates what people need to do to enter, and how the nightclub also asks people to follow their account.
2. Selfie or product promotion contest
For a selfie contest, you ask your followers to post a photo of them using or posing with your product. The goal is to get people to show off your product and your business’ name/logo in fun and creative ways.
The sky’s the limit with this one – you could ask your followers to pose with your product in unique locales, or if selfies aren’t your style, you could ask them to show off an alternative use for your product.
With this type of hashtag contest, there’s a good chance you’ll see some fantastic user-generated content (UGC) that you’ll want to use for your own marketing at some point down the road. Make sure you’re using a software tool that helps you request rights and secure explicit permission to use the content so you’re building a library of photos (and video) at the same time you’re capturing your fans’ attention.
3. Voting contest
Costume contests are everywhere during the month of October, but how about a contest for people who don’t dress up? Like a fall home-decorating contest, or a recipe contest that asks people to show off their pumpkin-preparation prowess?
For this type of promotion, you might ask people to submit their favorite pumpkin recipe, accompanied by a photo. You then collect and display the entries on a landing page and determine the winner by number of votes.
As with the selfie contest described above, a voting contest that collects user-generated content could bring you a rich collection of photos and/or video you could use in future marketing – but again, make sure you have rights to use it.
Get started with Halloween Instagram contests
Instagram and Halloween were made for each other, and there’s still plenty of time to think about ways your business can scare up some enthusiasm from your customers and followers.
Hopefully these ideas will help get you thinking.
This article was originally published on Social Media Today.