How To Promote Contests Using Instagram Stories:

Social Media plays a very important role in today’s date. There used to be a time when people had the space and mind set to sit under a tree and talk to other friends and discuss everything under the sun. With evolution of time and lifestyle, today people have moved out to different places of the world. It is difficult to stay in touch every day. This is why social media is helpful. Instagram is one such social media application that is trending nowadays. You can use Instagram to do a number of things. Before we go on to Instagram stories, let us take a look at how it works.

How does Instagram work?

• Instagram is a free social app that is available on Android and IOS. You can also use it online without installing the app.
• Once you have entered Instagram home page, you will be asked to sign up if you are new to Instagram. Here, you need to give your basic information and you get to make your own profile on Instagram.
• Once you have a profile, you can follow different people, pages and groups. You can also allow other people and groups to follow you. This way, you increase your connections on Instagram. You can like different posts and also upload your own posts which include uploading of photographs, videos and stories.

What is Instagram stories?

This is one feature of Instagram where you can upload pictures, photographs, posts and videos. The fun lies in the fact that they will disappear after twenty-four hours. It appears on the top part of your Instagram home page. Generally, when your friend or any group you are following posts something new, you will see a ring around it. You can tap on the story to take a look inside. Once you get into a particular story, you can either go through the whole post or just tap on it to go to the next story.

How to make stories on Instagram?

• It is rather easy to make an Instagram story. You can go to the first option on the top part on the left hand. You will find a plus sign. And you need to click on that to start making your story.
• Now your camera will open. So, you can either click a photo or make a video. Once you are done doing that, you get a number of filters to edit it in order to make it look attractive.
• These filters include color filters, shades, different fonts with which you can write something on your story. You can also include emoticons and small designs on your stories.
• You can also check who all have seen your story. Just swipe your story up and you will be able to see who all have liked it or commented on it.

How to promote contests using Instagram stories?

Instagram stories are one of the most popular ways of gaining followers these days. You can also get the right number and kind of people in the contest if you plan to promote it through Instagram. Let us take a look at how it can be done.

You need to make an announcement on Instagram:

It is very important that your first look is perfect. Always remember that people will look at the picture before reading what is in it. Make a great poster that is attractive, using a catchy headline with small details. Don’t drag it unnecessarily. You can use hashtags to make it trend on Instagram. Ask your participants to follow your page for more updates and like your stories, comment if they are interested.

The next thing you need to do is provide the link for your contest. This link would consist of all the basic information and rules of your contest. Now, you should know that links cannot be given on Instagram stories. Hence, you have to post in on your profile. However, you can use stories to keep people informed that they would find the link in the profile.

Once you are done putting up your contest details and procedure, you need to make it more popular. Marketing is the most important part of any contest if you need more and more people to participate in it. You can use Instagram stories and other social media as well to promote your contest. It is cool how any Instagram post on Instagram is visible on Facebook pages as well. You can promote your contest using those.

Once you are done using that, you can start updating your followers and participants on the new and recent updates. You can also guide your participants regarding the important dates and deadlines of your contest. They should have a story or stories every day regarding the contest. You should remember the out of sight out of mind concept. If participants don’t see any follow up, they are going to forget about your contest any way. You will have a lot of competition as a number of groups have a lot of contests on a daily basis. You have to do out of the box marketing things to get your followers to stick to your page.

Instagram has voting polls whereby people can vote for you. You can put up stories and ideas. People can vote for these stories. This way you get a good feedback regarding your contest. You can change or improvise accordingly.

The next step would be to ask your participants to get involved in making the contest a success. This would include sharing pages, hashtags and photos or videos with different friends and contacts. Ask and encourage your participants to share your contest. You can also keep some incentive if they do this.

Use other social medias and Instagram to post things about your participants:

For example, if you have a musical contest, you can upload the videos of some of your participants. You can also display their work. This will encourage the new people to apply for the contest. The ones that are already there will be happy regarding this.

You can use publicity campaigns on Instagram. Instagram has features whereby you can advertise your contests online on the app itself. These are premium adds and will give you a lot of exposure.

Don’t give up your followers after the contest is done: you should always remember that contests will come and go, but the contacts you are making are going to stay with you forever. Make your contest happening and once they are over, have follow up sessions with your participants. This might involve thanking your participants or encouraging them to participate in new contests.

Instagram is great as far as contests and programs are concerned. This makes sure that you get a good amount of customer coverage which is manually impossible. This makes sure that you don’t need to work hard. You can just work smart and get the maximum out of it. However, make sure you don’t market or promote your contests blindly. This is when the privacy settings come into picture. Use these features mindfully and you will end up doing some good business using the free social platform, Instagram.