The Best Ideas for a Holiday Instagram Contest

If you’re looking to ramp up your company’s Instagram following and grow brand awareness simultaneously, there’s still time to run a holiday promotion! Take a cue from some successful companies and put our tips into practice and you’ll be up and running before the stockings are hung by the children with care…

How about a few real-life examples to get the ideas flowing? Swarovski is currently running an Instagram promotion, asking people to photograph a gift box, tell a story of the special gift inside it and tag their photo with #Moments2Give. Swarovski will be able to search Instagram for the hashtag and choose the winner when the contest is over. The winner will receive something sparkly and of course, Swarovski.

Hot Toys ran a promotion that incorporated Instagram video. To enter, customers created videos using a Hot Toys figures from 2013, posted the videos on Instagram and tag them #hottoys2013xmas. Hot Toys chose first, second and third place winners, as well as honorable mentions, and awarded them with even more Hot Toys collectibles.

So, ready to think about your own holiday contest for Instagram? Here are a few tips that will get you on the right path.

‘Tis the Season

Whether you sell products or services, you could have your followers take a photo of themselves or your product under the mistletoe, or sitting on Santa’s lap. Or, you could ask people to submit photos of their outdoor lights? Just make sure that you’re asking them to tag their photos with something unique that possibly includes your business name, or a version of it.

Holiday Hunt

Tell your followers that you’ll be posting a series of photos, and then give them a list of holiday items to look for in your photos. Ask people to like your photos when they see one of these items show up in your images. For example, tell people to look for Santa or one of his elves, to pop up every now and then. Award prizes to random entrants who’ve liked the appropriate photos.

Virtual Catalog

When a customer purchases one of your products, encourage them to snap a photo or, better yet, create an Instagram video of them using it. Then ask them to tag it with a very specific tag and post it to Instagram. Your customer enters and also shows all of his or her followers what you offer and how it’s used. This not only gets more people to learn about your business through Instagram, but also potentially gets them to purchase your product in order to enter the contest.

A Few Reminders

Keep in mind that no matter what kind of promotion you run, the prize needs to be worth your followers’ while. Choose something relevant to the season and relevant to the effort they’ll put forth to enter. Not sure you can get a contest up and running before Christmas? Don’t sweat! Capitalize on all that downtime people will have to browse Instagram after opening presents and traveling and extend your contest through the New Year!