If you haven’t seen a creator hosting a giveaway of some kind while scrolling through your Instagram feed then consider yourself lucky. Social giveaways have been a ‘thing’ on social media for a while but have recently picked up in scale and creativity over the last 18 months. Naturally, that has lead to more and more creators looking to host their own giveaways and we received numerous questions on the topic:
“Should I be running a giveaway?”
“Does it hurt my organic reach?”
“Will Instagram ban me?”
“What prizes should I give away?”
So today we will dive in and try to answer all them all!
The OG Giveaway
Giveaways or sweepstakes have been around for quite some time, with some dating back to the 1930s. Publisher’s Clearing House made them even more popular during the 1960s as they were one of the first companies to run TV commercials promoting their sweepstakes. Today’s typical giveaway is quite different than those nearly 100 years ago mainly because of social media. The ability to enter a giveaway with one click and then have entrants share that entry to all their friends changed the game.
The Kardashian Effect
Like a number of things they touch, the Kardashian effect has had a dramatic impact on how giveaways are constructed, executed, and perceived by the public. A number of critics have come out and said their giveaways are fake (they are not) and overall bad for the creator economy. While we don’t fully agree with their style of giveaway or the mechanics behind it, their ability to create virality and drive tens of thousands of entrants is undeniable. According to our research, Kylie Jenner’s November 2020 giveaway was the most liked sponsored post of the year with over 10.3 million likes and 400,000 comments.
What are the benefits?
The benefits of running a giveaway can vary from exposure to follower growth or engagement, so we asked a number of creators why they hosted one and the top answer was follower growth. While a follower bump is always nice, we feel that audience engagement should be looked at as the #1 benefit from running any type of giveaway. Getting entrants to engage with more than one piece of content during a contest will pay dividends down the road for your future content.
Are there any negatives? As mentioned at the beginning of this article, we get a lot of questions asking about the possible downsides of running a giveaway. The short answer is yes. For example, if the giveaway is set up incorrectly without the proper disclaimers, your post can be flagged by social networks. We have also seen a number of giveaways where the prizes simply don’t resonate with the audience or the giveaway was over-promoted and the creator received some backlash.
Our advice is here is to make sure you put thought into the giveaway. Don’t rush it. Don’t half-ass it. Don’t run a giveaway just because other creators are running one. Know what your objective is and build the giveaway around it.
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What makes a good giveaway?
We have studied 100s of giveaways across Instagram, TikTok, Youtube and Twitter and learned that there are 3 key elements of each giveaway:
Host (who is promoting the giveaway)
Prize (what’s being given away)
Distribution (how easy is it to enter/share)
All 3 are equally important and if you can execute on all of them you will have a successful campaign.
The Host
The host is the one element that you can’t really change because it’s you! With that said, a new trend has emerged where creators are teaming up to run a single giveaway together. This is smart as cross-collaboration will drive the organic reach of the campaign up and increase the chances of virality, especially if the group of creators has larger followings (1m+).
Another tactic we recommend is engaging with entrants after they enter the giveaway. This can be done in a couple of different ways:
Liking and Commenting. Once fans start entering the giveaway, make sure you interact with their comments. This will send a push notification to the entrant and can drive them back to the post to engage/share again.
Personalized Follow-Ups. After a fan enters the giveaway, send a personalized email (make sure you are collecting emails!). This could just be a simple message or get creative and film a short video thanking them for entering.
Additional Creators. Collaboration is key with giveaways. Having entrants share the post is a standard technique but the majority will have small followings. You want to have other established creators comment and/or share the giveaway content to tap into their followings.
The Prize
This is often the most overlooked part of the giveaway. A lot of creators simply default to giving away some cash or Amazon gift cards and just like any trend on social media, it gets old quickly. The prize(s) should resonate with the audience and be something that they can’t go out and buy easily. That doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be expensive, as a prize that is unique or hard to come by can be equally attractive to possible entrants. Keep in mind that it doesn't have to be a physical product, fans love experiences.
Here are some of the best giveaway prizes we have seen recently:
Teslas (wow factor + expensive, David Dobrik has done this a few times)
PS5 (trendy + scarcity)
Xbox Series X (trendy + scarcity)
Pre-Paid Subscriptions (experience, Blue Bottle does this well)
Meet & Greets (experience)
Autographed Products (scarcity)
Prize + Charity (feel good, Dobrik’s voter registration campaign)
Distribution
How the giveaway is constructed can make or break the campaign. You can have the best prizes in the world but if you make entrants jump through hoops to register or don’t promote them properly, you can be left with an underwhelming campaign. Floyd Mayweather has done this a number of times w/ his cash giveaways.
Here’s a quick breakdown of distribution dos and dont’s:
Do’s
Make entry easy (3 steps maximum)
Collect emails or account registrations
Incentivize entrants to promote the giveaway
Make it easy to share (one click or tap)
Release multiple pieces of different content promoting the giveaway
Send updates with winners or additional prizes
Post non-giveaway content during the campaign
Dont’s
Make entrants follow 4-5 different accounts
Make entrants share specific content. Let them be creative!
Short Time Frame. Giveaways should last at least a week to maximize exposure.
Post only giveaway content. This will annoy your fans and limit giveaway entrants.
The goal of the distribution is to keep as many eyeballs on the giveaway as possible. You want all the entrants to interact with multiple pieces of content throughout the giveaway. This will create a habit and increase the chances of the entrants following you and engaging with your content after the campaign has ended.
Conclusion
Giveaways can be an excellent tool to drive new followers, reengage with your audience and increase overall engagement if done correctly. Hosting a giveaway just to add a few hundred new followers will end up doing more harm than good. So just like normal content, a giveaway campaign needs to be thought out with a specific goal in mind.
If you are thinking about running a giveaway in the near future, I hope this article helps. If you have any questions, feel free to comment below.
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