The following excerpt is from Kim Walsh Phillips’s book Ultimate Guide to Instagram for Business. Buy it now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound
When it comes to social media, the number-one reason most use it is for entertainment and a momentary escape from reality. To tap into this audience behavior, try gamification on your Instagram account. Getting your community involved in a contest is an effective way to build your market and brand message.
Once you have an idea of what type of contest you want to run, the next step is to actually run the contest. Running a contest on Instagram involves:
1. Tell me what you want, what you really, really want: Establishing your objectives.
Set your objectives and know what you hope to gain from the contest. Do you want to get more followers? Build brand awareness or create brand loyalty? Do you want a specific number of mentions or a certain amount of user-submitted content? The more specific you are with your objectives, the more likely you’ll see positive results.
2. Bam! Hashtag it up.
Create a new hashtag for your contest, or use one that’s also being used by one of your competitors or a popular national brand. See what contests your competitors are currently running to get an idea of what seems to be resonating with your desired audience. Take a look at other Instagram contests to get a feel for current trends.
3. Seniors with unicycles? Define your market/audience.
Tap into your demographics to get a better idea of who’s likely to participate in your contest and whether Instagram is really the right social platform for your contest. Ninety percent of those who use this platform are under 35 years old, with most users falling within the ages of 25 to 34, followed…