Social Media Power | A Fun Little Instagram Thingamajigger: The Chain Giveaway

Grow Followers on Instagram with a Chain Giveaway

I am not totally Instagram passionate ... I don't keep my account well branded and I share totally random sh*t ... there are photos of my kids on the day they were born, photos of my favorite ice-cream, many many photos of coffee, and of course wedding stuff ... not sure why I'm not gung ho about growing followers on IG ... just never been my thing.  Even the blog editors who have me help run their social media have asked: and what do you want to do for my Instagram account ... I'm honest and basically say: I can totally do it, but it's not where my passion and gumption lie ... again, just not my thing.

>> BUT!!!!! <<

I do have one little tip I can pass onto you lovely wedding industry readers ... an Instagram gem I am very excited about ... and it's called: 

>> The Instagram Chain Giveaway <<

I'm sure you've seen these ... giveaways on Instagram where you keep clicking and following and clicking and following until you have come FULL CIRCLE back to where you started?  Hoping to win the cash and prizes that are promised to the lucky winner(s).  I myself have been included in 2 of these and they really are fun!  Here's how you do it:

  • Get together a group of 10 wedding professionals ... more than this and you'll start to really annoy people and they won't play to the end
  • Figure out your prize ... are you a group of local wedding pros doing a wedding giveaway in your area?  are you all blog editors who want to pool together $500 for the winner to spend at Nordstrom << I'd enter that in a jiffy!!!  Make it a prize that your target market will WANT.
  • Figure out who in your group has mad skills in photoshop design ... you will need a graphic that shows what you are giving away that is attention grabby and it will need to be designed in a 650 x 650 pixel square shape - below is an example of one that was used by a group of wedding bloggers 
NOTE: this is not a giveaway, only an example of a graphic to use in an Instagram giveaway ... I don't not have a $500 gift card to BHLDN to give you ;)

NOTE: this is not a giveaway, only an example of a graphic to use in an Instagram giveaway ... I don't not have a $500 gift card to BHLDN to give you ;)

  • Establish a day and time to launch your giveaway ... everyone needs to publish their Instagram post on the SAME day and the SAME time for this to truly work.
  • Come up with the text ... here is some example text I used in one of mine:

We are giving away XYZ to 1 lucky winner!  It's a chain giveaway and the details are below!  Giveaway ends on XYZ and the winner will be announced on XYZ! #CreateAHashtagForYourGiveaway

1. Like the photo above by double clicking to see the heart
2. Tap this photo once to see who is tagged & click to go to their account! Continue by liking their giveaway photo, following the account tagged in their photo, and continuing to the next tagged user!
3. Keep liking and following until you've made your way back here!
4. Be sure you are following ALL (number of accounts involved here) accounts to be eligible to win!

  • Figure out the 'circle' of tags ... each person needs to tag ONE of the other accounts in the actual graphic/photo.  This needs to create the circle or CHAIN for the giveaway ... so if @A tags in @B then @B tags in @C and then @C tags in @D and if @D is the last account, they tag in @A 
  • Pick a winner when it's over ... once the giveaway has ended and you have your entries, someone needs to have the awesome task of counting all of the entries and putting them all in a pool and drawing one winner at random.  Then of course, notify that winner and voila!!  You just did a chain Instagram giveaway!!

** for this to work EVERYONE needs to use the same graphic, the same text, and launch at the same time on the same day ... it needs to be uniform :)

I haven't seen this done yet for a local group of wedding pros, but I think it could work REALLY well!! Come up with an awesome prize for a local bride that includes wedding invitations, a bouquet, coordination services for the day-of, an engagement photo session, an appetizer for the reception << things that will create an interest in hiring you for MORE, but gives them incentive enough to want to enter ... could be fun!!  Each wedding pro involved can email blast and blog it ... and you can come up with some great local hashtags to make sure it receives interest from the right area!  Comment below if you decide to do this and leave your Instagram handle so I can come promote it for you too!!

XO~ Heather

InstagramHeather SharpeSocial Media1 Comment