How to Create a Social Media Contest

Running a social media contest is one of the most effective ways to accelerate your growth, boost your engagement, and build a genuine connection with your audience. Done right, a great contest can completely change the trajectory of your accounts. This guide provides you with a complete step-by-step playbook for launching a successful social media contest, from setting clear goals to measuring the results.

Step 1: Set a Clear Goal for Your Contest

Before you even think about prizes or hashtags, you need to answer one simple question: What do I want to achieve with this contest? Starting without a goal is like going on a road trip without a destination. You’ll be busy, but you won't end up anywhere meaningful. Your goal will influence every other decision you make, including the type of contest you run and the prize you offer.

Common goals for social media contests include:

• Follower Growth: The classic objective. Contests are fantastic for attracting new eyeballs and encouraging follows.
• Increased Engagement: If your posts are seeing fewer likes and comments, a contest can reignite the conversation and get your audience interacting again.
• User-Generated Content (UGC): A smart goal is to have your audience create content for you. Photo and video contests can supply you with a backlog of authentic, high-quality content to repost for weeks or months.
• Website Traffic and Leads: Want to get people to visit a specific landing page or product listing? A contest can be the perfect incentive.
• Email List Growth: By making email signup a requirement for entry, you can turn social media followers into leads you own directly.

Get specific with your goal. Instead of "get more followers," aim for "increase Instagram followers by 20% over the two-week contest period." This makes it much easier to measure success later on.

Step 2: Pick the Perfect Contest Type for Your Goal

Now that you have your goal, you can select a contest format that helps you achieve it. There are several popular types, each with its own advantages.

Simple Sweepstakes (Like, Comment, Follow &, Share)

This is the most common format because it's so easy for people to enter. The low barrier to entry makes it perfect for maximizing reach and growing your follower count quickly.

• Best For: Follower growth, increasing reach, and boosting engagement on a specific post.
• How it Works: Participants must follow your account, like the contest post, and sometimes share it to their Story or tag friends in the comments. Each tag often counts as an extra entry, encouraging viral spread.

User-Generated Content (UGC) Contests

A UGC contest asks your followers to create and share their own content featuring your product, a specific theme, or your brand in some creative way. It has a higher barrier to entry but comes with huge rewards.

• Best For: Sourcing authentic marketing material, building community, and deepening brand loyalty.
• How it Works: Ask users to post a photo or video using a specific product, a creative shot related to your brand, or a testimonial. They must use a unique contest hashtag and tag your account to enter. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok are perfect for this.
• Example: A camera brand might ask users to submit their best landscape shot taken with their camera, using #BrandNameLandscapes for a chance to win new gear.

Skills-Based Contests (Quizzes, Trivia, &, Challenges)

This type of contest asks participants to use their knowledge or creativity to win, making it more engaging than a simple lucky draw.

• Best For: Educating your audience about your brand, highlighting product features, and engaging your most devoted fans.
• How it Works: You can run a "caption this photo" contest, ask a trivia question related to your industry in your Stories, or have users answer a riddle. The best or correct answers win.

Step 3: Choose a Prize That Motivates Your Audience

The prize is the engine of your contest. If the prize is uninspired, so will be the participation. A great prize is highly desirable to your target audience but is also directly related to your brand.

A common mistake is offering a generic, high-value prize like an iPad or a huge Amazon gift card. While tempting, these prizes attract "prize hunters" who have no interest in your business. They will enter, grab the prize, and unfollow you immediately after the contest ends, tanking your engagement rate.

Instead, focus on prizes that your ideal customer would love:

• Your Own Products or Services: The best option. Offer a popular product, a new collection, or a "behind-the-scenes" experience. This ensures that every person who enters is actually interested in what you sell.
• Generous Gift Cards to Your Store: A $250 gift card to your own e-commerce shop is a fantastic prize. It’s a high enough value to get excited about and it drives a winner back to your business.
• Partnered Prizes: Team up with a complementary, non-competing brand to offer a prize bundle. This is a great way to cross-promote and expose your brand to another business's audience. A yoga apparel brand could partner with a yoga mat company, for example.

The perceived value of the prize should match the effort you're asking for. A "Like & Comment" contest can have a smaller prize than a UGC contest that requires significant user effort.

Step 4: Write Clear and Simple Contest Rules

Ambiguity is the enemy of a successful contest. Clear rules protect you legally, prevent a flood of confused DMs, and let everyone know exactly what they need to do to enter. Most social media platforms also have their own rules you need to follow, so be sure to check their specific guidelines.

In your contest post, include the following:

• Entry Method: State exactly what users need to do. Be direct: "1. Follow us @YourHandle. 2. Like this post. 3. Tag a friend in the comments below (unlimited entries!)."
• Contest Duration: List the exact start and end dates and times, including the time zone (e.g., "The contest closes on Friday, October 27th, at 11:59 PM EST.").
• Eligibility: Mention any restrictions, like age (18+) or location (e.g., "Open to U.S. residents only.").
• Winner Selection Process: Explain how and when the winner will be chosen. "A winner will be chosen at random on Monday, October 30th and announced in our Stories."
• Mandatory Legal Disclaimer: You must state that your promotion isn't affiliated with the platform. A simple sentence works: "This giveaway is not sponsored, endorsed, or administered by, or associated with Instagram."

Step 5: Design Eye-catching Graphics and Compelling Copy

Your contest needs to stop the scroll. In a busy feed, you have seconds to capture someone's attention. Invest time in creating a high-quality visual and punchy copy.

Visuals That Pop

• Use a clear, bold image or a short, energetic video (especially for Reels and TikTok). The creative should scream "Contest!"
• Prominently feature the word GIVEAWAY or CONTEST in text overlay.
• Visually showcase the prize. If you're giving away a product bundle, professionally photograph it or create a beautiful graphic. People get excited by what they can see.

Copy That Converts

• Start with a hook. Lead with the prize to grab immediate attention. Emojis can help here: ✨ G I V E A W A Y T I M E ! ✨
• Be clear and concise. Lay out your rules in a numbered list or with bullet points for maximum readability.
• Build excitement and scarcity. Mention the value of the prize ("Win a product bundle valued at over $500!") and remind them of the deadline ("Don't miss out! Contest ends Friday!").

Step 6: Promote Your Contest Across All Channels

Don't assume everyone will see a single contest post. A robust promotion plan is what separates a decent contest from a viral one. Think of it as a mini-marketing campaign.

• Promote on The Host Platform: Announce the contest multiple times. Post on your feed, and then use Stories with countdown stickers to create urgency. Change the link in your bio to direct traffic to the contest post.
• Cross-Promote on Other Networks: Let your followers on other platforms know about the contest. For example, Tweet a link to your Instagram giveaway post or announce it in a Facebook Group.
• Email Your List: Your email subscribers are your most engaged audience. Send them a dedicated email about the giveaway to drive high-quality participation.
• Feature it On Your Website: Add a banner or a pop-up to your homepage announcing the contest and linking to the social post.
• Consider Paid Ads: If you have the budget, putting a small amount of ad spend behind your contest post can help you reach a highly targeted new audience outside of your existing followers.

Step 7: Fairly Select and Announce the Winner

This is where you build trust. Never extend a contest deadline without a good reason, and always announce the winner when you promised you would.

How to Select the Winner

For a random-draw contest (like a sweepstakes), fairness is everything. Don’t just scroll through and pick a name you like. Use a trusted, third-party tool to select a winner randomly from the comments. Many free Random Comment Picker tools are available online for exactly this purpose.

For skill-based or UGC contests, make your judging process as transparent as possible. If it's a photo contest, you might assemble a small panel of judges from your team. Entries should be judged based on pre-announced criteria like creativity, originality, and adherence to the theme.

How to Announce the Winner

Announce the winner publicly on the platform you ran the contest on. A great way to do this is with a celebratory Instagram Story where you tag the winning account. You can also edit the caption on the original contest post to announce the winner. After a public announcement, always reach out to the winner via DM to privately gather their shipping information.

Step 8: Measure Your Results and See What You've Learned

Your contest isn’t truly over until you’ve analyzed its performance. Go back to the goal you set in Step 1 and see how you did. Track these key metrics:

• Follower Growth: How many new followers did you gain during the contest?
• Engagement Rate: Calculate the engagement rate on your contest posts. How does it compare to your average posts?
• Reach and Impressions: How many people saw your contest?
• Shared Content: How many times was your post shared to Stories or saved?
• Website Clicks: How much traffic did your website receive from social media during the campaign?
• UGC Submissions: How many pieces of content were created using your hashtag?

Evaluating this data will give you valuable insights. You'll learn what types of contests and prizes resonate most with your audience, which will make your next one even more of a smash hit.

Final Thoughts

By defining your goals, picking a prize your audience genuinely wants, and promoting your event effectively, you can run a social media contest that creates tangible buzz and delivers powerful, measurable results for your brand.

Executing a contest involves many moving parts, from planning the launch to responding to an influx of comments. We use Postbase to streamline this entire process for our own campaigns. We map out all our promotional content on the visual calendar, schedule announcements for different platforms like TikTok and Instagram simultaneously, and manage all the contest-related comments in one centralized inbox. It helps keep our team organized and sane during an otherwise chaotic (but fun!) campaign.