10 tips to win more prizes on Instagram
Instagram is a mobile app that still isn’t widely used by a lot of compers – which means the prize draws and competitions don’t usually get many entries! I’ve won lots of prizes using Instagram, including flights to New York, £1000 Selfridges vouchers and a lovely new Olympus camera.
Here are my top tips for winning prizes on Instagram…
1. Take photos of everything!
Regular Instagram winners are people who share their own original photos – rather than just regrams. Get into the habit of taking photos of everything. Selfies, meals, sunsets, family moments… if your dinner, shoes, hair or outfit looks amazing, snap a photo – you never know when you’ll need it. Don’t be afraid to share lots of everyday moments – crop them cleverly, add filters and you’ll be surprised how Instagram can bring a dull photo to life. You don’t need to upload all your photos to Instagram though – you might want to save them on your phone, and wait for just the right competition!
2. Learn from the pros
Some Instagram photos are incredibly beautiful, and will inspire you for your own competition entries. Click hashtags to browse photos on a theme – try #travel, #landscape, #beautiful, or #instafood – and use them to style your own shots. Food photography looks good when you take the photo from directly overhead. For travel photography check out the gorgeous @worldwanderlust photos. A #flatlay of objects looks professional and beautiful and can really stand out…
3. Find and follow compers
Checking what other compers do is a great way to find competitions. To find other compers, simply click competition hashtags and tap on an entry in the results, then tap the sharer’s username. You’ll also see compers commenting on photos and can tap to visit their profile from there – follow them, or save a link to their profile as a browser bookmark. If you follow a user, you can ‘get notifications’ every time they post. Tap Following on a user’s profile page, then tap notifications – you can choose to be notified when they post a new photo or story (you can also use this for companies that run regular comps, so you don’t miss out!). Compers share a lot of competitions to their stories, so when you visit their profile make sure to tap and view their stories.
Most Instagram non-creative prize draws now require at least one friend to be tagged, so find yourself a handful of comping friends who you can tag in giveaways, and who will return the favour. If you’re on Facebook, join my Lucky Learners group and post on the Comping Friends album to find some local friends to tag.
3. Be an active follower
If you’re regularly liking and commenting on a company’s Instagram page, they’ll know you’re a fan. If you use their products, wear their clothes or visit their venue, be sure to tag them in your photo or story. Companies like to reward their fans and followers, and a competition prize is a great way to do it.
4. Ensure your profile looks good
A promoter might pop to your profile before deciding if you’re a winner – so make sure it looks good. Upload a photo and an interesting bio. Don’t share too many regram photos at once – end your comping session by uploading some original, attractive content – those are the photos people see first when they check out your profile. Enter regram photos sparingly and delete regrams from your profile as soon as the winner is announced (if the winner is announced – the lack of public announcements is a gripe many Instagram compers have!). You might want to pin some non-comping story highlights across the top of your profile too – eg. favourite travel or food photos.
5. Do a search
Unfortunately, you can only search for one Instagram hashtag at a time. Try using #competition if you’re in the UK, #contest for the US – or #giveaway works internationally, and #win or #prize might also give you results (you can search at www.instagram.com too). It might seem time-consuming at first, but you’ll soon learn to quickly swipe through the results looking for prize photos or the word ‘win’ – you can find some really low entry giveaways doing this. You can also follow a hashtag to see it on your feed – handy if you want to track entries to a competition!
In 2020 you can now search for multiple words on Instagram – you will need to choose from suggested results, so it won’t work with everything you try, but if you try searching for the word competition with various other words you might get lucky! Check the search results carefully though – brand new giveaways are interspersed with some from months (or even years!) ago.
6. Upload old photos
Instagram gives a new lease of life to old prints and digital photos – especially for Christmas, Mothers Day and Fathers Day competitions. Look through old photo albums and boxes and take photos or scan your favourites. When the right competition theme comes up, upload them to Instagram and add filters to make them look even more vintage.
7. Enter as late as you dare!
With Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest competitions, entries should be public so promoters can track them. That means other compers can easily follow your every move, waiting to copy you! Get organised and save your giveaways to dated collections, then enter on the closing date. Entering Instagram comps at the last minute gives your followers very little time to make a last minute entry of their own, and also means your entry will have prime position at the top of the recent search results…
8. Use Twitter and Google to find low entry Instagram competitions
Most companies tweet about their Instagram accounts, or automatically tweet their Instagram content. Use Twitter advanced search at www.twitter.com/search-advanced – try combining Instagram with words like win, share, upload, story, competition, or prize. When you get the results, make sure to select Latest to see the most recent tweets. Save the search by clicking More Options > Save Search and you can choose it as an option any time you start typing in the Twitter search box. Tweetdeck is also a great tool for multiple searches. Use Google search too, and tailor it to look for the same word combinations.
9. Check out the competition
Hashtag promotions are excellent for compers, because by tapping the hashtag you can see at a glance how many entries there are. If it’s a competition where entrants upload their own photos on a theme, you’ll also be able to get an idea of what you’re up against and can tailor your own entry accordingly. Do all the results look similar? What can you do to make YOUR photo stand out amongst them?
10. Add filters, GIFs and emojis
Instagram filters can make almost anything look great! Use the filters and the other settings on old digital and printed photographs to give them a new lease of life. If you hate selfies, use filters to increase contrast and fade out those wrinkles – the black and white ones work nicely! I like to use Instagram filters on photos that I want to upload to websites, Facebook or Twitter too. To do this – turn your phone onto ‘flight mode’ in the settings, then upload a photo to Instagram, add filters and share as usual. Because there’s no 4G or WiFi, you’ll get an error message, but the retouched photo will be saved into your camera roll/gallery. Then turn flight mode off and tweet it or upload it elsewhere!
When sharing giveaway posts to your story, add GIFs, emojis and text to make your entry stand out!
Finally, make sure you log in to Instagram as often as you can to check your message inbox and activity – you wouldn’t want to miss out on a prize notification! If a winner has been announced in an Instagram story, you’ll only be able to view that story for 24 hours so you really need to be checking your inbox daily!
Instagram bans are common, so check my tips on how to avoid an Instagram ban.
You might receive a winning message from someone you don’t follow – tap the paper plane icon to go to your inbox, and check for a message request bar at the top of the screen. You’ll need to accept the message in order to reply. But please beware of the profile cloning scams before you respond or give any personal details!
Enjoyed this post? You might like these too:
- 10 tips to win more prizes on Facebook
- 10 tips to win more prizes on Twitter
- How to find Instagram competitions
Have you had much success with Instagram competitions? Tell me in the comments!
Hi do you get eliminated if you use two linked accounts to enter one comp on Instagram? Isnt that cheating? I’ve heard a few persons using this trick. Not sure if it works or eliminates your entries entirely!
Certainly, cheating on Instagram can work in that using multiple accounts will increase your chance of winning – but it’s not ethical! There’s no way that the software that picks Instagram winners would know the entries from different usernames came from the same person.
Yes, Thank you for confirming!
Hi, Can I ask a question again about giveaway I am new follow you might be able to give me advice. I joined one of sweepstake giveaway and there instructions was Method of entry to have Instagram profiles set to public follow there Instagram and all the accounts that the Host Instagram account is following during the promotional period. Entrants can obtain a bonus entry by registering their details for double chance draw to sign up to there milling list via there website/page/bonusentry. And there is permit limit of two entries per natural person. Multiple entries will be deleted without notice. This influencer giveaway content is usually running up the campaign for 3 days but there will be announced the winner in the next seven day. What should I do to get more chance to win and follow the right restrictions do I need to enter two time like there says on the main post and do one bonus entry by registering milling via email and no more comments than two. The giveaway is open worldwide I have been followed there giveaway on Instagram for a few years now but I never thought it was real until I saw real people won there prizes on social media and on there website the giveaway also have two campaigns in every month that all the details. Thanks
Hi, I have a question and need you help with the answer. If the giveaway content running up for 48 hours and the rules is a minimum of two (2) entries will be accepted per person and for an extra bonus entry is to registering milling through there website for a sample if I comment 2 times under there original post content that is mean 2 entry and i then registered double bonus entry on there website is this right? Do I have to do two comments under the post in the first 24 hours and forget about that until the winner is announced or I comment one in the day the day content starts and the second comment the last day before content is closed
I ‘m not sure I follow this entirely (48 hours doesn’t seem long for a giveaway!) but it does sound like this promoter isn’t running the prize draw properly – after all, they can’t match up the email registrations with the Instagram usernames and assign bonus entries! I would always put mutliple comments one after the other on an Instagram post, tagging a new friend each time.
Thank you so much Di for the reply I was thinking the same thing the giveaway it doesn’t seem right thanks for your time will trying different giveaway
Would I have to check all stories too? Or do they contact winners directly on insta? Checking back on stories is a lot of effort so just wondering. Thanks
If a winner is announced in a story, they will tag your name and you’ll get the notification in your inbox. But it only stays there for 24 hours so check your inbox every day! Most decent promoters would message winners too though, rather than just relying on you seeing their story mention.
I would like to win a iPad since I am kid I need to study alot
For the tip on entering Instagram competitions as late as possible – is this just for when you have to make your own post using a competition hashtag, or is this also the case for competitions where you have to tag your friends on the promoters post? If they use a random number generator then I wonder if it matters when you tag people? Thanks Di!
Hi there! I was wondering if you had any tips for tagging people in giveaways as your entry? Instagram only lets me tag about 6 people in a few minutes span and it’s holding me back lol.
Hi, is there anyway of checking if you’ve won a comp on Insta please?
You need to check your notifications regularly, as well as your message requests (https://superlucky.me/check-message-requests-twitter-instagram/) . Some promoters also announce winners in new posts, on the original post as a comment and in stories. A story can only be seen for 24 hours so you must check your notifications daily in case you miss on! Unfortunately you can’t search Instagram for a mention of your name. Sometimes it can be worth saving links to the competition posts so you can check back to see if they announced a winner!
I never win anything want to know your secrets tips please?
Start here Salma – https://superlucky.me/getting-started/ – good luck!
I win lots on instagram by searching usually just by liking posts
How ? Need tips from you…☺
I’ve never won anything!
Same :/
My best was a years supply of bobbie brown mascara for a picture of me
I have won moisturiser, eye brow tint, face mask, box of chocolates, beauty products, lush products,
Does being private on instagram affect these chances?
If it’s a competition that requires you to upload a photo, then it does matter – promoters will only be able to check entries on a public IG account. A hashtag search won’t show results from private accounts (unless the promoter follows your account). Comps where you need to like or comment are fine though – being private won’t affect your chance of winning those.