Giveaways, products and services that are usually offered for free for promotional purposes, are one of the most common practices of increasing followers on Instagram (followers), but in most cases, bring more harm than good. Giveaways are not something new on Instagram, but with the changed platform algorithm, they no longer work as they once did. In the beginning, when the giveaway is introduced, everything works best: the number of followers increases, the engagement on the site also and you achieve your goal. But then the opposite happens. How so?
A TYPICAL SCENARIO OF A GIVEAWAY
In general, there are two types of gifts on Instagram: large (and expensive) gifts and gifts specific to your business. In fact, only the second type of gifts can be somewhat useful for a certain account because they attract the target audience.
The way a giveaway is organized is almost the same in all cases: Gifts are announced, prizes are offered and conditions are set that followers must meet.
In the beginning, the strategy works and people start following you, engaging in your posts, tagging you, seeing posts on Instagram Stories and so on. Thus, you make the Instagram algorithm think that your content is high quality and the platform starts showing your account to a large number of people. But all this happens during the period when the winner has not yet been announced in a giveaway.
What happens after you give gifts? Engagement on the site drops, what are known as impressions are reduced and people no longer follow you.
WHY DOES GIVEAWAYS ALSO BE DAMAGED?
To make it clearer, you need to understand how the Instagram algorithm works. The platform shows us potentially interesting content - where it is likely to be commented on, shared or liked. The accounts with which we engage the most are shown in front of everyone else. So Instagram ranks content depending on your previous relationship.
On the other hand, Instagram is trying to stop fake engagements, fake followers, spam accounts. A poorly built giveaway is more likely to damage your business and / or profile. How so?
You attract ghost followers. Prices like iPhones, laptops, cars, cash or anything else expensive, attract people, but these people have no interest in your account. You need to make sure that the many followers you add to your profile will later unfollow you or stay as a ghost follower (they will not be activated on your site at all). These followers negatively affect the engagement on the site.
When you develop a giveaway, people get involved with your site - like, comment or share. They do this because otherwise they do not receive the prize. When you determine a winner, they stop liking and commenting on your account and consequently the engagement decreases. Thus the Instagram algorithm thinks that your content does not deserve to be shown to others. As a result, fewer people see your posts.
After the winner is announced, many people unfollow (no longer follow an Instagram account). If the audience does not find themselves on a certain page, it turns into ghost followers, or unfollows. In either case, Instagram rates your account as uninteresting or "bad." It takes a lot of time and effort to "revive" the account.
Brands and businesses do not know well how the Instagram algorithm works and fall prey to this trap: they organize giveaways one after the other to improve the situation on the site, but everything ends the same.
GIVEAWAY WITH INTELLIGENCE
The only way to organize a giveaway that will not hurt your account is to know your audience well and what interests them.
Let's take an example: You are a photographer and you want to increase the engagement on the page to highlight the service you offer, in this case photo sets. What giveaway can you arrange?
Error: Smartphone - The gift will not work well because it is wanted by many people, not all of whom are interested in the service you provide. As a result, you will have many followers who are not at all interested in your content.
Mistake: Camera - The purpose of your site is not to attract photographers, but businesses or clients interested in the service you provide. So avoid the camera.
The right giveaway: Free photo set - This is an interesting price. A free photo set can be the right way to attract new clients and followers.
Source: Combin
