How To Use An Instagram Giveaway Picker To Choose Winners

Instagram comment contests are a proven way to increase engagement and start meaningful conversations with your audience.

To launch your giveaway, create a compelling Instagram post that introduces the prize, explains how to enter, and encourages users to leave a comment. This format is quick to set up and low effort for participants, which can help drive a high number of entries.

You can prompt users to answer a question, tag a friend, share ideas, or drop a specific emoji — anything that fits your brand’s tone. Keep in mind that clear guidelines improve compliance and simplify the process when it's time to select winners.

When the goal is to pick a random winner from a high-volume comment thread, manual methods become time-consuming and difficult to verify. This is where an automated random comment picker can make your life easier.

Gleam offers an Instagram Comment Picker designed for random selection. It helps ensure that all entries are treated fairly and can support public draws or private results — perfect for creators, brands, and social media managers alike.

You can filter entries by keyword or hashtag, set rules for duplicate entries, and select multiple winners at once. It is especially helpful when dealing with a large number of entries and when transparency matters to your audience.

Whether you're hosting a simple one-off contest or running a full campaign, using a picker tool ensures consistent, verified draws that reduce admin overhead.

If you are exploring additional giveaway tools, there are other lightweight solutions available.

The third-party Instagram Random Comment Picker by Comment Picker is a basic free tool. You enter the URL of your Instagram post, and it randomly selects one or more winners.

While it is easy to use, this option does not verify entries or allow for filtering — which may be limiting for larger campaigns.

If you have a list of valid @usernames, Gleam's Random Name Picker lets you paste them into a list and generate a random draw.

It is a fast way to pick a random winner or even multiple winners from a predefined group. Best of all, it’s a completely free tool — just sign up for a Gleam account to access it.

That said, this method does not integrate with your social media accounts or validate comment-based rules. It works best for contests where all entries are already confirmed.

Want to go beyond a basic random draw from Instagram comments? Gleam's advanced features let you integrate comment entries into a full giveaway campaign — across multiple social media platforms and actions.

Using the Instagram Comment Import action, you can automatically sync comment entries into a broader Gleam competition.

This is ideal if you want to:

• Automatically import and track the number of entries from your Instagram post.
• Apply filters for specific keywords or hashtags to ensure all entries meet your rules.
• Set an entry interval — limit to one comment per user or allow multiple entries per day.
• Generate a downloadable entry report for legal or auditing purposes.
• Use Gleam to pick a random winner (or winners) fairly and transparently.

You can also manually exclude users, apply eligibility conditions, or redraw winners if someone does not respond.

For marketers and creators running frequent Instagram giveaways, this approach saves time and offers more robust tracking compared to simpler picker tools.

Photo contests are a powerful way to generate user-generated content, connect with your audience, and grow organically through social media engagement. Instagram is the perfect platform to showcase entries and build buzz around your brand.

With Gleam, you can run Instagram photo contests that either:

• Import posts using hashtags and @mentions
• Collect images directly through the contest widget
• Automatically track submissions, apply filters, and display entries in a public gallery

Want to go beyond a random selection? Gleam lets you create full-featured contests that drive more value — collect emails, grow your audience, and reward behaviour across social media platforms.

Whether you want to increase your number of entries, collect leads, or encourage referrals, Gleam's giveaway tools help you do it all — with full support for:

• Instagram and Facebook visits
• X (formerly Twitter) follows, tweets, and retweets
• Email subscriptions
• User-generated photos and videos
• Peer-to-peer sharing for bonus entries

Use a unique link in your Instagram bio to send users to your opt-in contest. You can customise how people enter, what counts as a valid entry, and how the winner is randomly selected.

You can even embed a free tool like a random name picker or live contest countdown to increase urgency and participation.