Import actions are a unique type of action that allows you to enter users into a competition from an external source.

An example might be that you're running a contest that requires users to use a specific #hashtag to enter or asking users to post photo replies inside a Facebook post.

Import actions also work seamlessly with normal actions, which means they can be used to also supplement entries from users that never entered via the widget at all.

Apps that support Import actions:

• Competitions

You can import Photos, Videos, or Reels from Instagram that have been tagged with specific #hashtags in:

• Posts

Available on the following plans: Business and Premium

• Require Any: This will import any Photos, Videos, or Reels using the specified #hashtags
• Require All: This will only import Photos, Videos, or Reels that contain all of the specified #hashtags

Entry Interval by default is set to Single, which means we'll import one post from each individual user. You can increase this to Hourly / Daily / Unlimited.

You can import Photos, Videos, or Reels from Instagram posts that @mention your Instagram Business profile. This action type is now preferred to use over #hashtags if you want to see the entrants @username and timestamps without having to click through to Instagram.

Instagram @mention imports also allow you to filter imports by designated hashtags or words. This allows you to limit the media you accept to those tagged with a @mention and a #hashtag or word.

Adding a #hashtag filter to @mention imports makes it easier to import campaign specific submissions. This is now the optimal approach to running hashtag contests on Instagram.

Available on the following plans: Business and Premium

You can import top level comments from any of your public Instagram posts from your Business page, this allows you to draw winners from comment driven contests. When you import comments you will be able to see the entrants @username and timestamps without having to click through to Instagram.

Instagram comment imports also allow you to filter comments by designated hashtags or words. This allows you to limit the comments you accept into your campaign to those containing a specific #hashtag or word.

Adding a #hashtag or word filter to comment imports is a great way to ensure that entrants are following your comment contest guidelines.

Available on the following plans: Business and Premium

You can import status updates from Twitter that have been tagged with specific #hashtags.

Twitter Hashtag imports allow you to filter Tweets by media type and restrict the tweets you accept to:

• Tweets With Media (photos & videos)
• Text Tweets
• Any Tweet

Available on the following plans: Business and Premium

• Require Any: This will import any images or videos using the specified #hashtags
• Require All: This will only import images or videos that contain all of the specified #hashtags

You can import text replies to a designated Tweet posted from your profile.

Twitter reply imports also allow you to filter replies by designated hashtags or words. This allows you to limit the replies you accept into your campaign to those containing a specific #hashtag or word. This is a great way to ensure that entrants are following your guidelines.

Available on the following plans: Business and Premium

You can import comments on a specific public Facebook post or photo.

Facebook Comment imports allow you to filter comments by media type and restrict the comments you accept to:

• Comments With Media (photos & videos)
• Text Comments
• All Comments

Facebook comment imports also allow you to filter comments by designated hashtags or words. This allows you to limit the comments you accept into your campaign to those containing a specific #hashtag or word. This is a great way to ensure that entrants are following your guidelines.

Available on the following plans: Business and Premium

This feature is replaced by Facebook Page Mentions

You can import images or videos on Facebook that mentions a specific Facebook page you manage.

Available on the following plans: Business and Premium

• This action also has the ability to further filter Posts that only use specific #hashtags

You can import images and videos from Tumblr that have been tagged with specific #hashtags.

Available on the following plans: Business and Premium

You can import videos from YouTube that have been tagged with specific #hashtags.

Available on the following plans: Business and Premium

• Require Any: This will import any images or videos using the specified #hashtags
• Require All: This will only import images or videos that contain all of the specified #hashtags

You can import comments from your YouTube videos into your campaigns.

YouTube comment imports also allow you to filter comments by designated hashtags or words. This allows you to limit the comments you accept into your campaign to those containing a specific #hashtag or word. This is a great way to ensure that entrants are following your guidelines.

Available on the following plans: Business and Premium

Currently we import new entries from Import sources hourly. Everything gets sorted by the actual social post time, so it'll line up in your Actions list at the time the action happened (not the time it was imported).

Competition Imports are designed to import from the start date of the campaign onwards, when you setup the import it'll look back for entries created on the start date of the campaign and import up to 500.

We'll do an initial pull of historical data when you first add an import source which depends on whether you are on the Business or Premium plan.

You will need to be wary of this, especially if you're using:

• A popular #hashtag
• Or make a mistake with your #hashtag

Doing either of the above can mean you'll have potentially thousands of entries before you even kick off your contest. A common strategy to deal with this is to use the Archive feature on the Winners tab to archive existing entries before the competition start date.

Our Twitter Hashtag and Facebook Comment import actions allow you to filter items by media type. This means that you have the option of restricting the types of Facebook Comments and Hashtagged Tweets that you accept into your campaigns.

When you filter items you can choose to accept:

• Items with media only(photos & videos)
• Text items only
• All items

One of the downsides to grabbing data directly from social networks is that we won't know anything about the user other than their username. If you pick a winner, you will need to contact the user from the social network they entered from - For example send a Facebook message, an Instagram message or post the winners details on your profile.

The app does have smarts that will connect #hashtag entries to a users profile if they have logged into our widget from that social network previously.

If you want to capture more data such as email addresses from users submitting media then you should consider accepting media directly into your campaign with our Media Submit or Select Actions for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.