How To Run An Instagram Photo Contest With Gleam

User-generated content showcasing your customers enjoying your product is a brilliant way to build credibility and increase trust in your brand. 

It can, however, be hard to collect photos your customers take without an incentive and a clear way to submit the photos. Just think, how often would you go out of your way post about a product and tag the brand?

The most effective way to encourage people to submit their photos is with an Instagram photo contest. Instagram photo contests are an excellent way to kick start conversations around your brand by increasing reach and exposure, and by building social trust through people seeing your products in action.

In this guide, we will run you through how to set up an Instagram contest and how to make the most of all the great user generated content you collect using Gleam.

The first step is to decide what kind of photo entry you want Instagram users to submit. You should be aligning the contest theme with your brand or a specific product. 

For example, if you sell fitness gear, you might ask users to share their workout photos featuring your products.

This brand sells whipped cream so they asked contestants to show off a cake they baked using their product:

With Gleam, there are a few different options to collect the photo entries:

The first method is to collect entries via the Gleam widget, this will give you direct access to all of your photo submissions in one place.

This is great as it means you can offer a bit of flexibility by allowing users to enter in different ways. You can encourage users to upload a photo from their main Instagram feed, which is a fantastic way to expand your reach, but you can also let users upload a photo from their camera roll for those less keen on posting on social media.

To set this up, post the widget link in your Instagram bio and let your followers know where to enter via an Instagram post. 

It's also an awesome idea to require entrants to use a specific hashtag when they upload their photos through the widget from Instagram. By doing this, you not only get the photos directly through the widget, but also benefit from the increased visibility and engagement that comes from hashtag use. The hashtag can help spread the word about your contest, making it easier for others to find it and enter.

You can easily do this by using our customisable template designed for Instagram Photo Contests:

While the widget upload method is the most effective and easiest to set up, there's also some other great ways to collect photo submissions:

• Branded Hashtags: Ask participants to use a specific branded hashtag when posting their photos on Instagram, and you can then then import all of the images under this hashtag. This is an awesome way to increase reach and visibility, and makes tracking entries easy. Just keep in mind Instagram only retrieves posts from the last 24 hours and doesn't show usernames or timestamps.

• Mentions: Another great way to expand your reach and maximise your visibility is to ask users to mention/tag your brand in the Instagram post, and then like the branded hashtag, you can import all of the images.

The best way to increase your reach while collecting entries is if you combine these two methods and ask users to both @mention your business and use your branded hashtag. This way, you can track all entries under a branded hashtag, capturing user details, and also avoid collecting uploads from people mentioning your business or tagging you in posts which aren't competition entries.

An exciting and valuable prize is absolutely essential for a successful Instagram contest.

You need to make sure the prize incentivises people to go out of their way and post photos of your brand on their feed.

It's also important to offer a prize that targets potential customers rather than freebie hunters. So offering one of your products or a prize relevant to your business area is a great idea.

For example, if you're a beauty brand, give away a bundle of your best selling products.

You also need to decide on the criteria for selecting a winner. 

A random draw is the easiest way to pick a winner for your photo contest if you want it to be completely random but fair and transparent.

Simply go to the Winners tab in your campaign dashboard and click "Draw Winners." 

This method is great because it shows your audience that the winner was chosen impartially.

If you want to encourage high-quality submissions, you can manually select the best entry based on merit. 

To do this, find the best entry in the Actions tab of your campaign and select "Make Winner." 

This allows you to reward the most creative or impressive submission.

Allowing your audience to vote for their favourite submission can be a great way to boost engagement and encourage high quality submissions.

To do this, you just need to enable voting in Gleam Galleries and then choose whether to allow anonymous votes or require social login. You can let users vote on a selection of entries you choose. 

This way of voting means everyone will have an equal chance to be seen and voted for, regardless of the user's follower count. 

Alternatively, you can determine the winner based on the most likes a photo receives on Instagram. Ask participants to use a specific branded hashtag, and then pick the winner by the photo with the most likes. 

This way is a little less fair as some users will have more followers than others, so it won't necessarily determine the quality of the entry. 

It's just important to clearly communicate the way winners will be picked so everybody knows your giveaway is fair and what they need to do to have a chance of winning.

Once you've set your contest up, to be successful and to ensure people actually enter, it's crucial to promote your contest so everyone interested sees it. 

As it's an Instagram contest, the first port of call is posting on there.

To get the ball rolling, post an initial Instagram post announcing the contest, use eye-catching visuals and engaging captions to grab attention. You can post this as a photo post, a carousel or a short video on Reels.

Make sure all of the details are really clear; how to submit the photo, how it will be judged, when the contest ends, what the prize is, and any other information people need to know to enter. 

You also need to cross promote your Instagram photo contest. 

So, announce on all your other social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) to let your followers know about the contest. 

Don't forget, just because because someone follows you on Twitter or Facebook, doesn't mean they also follow you on Instagram. You need to catch all of your audience to ensure the maximum amount of participation. 

This is an awesome way to not only collect more entries but encourage your followers on other platforms to check out your Instagram account.

Post regular updates and reminders about the contest. Share countdowns, highlight user submissions, and answer any questions your audience may have. This type of thing is great to post in Instagram Stories and tweets. 

Send out a dedicated email to your subscriber list announcing the contest and prize details. Include all the important details, such as how to enter, the grand prize, and the deadline. Use a clear call-to-action like adding in your Gleam campaign so they can easily enter.

Schedule reminder emails to keep your subscribers informed about the contest timeline. You need to be mindful of sending just the right amount of reminders to not annoy people with sending too many emails though.

You can also send out segmented emails to your more loyal customers. For example, send a special invitation or early access to the giveaway to existing customers, offering them an extra incentive to participate by including a bonus entry.

Find influencers who align with your brand and have a following that matches your target audience. Look for those who have high engagement rates and a genuine connection with their followers.

Reach out to complementary brands with a proposal to promote your contest. This could involve them being a part of the giveaway, by including following them as an entry requirement, or offering to give away their product as a prize which is great advertising and exposure.

Add a nice clear banner or pop up on your website's homepage and relevant pages to inform visitors about the contest.

You can add this in using Gleam with a super easy template: 

If you have a blog with a high readership already, it's a good idea to write a blog post about the contest, explaining the rules, the prize, and tips for taking great photos. 

This is a good idea for some new content and can also improve your SEO and attract organic traffic.

You can also embed your giveaway widget at the bottom which makes it really easy for people to enter.

You can also add a refer a friend to enter for a bonus entry action on your giveaway. This is a great way to incentivise people to spread the word which is great organic word of mouth marketing. 

Once the contest is over, you need make the most of all the awesome the user-generated content (UGC) you've collected!

Here are our favourite ways:

You can share the winning entries across all your social media platforms. 

Sharing the winning entries across all your social media platforms is a fantastic way to generate buzz and showcase your contest's success. Create engaging posts that tell the story behind each photo, highlighting the creativity and effort of the contest participants.

Featuring real customers using your products is a powerful way to build trust and interest among potential buyers. It provides social proof, showing that real people enjoy and benefit from your products. 

Plus, user-generated content can freshen up your social media feeds with authentic and exciting new content, helping to keep your audience engaged and your brand top of mind. 

Using Gleam, you can build a gallery on your website featuring all the entries from your photo contests.

This shows the diverse ways customers use your products and it easy for visitors to browse through the photos and get inspired.

You can add user-generated photos to your product pages. 

Customers often trust the experiences of fellow buyers, and seeing authentic photos can influence their purchasing decisions.

Create case studies based on the stories behind the photos.

Sharing these stories on your blog or in email newsletters us an amazing way to showcase in-depth insights into the value of your products and build credibility.

Use the UGC in your online ads. 

Authentic content often performs better than polished, professional photos because it feels more relatable and genuine to your audience.

So, by effectively utilising the UGC from your Instagram photo contest, you can create a rich, engaging, and trustworthy brand presence that resonates with both existing and potential customers. 

This content not only showcases your products in real-world settings, but also builds trust around your brand, kickstarts conversations, and expands your reach.

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