FOX Super 6 NFL contest: OutKick handicapper Geoff Clark's conference championship picks

Unfortunately, this is the final chance of the NFL season to win money in FOX Sports’ weekly, FREE-to-enter contest called the “FOX Super 6”. Since the NFC title game is on FOX, the Detroit Lions at San Francisco 49ers is the only game in the contest.

All you need to do is answer six questions, predicting team and player performances through the FOX Sports App. Points are accrued for all six picks. Here are the official rules and some FAQ’s for the FOX Super 6 contest.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM

Detroit’s defense is quietly one of the best at stopping the run. Opponents are averaging just 3.8 yards per carry vs. the Lions, which ranks fifth in the NFL. My hunch is Detroit coach Dan Campbell takes away San Francisco’s ground game and forces Niners second-year QB Brock Purdy to make plays in the air.

Whether or not that happens, we’ll see. Furthermore, San Francisco’s weakness on defense is stopping the run and Detroit’s offensive line is one of the best in the NFL. In an effort to reduce possessions, I can see the Lions “establishing the run” Sunday.

PICK: 49ers QB Brock Purdy

I’m assuming everyone who plays in the contest will put Niners RB Christian McCaffrey atop of this list. CMC is the presumptive 2023 NFL Offensive Player of the Year. McCaffrey is just as dangerous catching the ball out of the backfield as he is running it.

Lions RB Jahmyr Gibbs is second for me in this pool because he’s a younger version of CMC. Gibbs is as much of a threat in the pass game as he is on the ground. In the divisional round, Gibbs had 13 touches for 144 total yards and 1 rushing TD.

With that in mind, Lions RB David Montgomery is at the bottom of this list. Montgomery had only 47 total yards on 13 touches. He’s been Detroit’s goal-line running back all season but Lions third-string RB Craig Reynolds got a 1-yard TD run last weekend.

Let’s sandwich Detroit WR Amon-Ra St. Brown between Gibbs and Montgomery since I’m projecting the Lions to utilize their rushing attack more so Sunday. St. Brown can go off but San Francisco’s has an elite secondary and pass rush.

PICK: 1- 49ers RB Christian McCaffrey, 2- Lions RB Jahmyr Gibbs, 3- Detroit WR Amon-Ra St. Brown, and 4- Lions RB David Montgomery

It’s surprising that 49ers WR Brandon Aiyuk is the third-most popular pick for this question. Aiyuk led San Francisco in several receiving stats during the regular season such as targets (105), catches (75), and receiving yards (1,342).

Niners WR Deebo Samuel left the divisional round early with a shoulder injury and is “questionable” for the conference championship. If Deebo misses Sunday, Aiyuk should have even more targets. Plus, Detroit has two of the worst outside cornerbacks in the NFL.

PICK: San Francisco WR Brandon Aiyuk

Obviously, the Aiyuk pick correlates with the third question so no reason to discuss that further. St. Brown and Lions TE Sam LaPorta are a toss-up for the second pick here. But, I’ll go with St. Brown because he’s been a game-breaker lately.

For instance, St. Brown has at least 106 receiving yards in four of the last six games dating back to the regular season. He’s caught a TD pass in five of those games. The Sun God’s worst game was last week where he caught 8 passes for 77 yards and 1 TD.

San Francisco WR Jauan Jennings being at the bottom of this list makes sense when you compare his numbers to the other guys. On top of that, Detroit’s only good cover corner is rookie nickelback Brian Branch who will lineup against Jennings in the slot.

PICK: 1-Niners WR Brandon Aiyuk, 2- Detroit WR Amon-Ra St. Brown, 3- Lions TE Sam LaPorta, and 4- San Francisco WR Jauan Jennings.

Speaking of “game-breakers”, Gibbs might be the most explosive player on the field in Lions-49ers. His 31-yard TD scamper in the fourth quarter last week put Detroit ahead for good vs. the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Sunday.

This is also a quasi-leverage play. A majority of the FOX Super 6 contest entrants are picking CMC. So I can gain some ground on the field if Gibbs has the longest rush in this game. Finally, since Gibbs is a threat in the passing game, he might be running against lighter boxes.

PICK: Detroit RB Jahmyr Gibbs

Lions win or lose by 6 points or fewer | 49ers win by 7 points or more

Typically, this is where I’d “fade the FOX Super 6 contest”. That said, the Niners aren’t seven points better than the Lions. San Francisco’s defense is overrated and Detroit’s top-tier offensive line can keep Jared Goff upright.

Moreover, Campbell is one of the best playcallers in the league and Detroit offensive coordinator Ben Johnson switches up his strategy weekly. Everyone assumes the Lions won’t be able to stop the 49ers but Detroit’s offense will have success too. Lastly, given Detroit’s dynamic offense, the Lions could sneak in the backdoor with a late TD in garbage time.

PICK: Lions win or lose by 6 points or fewer

John Fetterman returns to Senate campaign trail after health scare, contest with Mehmet Oz enters final months

Pennsylvania Senate candidate and the state’s Lt. Gov. John Fetterman is heading back to the campaign trail after health troubles sidelined him for more than 90 days.

Fetterman, 52, will host an event Friday evening in Erie County, Pennsylvania where the Democrat is expected to open up about a stroke he suffered in May that threatened his political aspirations as well as his life.

Campaign spokesman Joe Calvello said Fetterman’s return to the campaign trail will start with a few lower-profile events before ramping up his schedule.

“He’ll talk about how blessed he is to be back,” Calvello said. “It’ll be somewhat emotional — a little raw about what he went through, how grateful he is to be campaigning again.”

NEW POLL: DEM JOHN FETTERMAN LEADS MEHMET OZ IN PENNSYLVANIA SENATE RACE DESPITE POOR BIDEN APPROVAL

Fetterman’s recovery is also in question as he previously declined to take prescribed medication. “He’s following the doctor’s orders,” Calvello clarified, saying the Democratic candidate is also adhering to a low-sodium diet and is walking three to five miles per day.

“He’ll miss a word here or there when he’s speaking sometimes, or maybe in a crowded room he’ll miss hearing a word,” the spokesperson said. “Besides that, he’s rock solid.”

DR. MEHMET OZ CLAIMS DEMOCRATIC OPPONENT JOHN FETTERMAN ‘WAS LIVING OFF DADDY’S MONEY UNTIL HE WAS 46′

The return to the campaign trail comes as the Democrat is in one of the most contested senatorial races in the country, against Republican opponent Dr. Mehmet Oz, who has repeatedly drawn attention to Fetterman’s absence from the campaign.

“Have You Seen This Person?” Oz asked in a poster shared online last month. “It has been 90 DAYS since Fetterman’s last public campaign event. Pennsylvanians deserve answers.”

ELECTION SPOTLIGHT: DR. MEHMET OZ AND JOHN FETTERMAN SQUARE OFF OVER BIDEN PERFORMACE, ECONOMY

The Senate’s current 50-50 tie makes each senatorial race important for both parties but the Pennsylvania contest is especially consequential as it will fill the vacancy left by retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey.

The contest is already the most expensive senate race in the country and has featured major endorsements including one from former President Donald Trump, who backs Oz.

Fetterman’s absence from the campaign has not severely impacted the lead he holds over Oz in most polls as Fox News and Beacon Research have Fetterman up 11 points.

Other polling data shows a smaller gap between the candidates as Blueprint Polling and Suffolk University have Fetterman up 9 points, Fabrizio Ward has Fetterman up 6, and Cygnal has Fetterman up 4.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

How to Create a Facebook Contest that Grows Engagement and Audience

With close to 3 billion active monthly users, Facebook is the biggest social media platform on the planet. That makes it a valuable channel for driving your business goals. After all, the key to successful marketing is to define your target audience and meet them on their favorite platforms.

While not everyone is on Facebook, one thing is certain, it still is the world’s most popular platform. Whether you’re in B2B or B2C, you definitely should leverage Facebook’s multitude of features to market your brand and products. One Facebook marketing feature in particular that yields a good return is the Facebook contest feature.

Facebook contests are an excellent way to grow your audience and drive engagement.

Why Should You Create a Facebook Contest?

Facebook contests have been around for some time, but they’re still one of the best methods to grow an active audience and build meaningful engagement with your brand. Here are a few reasons why you should consider creating a Facebook contest:

1. Extend Your Reach and Increase Followers

One of the most significant benefits you’ll reap from running Facebook contests is that they’re an excellent way of extending your reach. Creating a contest your target audience engages with results in your contest and brand being shown to their networks. With the extended reach comes the added benefit of you gaining more followers.

2. Increase Brand Awareness

Another reason you must incorporate Facebook contests in your social media marketing strategy is that they are a great way to increase brand awareness. Whether you promote your Facebook contest organically, use paid promotion, or both it’s inevitable that you’ll reach people you couldn’t have otherwise reached. As a result, more people will become aware of your brand and product.

3. Get More Engagement

Facebook contests get more engagement than average posts for the simple reason that they’re a much-loved form of interactive content. People prefer interactive content over static content with 66 percent of marketers citing increased engagement rates after employing interactive content in their campaigns.

4. Provides a Data Collection Avenue

Effective marketing campaigns are data-driven. That’s because data enables you to gain a better understanding of your target audience, allowing you to create more personalized campaigns.

Running a Facebook contest is helpful in this regard as it provides an opportunity to collect data about your audience. Whether the contest is in the form of a quiz or simply an engagement-based contest, you still come out with a goldmine of data at the end of the day.

With these and more benefits, there’s no reason why you should ignore Facebook contests. They’re an excellent way to drive engagement and build an active audience for your business. Of course, they’re also an excellent way to raise brand and product awareness and thus drive sales.

How to Create an Effective Facebook Contest

Now that you’ve seen the value of Facebook contests, let’s quickly dive into how to create an effective one. Not all Facebook contests are created equal. Knowing how to create one that your audience will participate in is essential to the success of your campaign. Here are a few pointers to help you:

1. Determine Your Goals and How to Measure Results

The first step to creating an effective Facebook contest is to define your goals for the contest.

What do you want to achieve with your Facebook contest?

You can achieve a lot of business and marketing goals with a contest, a few of which can include:

  • market research
  • brand awareness
  • data collection
  • crowdsourcing product development
  • launch a new product
  • build an email list
  • drive sales
  • gather user-generated content

Determining the goal of your contest is essential as it will help you design one that’s best suited to help you succeed. It also helps you know which key performance indicators (KPIs) you should use to measure your contest’s success. Examples of KPIs you can use include:

  • number of participants
  • likes
  • shares
  • new followers gained
  • number of clicks on your contest
  • email sign-ups
  • reach

With your goals and KPIs determined, you’re ready to start designing your Facebook contest.

2. Select the Type of Contest You Want to Run

You’ve determined the reason for running a Facebook contest. Now the next step is to choose the type of Facebook contest that will help you achieve said goals. There are three main types of contests you can run on Facebook:

Giveaways

These are the simplest Facebook contest type and, as the name suggests, involve giving away a prize to the lucky participant(s) who enter the contest. Most giveaway contests require a participant to engage with a post (like, comment, or share) to enter.

Photo Contests

Photo contests are an excellent way of driving engagement and collecting user-generated content for your other marketing efforts. These usually involve picking a theme for your contest and asking your audience to post photos (preferably while using your product) in line with that theme.

Referral Promotions

Referral promotions require a bit more work to design and manage but they’re one of the best ways to generate leads for your business. Participants have to share (or refer) your contest with a friend or people in their network to enter the contest.

An effective Facebook contest aligns your marketing goals with the right type of content. To aid your decision, you must understand your audience and the type of contests they prefer.

3. Determine the Contest Rules and How You’ll Run It

Every contest needs rules to govern how participants enter. As you design your Facebook contest, you must pay careful attention to how you determine yours.

Determine the rules of your Facebook contest and make them clear to participants.

For example:

  • What actions must participants take to enter?
  • Will you allow multiple entries?
  • Is the contest open to all countries?
  • What can constitute grounds for disqualification?
  • Are there any age restrictions?

Remember, you’re not running a contest just for the fun of it. You’re running your contest to benefit your business. As such, the rules you set for your contest must help you with that. They must be aligned with your goals.

The rules of your Facebook contest will also determine how you will run it and the kind of data you will collect. Examples of how you could run your contest include:

  • Designing a funnel that requires participants to submit their email addresses or other data.
  • Using a Facebook messenger bot to lead users to an opt-in page where they perform the required action to enter the contest.
  • Using engagement as a means to declare their participation in your contest. This could be anything from tagging friends to following your account and everything in between.

Besides setting rules for entering the contest, you must also determine how the winning participants will redeem their prize.

4. Choose the Right Prize

One of the fundamental pillars of an effective Facebook contest is the prize you’re offering. Hallmarks of the perfect prize include:

  • Personalized. Your offer must be something that your target audience is interested in. It must not appeal to people who aren’t your target audience.
  • Product-related. To ensure your contest helps boost your business, your prize must be tied to your core business. For example, if you’re a dentist, offering cutlery as a prize won’t help you reach your ideal customer.
  • Pain point specific. Understand your ideal customer’s pain points and tailor an offer designed to address one of them. Doing so will help direct participants to your other product offerings.

Choosing the right prize for your contest is crucial to ensuring higher engagement rates. It also ensures most participants fit your ideal customer profile (ICP).

5. Design Your Facebook Contest Page

With so much content being published on Facebook, it can be easy for people to miss your contest as they scroll through their feeds.

To improve the chances of your contest being seen, your design must be optimized for visibility. Here are a few tips to help you do that:

Write an Attention-grabbing Headline

The headline is the first thing users will see. Make it stand out by using descriptive language. Also, ensure it paints a picture of the benefits of winning the prize.

Invest In Professional Images

Invest in professional eye-catching images. Images play a great role in stopping users from scrolling. They’re also helpful in quickly conveying your message.

Write a Brief but Detailed Description

Give users all the information they need to get excited about the contest. Your description must also explain how to enter the contest. The best way to format your description is to use bullet points.

Use a Simple Form

Make it as easy as possible for your interested parties to enter your contest. If you’re using forms, make them simple—don’t ask for too much information. Complicating the sign-up form will negatively impact your conversions. The only exception to this rule is if you’re offering a huge prize that’s worth the effort.

Design a Prominent Call-to-action

Your call-to-action (CTA) must not only be prominent but it must be clear what the next step to be taken is.

Besides these best practices for designing an effective Facebook contest page, you can also consider other optimization options. A typical example would be to use a countdown timer to add urgency.

6. Promote Your Contest

Your Facebook contest’s main goal is to grow your audience and increase engagement with your brand. To do that, it must reach as wide of an audience as possible.

That’s why part of your Facebook contest creation process must include a promotion strategy.

Increase your reach by promoting your Facebook contest.

A few Facebook content promotion tips you can employ include:

  • Paid ads: Organic reach can only get you so far. To reach a wider audience, leverage Facebook ads to promote your contest. You can also use retargeting to advertise your contest to people who’ve viewed your content.
  • Share it with your email list: Promote your Facebook contest to your email list to ensure maximum participation. It also helps you keep your subscribers engaged.
  • Spread the word on other social media channels: Leverage your other social media platforms to spread the word about your contest.

With your contest in front of the right audience, you can expect high participation rates.

7. Choose and Announce the Winner

All good things come to an end, including your exciting Facebook contest. You need to wrap it up by picking and announcing the winner. You have two options when it comes to picking a winner:

  • Randomly picking a name: Randomly picking a name is the best way as it’s impartial. Use tools like Random Name Picker or Comment Picker to make it easy.
  • Selecting the best candidate: This works best if you set specific criteria for your contest. However, make sure to explain how you came up with the winner and why.

Once you’ve picked your winner, you must announce them on your Facebook business page and other channels you promoted the contest on. Bonus points if you can make it a Facebook Live event.

8. Follow Up After the Contest

Picking the winner of your Facebook contest is not the end game. The end game is growing your business. That’s why you must have a follow-up strategy. One of the best ways to do this is to send out an email to participants offering them a discount on your products as an appreciation for participating in your contest. Nurture a relationship with the people who participate in your contest and you’ll be able to turn them into loyal customers.

Facebook Contest: FAQs

How do I increase engagement on my Facebook contest?

People love personalized content. To increase participation, ensure you know your target audience and create a contest tailored to them.

How do I know if my Facebook contest is a success?

Always set goals for your contests and determine the KPIs you’ll use to gauge the effectiveness of your contests.

Are Facebook contests worth the effort?

Executed well, a Facebook contest is a cost-effective way to achieve many business and marketing goals. Yes, they’re definitely worth it.

How can I ensure my Facebook contest reaches a large audience?

Promoting your Facebook contest is a critical part of running a successful contest. Make sure to promote it on all your other channels and platforms.

Facebook Contest Conclusion

Looking for interactive content that will help you grow your audience and drive engagement with your brand?

Then you must consider running a Facebook contest. With added benefits like lead generation, a boost in sales, and much more, including them in your online marketing strategy is a no-brainer. 

Executed well, your Facebook contest is an excellent way of getting ahead of your competition.

What has been your experience with Facebook contests as a marketing strategy?

7 Instagram Contest Ideas to Grow Brand Awareness

Instagram accounts that hold contests can achieve up to 70% faster follower growth than accounts that don’t hold contests.

If you want a popular Instagram account, coming up with and executing some Instagram contest ideas is a great start.

In this post, we’ll explore how you can use Instagram contests to raise brand awareness for your business.

We’ll also dive into some of the best practices to keep in mind when running your contests.

By the end, you’ll know how to run a successful Instagram contest that will bring your business the attention it deserves.

Why Instagram Contests Are a Good Idea

There are other ways to get more Instagram followers, of course, but few other methods can increase your follower numbers so quickly, and with such minimal effort.

Not only that: Instagram contests can also help you achieve more engagement.

Posts that are related to Instagram contests tend to earn roughly 64x more comments and 3.5x more likes when compared to ‘normal’ content.

instagram contest ideas - driving more engagement

On top of that, 91% of the posts that have achieved 1,000+ comments are contests.

Instagram content ideas - posts with most comments are contests

All of these stats show that running Instagram contests is one of the best ways to improve brand awareness.

If you’re worried about being stuck in a cycle of constantly churning out contests, all in the name of boosting brand awareness, don’t worry; you don’t need to continuously run contests to reap the benefits that good Instagram contest ideas can offer.

That’s because you’ll notice a trickle-down effect on the rest of your normal content as a result of running contests. People will feel a greater affinity toward your brand due to the goodwill you’ve generated with your contests.

As a result, they’ll be more likely to share and engage with your normal content.

Plus, because contests generate more followers, there will naturally be more people exposed to your content. This increases the likelihood that share and engagement levels will be higher than ‘pre-contest levels.

Best Practices for Running Contests on Instagram

Before you run your first contest, you need to be aware of some important best practices. Failure to follow some of these best practices could mean that you’re going against the rules of Instagram.

It could also lead to your contest producing lackluster results, which can amount to a lot of wasted effort.

What are these best practices?

The first is to make sure that you write a clear and detailed description for your contest.

When writing the description for your contest, be sure to cover:

  • What the rules are
  • What people need to do to be eligible
  • Any restrictions on who can enter
  • The prize
  • The deadline
  • When you will announce the winner

Doing things this way makes it easy for you to stay on the right side of the promotion guidelines provided by Instagram.

Instagram contest ideas - promotion guidelines

It is important that you don’t stray from the guidelines, as doing so could put your account at risk.

Here’s a great example of a contest description.

instagram contest ideas - description example (meraki notebook)

They’ve done a good job of making this detailed, so it’s difficult to fit into one image.

Here’s the first part, which helps establish a reason for the competition while also describing what’s on offer.

instagram contest ideas - continuation of description

This second part does a good job of letting people know what they need to do to be eligible to win.

instagram contest ideas - gain an extra entry example

The next bit tells people how they can gain an extra entry. The terms of the contest are clearly shown, while also indicating how the winners of the contest will be announced.

instagram contest idea - terms of the contest

By studying how others are writing their contest descriptions, you’ll learn a lot about what separates a bad description from a good one.

You also need to ensure you’re giving away relevant prizes that your target audience will feel compelled to have.

If you focus on giving away prizes that are relevant to your target audience, your contest will generate better results.

If the products you’re giving away aren’t specific to your target audience, you run the risk of attracting followers that don’t care about your business or the products or services it provides.

In the long term, this arguably does more harm than good.

Such individuals may unfollow your account after a contest, or simply not engage with your profile in the future.

By picking the right prizes, you can reliably attract the right kinds of followers and generate brand awareness among the best demographic for your business.

All of which helps increase the odds of you earning a return-on-investment from your efforts.

As you might have guessed, giving away items of high value tends to produce higher levels of engagement.

The chart below shows that prizes worth $1,000 or more generally achieve 5.8 engagements per 100 followers.

Instagram contest ideas - valuable prizes get more engagement

This figure is quite high when compared to the 1.7 engagements that brands enjoy when they give away prizes worth $99 or less.

If you want to give away a high-value prize, but you don’t have the funds to invest in one, consider arranging a partnership deal with another brand. Provided that you have a large enough follower count, there will be brands that are willing to provide a prize for your contest in exchange for some promotion.

The way you promote the brand that provides the prize should be low-key. In the description of the contest, simply mention that the contest is sponsored by a particular company.

This Instagram post shows how you can pull this off.

instagram contest ideas - sponsored contests

You also need to put some thought into how you’re going to announce the contest.

It’s a good idea to use a custom image within the post that announces the contest.

Here’s an example of how you can do that.

instagram contest ideas - custom image for giveaway posts

As shown above, there’s also the option of adding the terms of the competition to the image, too.

With all of that out of the way, let’s check out some of the contest ideas you can use.

Instagram Contest Idea #1: Tag to Win

The tag-to-win contest idea is nice and straightforward.

All you’re doing is asking people to tag a friend in the comments section so that they can enter the contest, as well, and become eligible to win the prize.

This contest format does a great job of improving your profile’s organic reach.

That’s because once people are tagged by someone, they’ll likely receive a notification.

These people will then check out your profile and potentially become a follower.

They may also tag others. This will create a viral feedback loop, bringing more people into the competition.

To increase the impact of this feedback loop, you can also ask people to follow your account in addition to tagging someone.

Here is an example of a brand that uses this strategy.

instagram contest idea - to enter, tag a friend

If you want to be brave, you can ask people to tag two people. This, again, increases the potential reach of your contest.

The contest below shows how this can be done.

instagram contest ideas - tag two people

Here’s another example.

instagram contest idea - example 2 of tagging 2 friends

Once the competition is over, pick someone at random from the comments section. You can use an automated system to do this so that the contest remains objective.

If one of the entry conditions is to follow your profile, cross-reference the winner’s account with your follower list to make sure that everything is in order.

An alternative take on this format, the ‘nominate a friend to win’ contest, can work equally well.

Instead of asking people to randomly tag someone, you can instead suggest that they tag someone they believe deserves to win.

With this kind of format, the winner of the contest will be the person who has been tagged, and not the person who left the initial comment.

Instagram Contest Idea # 2: Like to Win

With this Instagram contest, you ask people to like your content if they want to enter the contest and have a chance of winning.

You can even use the phrase ‘double-tap to win’ since, on the Instagram app, double-tapping a photo automatically likes it.

There’s also the option of asking people to like your brand on Facebook, making it easy to increase the visibility and, therefore, the impact of your contest.

If you want to boost your follower count, mention that people also need to follow your profile if they want to be eligible to win.

Here’s an example of how that can be done.

instagram contest ideas - example of "like to win"

This profile has used the combination of asking people to follow and like, thereby increasing the potential engagement this contest can produce.

Instagram Contest Idea #3: Selfie Contest

Instagram is arguably the home of selfies, so this kind of contest is a great match for the platform.

It’s a type of contest that works particularly well with products.

With a selfie contest, you ask people to post a picture of themselves while they’re using your product, or with the product somewhere in the background.

This contest format is especially useful for a business because it helps show potential customers how a product can be used. It’s an excellent form of user-generated content.

When writing the description for a selfie contest, create a unique hashtag and then ask people to use this hashtag whenever they post their photos.

You can find the pictures people have uploaded for this contest by searching for the hashtag on Instagram.

At the end of the contest, pick the picture that you think is best.

Make sure that, when you create the rules for a selfie contest, you add that you might use the content at a later date.

User-generated content can provide an excellent source of social proof. Long after the contest is over, you can repost the content that the contest generated.

Here’s an example of how you can do a selfie contest.

instagram contest idea - selfie contest

Similar to the ‘like-to-win’ example from earlier, you can combine the format of the selfie contest with the other contest formats we’ve already covered.

You could mention that people need to like the post that announces the contest as well as posting a selfie.

Instagram Contest Idea #4: Photo Contest

The photo contest is closely related to the selfie contest we just covered.

The difference, however, is that you’re not asking people to take a selfie. Instead, they can take any type of photo they wish.

Like before, you ask people to submit photos using a relevant hashtag that you create.

You then search Instagram using this hashtag so that you can find a winning photo.

With this kind of contest, you don’t always have to offer a physical prize for the winner.

You can just let people know that the prize is that you’ll feature their content on your profile.

Here’s an example of a photo contest of which relates to a Boston News channel.

instagram contest idea - photo contest

Here’s another one from the Empire State Building Instagram account.

instagram contest ideas - example 2 of a photo contest

It may be that you have a product or niche that is perfectly suited to photo contests. GoPro is an example of such a product.

instagram contest ideas - example 3 of photo contest idea

If so, you should place a special focus on running photo contests.

That’s because this format will be especially easy to pull off while also providing you with an abundance of user-generated content that you can feature on your Instagram account.

Instagram Contest Idea # 5: Voting Contest

A voting contest revolves around the following steps:

  1. You ask people to upload a piece of content alongside a designated hashtag. You also ask people to tag your profile in the description.
  2. Your followers then search Instagram using this hashtag and vote for the one that they think is best. The easiest way to collate votes is to ask people to like the photo that they think should be the winner.
  3. The person with the most likes is deemed the winner of the contest.

Here’s an example.

instagram contest idea - voting contest example

This contest format is great at generating engagement because you’re asking people to take a lot of social actions. Plus, the people who enter the contest will promote their own entries through their social channels.

However, you could argue that such a format is potentially asking too much from people.

Because of this, you may want to use this contest format only when you have a highly-engaged audience that cares about your profile and its content.

With that being said, another way you can run this contest is by having people submit photos first, and then only you find them using the assigned hashtag.

Based on what you find, you pick 3-5 finalist images and host them on your own profile.

You then ask your followers to like the one that they think is best, and the photo with the most likes wins.

This approach can help you achieve great results with a voting contest without asking too much of your followers.

Here’s an example of a profile that is doing something similar, but instead asking people to submit the photos to the host’s account directly.

instagram contest idea - voting contest example 2

Here’s a bit more context.

instagram contest ideas - voting contest example rules

Here’s an example of how someone might post their own content in the hopes of obtaining a vote.

instagram contest ideas - voting contest, example 3

When running this kind of competition, you can also ask people to post their contest content to Facebook, as well.

Then you can count the likes that people have gathered on that platform and combine them with what they’ve achieved on Instagram.

Doing things this way can help expand the reach of your contest, improving your ability to generate brand awareness.

Instagram Contest Idea # 6: Caption Contest

A caption contest is a contest in which you ask people to caption a photo that you’ve uploaded.

From that point, you can either:

  1. Pick the best caption using your own judgment, or
  2. Tell others to like the best caption.

The caption with the most likes is the winner.

While the second option can be a good way to engage your audience, the first option can help prevent people from artificially inflating their likes.

Here’s an example of a caption contest:

instagram contest ideas - example caption contest

You may want to edit the image you use to announce the contest so that it highlights the fact that you’re in need of a caption.

instagram contest ideas - caption context example 2

The speech bubbles in the above post are a good example of how this can be done.

Instagram Contest Idea # 7: Challenge Contest

If you’re in a position where you need to put together a contest in a short amount of time, a challenge contest can work wonders.

With this contest format, you just need to come up with a simple challenge for people to meet, and the person who solves the challenge wins.

The challenge doesn’t need to be complex. In fact, simpler contests generally draw more social engagement and participation.

The post below shows how this can be done.

Instagram contest ideas - challenge contest

All that’s being asked of in this contest is that people guess which number the account owner is thinking of.

It’s simple and fun. The spontaneous feel helps to increase the authenticity of the profile, too, which helps boost long-term engagement.

Here’s another example, this time using a ‘guess the marbles’ challenge.

instagram contest ideas - challenge context example 2

This contest format is simple and low-effort, making it a good choice for anyone who is new to running contests on Instagram.

Conclusion

You should now understand how to use Instagram contests to grow brand awareness.

As soon as you run your first contest, you’ll find that the whole process is a lot of fun. It’s also probably much easier than you expected.

Decide on a contest theme, create the rules, and establish a dedicated hashtag. Increase user engagement by cross-posting the contest on Facebook.

If you’re feeling nervous about setting up your first Instagram contest, get in touch and we can help you strategize (and assist you with your other digital marketing efforts).

If you can encourage people to invite their friends to participate in the contest, do so. The more people who see your contest and content, the better.

Do you have any tips related to running Instagram contests?