How to Run A Giveaway (For Bloggers)

Introduction

Running a blogger giveaway is an excellent way to build your following, drum up interest in your blog, drive traffic, and draw attention to your brand, but there are pitfalls. Learning how to run a social media giveaway successfully will help you take advantage of the impact and popularity of competitions and reduce the risk of falling foul of scams or losing followers. In this informative guide, we’ll outline some top tips to host a brilliant social media giveaway and share advice to help you spot red flags and use giveaways to boost your following and brand image. 

Why do bloggers run giveaways?

There are several advantages to running blogger giveaways. Giveaways and contests are similar, but they have key differences. A giveaway offers equal opportunities to all entrants while a contest offers more options, including the opportunity to boost your chances of winning by increasing the number of entries. It’s common for brands to offer extra entries to users who share posts and tag multiple people, for example.

The benefits of hosting giveaways include:

• Increasing follower and reader numbers

The most common reason for bloggers to run giveaways on social media is to increase follower and reader numbers. The aim for many bloggers is to trigger a ripple effect, which involves existing followers spreading the word and encouraging new users to follow the account, like and share posts, and tag others. An effective giveaway can send follower numbers soaring in a short space of time. On average, Instagram accounts that host giveaways grow followers 70% faster than those that don’t, according to data from Tailwind. 

• Boosting engagement

Statistics show that giveaways on Instagram receive more than 60 times the number of comments and over three times as many likes as standard posts. Boosting engagement is beneficial for increasing your number of followers and site visitors, building relationships with your audience, and generating interest in specific posts, products, or brands. 

• Increasing brand awareness

Giveaways provide golden opportunities for bloggers to tap into new audiences and connect with new readers, followers, and subscribers by increasing brand awareness. If your loyal followers tag their friends, it will create a domino effect, which will attract attention and encourage more people to get involved and enter the competition. When you host a giveaway, your followers can get excited about entering into a prize draw, but there’s a good chance that they’ll also check out other posts, read articles, and engage with other users within your online community. 

• Creating leads

Social media and blog giveaways are fantastic ways to create new leads by capturing data and collecting valuable contact information. Building a bigger following is the primary goal for many bloggers, but there are also opportunities to benefit from giveaways in the future. Once you have a captive audience and relevant contact information, you can engage and interact with followers after the competition has closed and encourage them to become frequent readers and engaged social media followers. 

• Utilising user-generated content

Some bloggers host giveaways, which provide access to user-generated content. If you use this type of content on your blog or social feeds, it’s an ingenious way to gather fresh content for future posts. Photo contests are an excellent example. 

• Giving back to your audience

Giving away prizes is a simple but effective way to strengthen relationships with your audience by giving back. You can use competitions to reward loyalty and welcome new faces. 

How to run a social media giveaway

Social media giveaways offer an array of benefits for bloggers looking to enhance and grow their personal brands, but success is never guaranteed. To host an effective giveaway, it’s important to understand what works and be aware of potential mistakes and pitfalls. Here are some tips to help you achieve your giveaway goals:

1. Outline your key objectives

The first step when planning any giveaway is to outline your key objectives. What are you hoping to achieve by running a competition on your blog or a social media giveaway? Define your main goals. Are you looking to boost sales or subscriber numbers? Are you hoping to raise brand awareness? Is your primary target to grow your following as quickly as possible or supercharge engagement rates? Once you know what your goals are, you can tailor your strategy to optimise your chances of success. 

2. Choose a suitable prize

People enter giveaways because they’re excited about the prospect of winning a prize. Choosing a suitable prize is essential to generate interest, encourage people to like and share your post and tag others, and persuade followers to maintain interest in your feed. The prize you choose should be relevant to your personal brand and the target audience. Choose items or perks that will create excitement among your followers and target readers and convince them to spend their time entering the draw and tagging all their friends. If the prize isn’t appealing, there’s a risk that people won’t bother to enter or share the contest with their friends. Data from the Easypromos app shows that almost 50% of consumers won’t enter a draw if they don’t like the prize. 

Examples of popular prize giveaways include:

• Gift cards and vouchers
• Gadgets
• Experiences
• Event tickets
• Fashion and beauty products

3. Identify partners and collaborators

Some bloggers choose to participate in group giveaways or use competitions to partner with brands or collaborate with other bloggers. Teaming up with collaborators, partners, and bloggers in the same niche is a great way to expand your audience, create good impressions through positive associations, and increase engagement on your posts. To benefit from blogger alliances and partnerships, it’s crucial to choose the right partners, brands, and collaborators. Focus on reputable brands and bloggers who have authority and appeal within your field. Choose partners with similar brand values and target audiences and make sure the giveaway is mutually beneficial. All collaborators should benefit from the competition.

4. Issue clear instructions and set a deadline

Once you’ve decided what you’re giving away and you’re ready to launch the giveaway, the next step is to issue clear instructions. Provide a brief, detailed set of guidelines to ensure everyone understands how to enter and include the closing date. It’s best to use numbered or bullet points and provide easy access to the information on your blog and social media feeds. Try to avoid complicated, long-winded entry processes. Making it quick and simple to enter will encourage more people to get involved. The most common entry requirements include:

• Follow the account 
• Share the giveaway post with others
• Comment on the post and tag friends (some bloggers set a minimum number of tags to enter)
• Win extra entries with shares and tags (if you’re hosting a contest)
• Sign up to the email list
• Follow brand partners or other blogger accounts if the giveaway is a collaboration
• Upload a photo or video (if the giveaway is a photo contest)

It’s beneficial to consider your goals when drawing up the giveaway entry requirements. If your main target is building your following, for example, set a minimum number of tags. If you want to increase your email list, asking followers to sign up to the email list is advantageous. 

Your instructions should also include the terms and conditions of the giveaway. Provide clear information about who can enter, when the giveaway closes, and how to enter. You may also wish to include a disclosure to avoid any legal issues. 

5. Spread the word far and wide

To make your giveaway as impactful as possible, you’ll need to promote it. Spread the word by sharing posts on your social media feeds and website. Build anticipation before the launch and keep people in the loop while it’s running. Remind your followers to enter, encouraging them to follow the instructions before the deadline. Try to strike the right balance between promoting the giveaway and bombarding people with posts about it. Reiterate the instructions and share information about the prize. Respond to questions and comments and let people know when the closing date is looming. You could run a countdown during the last few days, for example. 

Effective ways to market your giveaway include:

• Email everybody on your email subscriber list
• Share the post on social media
• Add a pop-up to enter on your website
• Create an optimised post about your giveaway on the blog
• Team up with other bloggers or social media influencers to spread news fast
• Create a customised hashtag
• Incentivise and encourage sharing among your followers: Converting comments into entries is a fantastic way to persuade followers to tag others if you’re running a contest rather than a giveaway. For every comment with a tag, for example, the user gains one entry. 

6. Choose a winner

When the giveaway has closed, it’s time to choose your winner. There are many tools and apps you can use to select a winner at random. It’s worth considering showing this part of the process to your followers to enhance trust and credibility. You can post a video online to show how you chose the winner and reveal the lucky follower who has scooped the prize. This will help to allay any fears people have about the authenticity of online giveaways. 

7. Announce the winner

The final stage is to announce the winner. When you do this, remind people of the prize, congratulate the person who has won, and thank everyone for getting involved in the competition. At this point, it’s a brilliant idea to think about building hype for your next giveaway or creating a buzz around posts you’re planning to share in the coming days and weeks. Try to maintain interest among your followers and ensure new readers hang around. 

8. Plan your next giveaway

Giveaways are an effective way to raise brand awareness and build momentum. If you’ve grown your following and created and converted more leads as a result of online competition, the last thing you want is to lose momentum and followers as soon as the contest ends. Running regular giveaways can help you maintain high levels of traffic and keep new and loyal followers interested in your blog and social media feeds. You could consider making a feature out of a monthly giveaway, or run a prize draw every 3 months, for example. 

Social media giveaway ideas

There are many types of social media giveaways. If you’re looking for ideas for your next giveaway, here are some popular types of social media competitions:

• Blog product giveaway: Giving away a product or a product bundle on your blog is a good way to reward loyal readers, encourage engagement, and drive traffic to your website. 

• Milestone giveaways: Milestone giveaways celebrate landmark achievements, such as blog anniversaries or hitting a certain number of social media followers. 

• Photo challenges: Photo challenges encourage followers to submit their own images to win a prize. This is an excellent way to collect user-generated content.

• Sweepstakes: Sweepstakes offer the chance to enter to win a prize at random in exchange for an action, such as sharing your email address, sharing a post, or tagging a friend. 

• Product launches: If you’re trying a new product for your blog, a product launch giveaway is a powerful way to get people talking, raise brand awareness, and benefit from brand and blogger collaborations. 

How to run the giveaway of the year: Best practice guidelines for bloggers

If you’re a blogger and you’re on a mission to boost your personal brand and grow your following by hosting a giveaway, here are some best practice guidelines to follow:

1. Personalise your goals

Be clear about your goals when you draw up plans for a giveaway. It’s helpful to take inspiration from other bloggers and brands, but your giveaway or contest should be relevant to your objectives. If you have a vision of what you want to achieve, you can tailor your strategy to increase your chances of success. 

2. Find the right platforms

Choosing the right platforms is key when running a giveaway. You want your contest or draw to attract as much attention from target followers as possible. 

3. Choose a prize that will attract target followers

It’s crucial to choose a prize that will attract target followers when you host a giveaway or a social media contest. Always remember your target audience when selecting prizes. If the prize isn’t relevant to your followers, there’s a good chance they won’t enter. 

4. Make it as easy as possible to enter

Social media giveaways should be quick and easy to enter. If the entry process is too complicated, or it takes too long, this will put people off. Include a few simple steps that take seconds to complete. 

5. Promote your giveaway

Your followers and loyal website visitors may see your posts and articles about the giveaway, but if you don’t promote it effectively, you could miss out on valuable opportunities to grow your following and readership. Use social media channels that are popular among your target demographic to spread the word, create optimised blog posts to generate leads via SEO, and encourage your followers to share the post and tag others by including these steps in the entry requirements. 

6. Create a sense of urgency

Setting a deadline and building hype before the giveaway closes creates a sense of urgency, which may compel people to act. If there’s a time limit, try to persuade followers who haven’t yet entered to follow the instructions to avoid missing out. FOMO (fear of missing out) can prompt people who might not have entered to take the plunge. Add a countdown to your blog and social media posts and issue reminders in the days leading up to the closing date. 

7. Make sure you understand giveaway rules

Before you launch a competition or giveaway, make sure you understand the rules for the relevant app or platform. 

8. Take advantage of popular events and occasions

Some giveaways are more impactful than others due to timing. Taking advantage of popular events and occasions is a fantastic way to boost lead generation and capitalise on periods when people are more likely to buy, enter giveaways, look for deals, and spend time on social media. Examples include Easter, Halloween, Christmas, summer holidays, bank holidays, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. 

9. Build on the successes of previous giveaways

Analysing data and feedback can help you build on the successes of previous giveaways and learn from giveaways that didn’t have the desired impact. Monitor the efficacy of different types of giveaways and the popularity of various prizes. It’s also helpful to consider variables, such as the duration of the giveaway, engagement levels on promotional posts, and the impact of brand and blogger collaborations and partnerships. 

10. Implement a follow-up plan

Bloggers can reap the rewards of giveaways long after the closing date if they have an effective follow-up plan. Keep in contact with your new followers, engage with them, and keep them interested with targeted posts and more giveaways. 

Avoiding blogger giveaway scams

Globally, social media users lost over $1 billion to social media giveaway scams in 2022, according to data from Moniepoint. Scams often target social media users, but it’s also critical for bloggers to be aware of suspicious behaviour. Many bloggers run giveaways, which means they can be easy targets for scammers. Examples of the most common blogger giveaway scams include being charged to receive a product and being approached by fake agencies, which ask bloggers to pay a fee to partner with them on a giveaway. This fee usually amounts to over $100/£100. 

It’s important to be aware of red flags when running a social media or blog giveaway. These include:

• Offers that seem too good to be true
• Agencies that don’t have a proven track record or contact details
• Poor grammar and spelling mistakes in communications
• Requests for payments and fees to receive products or enter into partnerships
• Lack of online visibility and credibility
• Offers from random ‘agencies’ that have no link to your blog or area of interest