My love-hate relationship with Instagram giveaways sparked a few years ago. I’m sure you’ve seen these things around. “Win an iPhone! Win a Kylie Cosmetics set! Win a fucking tortilla chip!!!”
I participated in a brand-sponsored loop a while back, which wasn’t that great, so I stopped selling my soul and swore off loops. But lo and behold, everyone’s on the giveaway circuit again.
If you’ve participated in a successful loop, you know why people choose to do these things. If you’ve ever entered one of these: I’m so sorry about the spamminess. I promise that a lot of people participating don’t know how many other people will be in the loop. People enter early on expecting a loop of 20-30 max and wind up side by side with 50 other people also wondering what the hell they got themselves into.
Back to what I was saying, though: I participated in one a while back, and wrote them off as too spammy to go through again. Then, as of a few months ago, they became big again. People were growing exponentially, whether or not they had good content. I started to wonder WTF was going on. Cue the 4 Non Blondes song here (the only good one they have- you know what I’m talking about).
Should You Participate in an Instagram Giveaway Loop?
[lockercat]If you know me, I try everything. I stay on top of what’s trending in social media as much as I can, and I can usually spot when people are bullshitting me about their growth. I don’t care how people grow- I think you should utilize any method you’re comfortable with that gives you a result that you want to achieve. I do care when you lie to me about your growth, though (aka, I know when you’re buying followers, so let’s cut the emoji-shit).
A giveaway loop is somewhere in the happy middle of straight up buying followers and targeting for some real, organic reach. If you’ve ever run an ad, you know that the only difference in how you spend money (whether giveaway or an organic IG ad) is what type of reach you have and how many organic followers you’ll gain. And let’s face it, if you’ve run an ad on Instagram, you know how awful the reach is for the amount you’re spending. Sometimes, other options are a better deal.
What To Expect
So, here I am again participating in some loops. Truth be told, they’re a little addictive. You get an initial boost of followers that seem like they’re real people who are going to engage. Unfortunately, that’s not entirely the case.
A lot of people participate with giveaway accounts that may look real (might as well be a bot at this rate). A lot of others just use their accounts for giveaways and aren’t active on Instagram at all. Most of the others simply drop off. If your aesthetic doesn’t fit what they like, they’re going to keep moving. There’s a small percentage that stays on, but for the cost of a giveaway, it’s not worth it to go through the ordeal to gain a few real followers.
So, would I recommend these things? Yes and no. If you’re looking for a quick numbers boost, it’s a viable option, but don’t get your hopes up. Some giveaways just don’t perform well. And unless you have a pristine feed, a lot of the followers will drop off. These things aren’t free to participate in, so be prepared to spend some money chipping in to buy the product(s) as a group.[/lockercat]