2.1. Publish the sweepstakes on Instagram.
2.2. Create the sweepstakes in Cool Tabs.
1. Introduction.
Instagram Sweepstakes app allows you to select winner/s among users who comment on a post, mention other people and/or use a certain hashtag. You can run actions like: “To participate, leave a comment and mention a friend”. You can require any or all of these actions.
Before showing you the step-by-step, please note several points:
- Due to changes made by Instagram's API, in April 2018, it is no longer possible to check in an automated way that users have liked or followed your profile/s. You will be able to ask for it in your sweepstakes because these are not actions that it prohibits, but you will have to check it manually, by accessing the winner's profile.
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Check that you have a business account on Instagram. Instagram does not allow sweepstakes on personal profiles.
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Check that your Instagram business profile is associated with a Facebook fan page. Instagram requires company profiles to be associated with a Facebook fan page. In addition, you will have to check the permissions of the profile where you want to run the sweepstakes on Facebook Business. If you don't know how to do it, you can check the tutorial: How to add an Instagram account in Facebook Business for your sweepstakes.
One last clarification. Don't confuse this type of sweepstakes, in which the participant interacts with a post on your Instagram profile, with an Instagram Contest, in which you set up a landing page and a participation form to collect data.
2. Step by step.
2.1. Publish the sweepstakes on Instagram.
Before using the Instagram Sweepstakes app, you must post the sweepstakes on your Instagram profile. Once published, log in to Cool Tabs.
If you want to run an Instagram Sweepstake between several accounts, check this tutorial: How to create an Instagram Sweepstake with posts that belong to different profiles.
2.2. Create a sweepstake in Cool Tabs.
1) Log in to your Cool Tabs account. If you are not registered yet, you can check the tutorial: How to create an account on Cool Tabs.
2) Create a new campaign by clicking on the 'Create campaign' button. If you are using the platform for the first time, you will directly see the app catalog.
3) Click on the 'Start' Instagram Sweepstakes button.
- Organic sweepstakes: select this option if you have not promoted your sweepstakes post or if you have promoted it on Instagram after publishing it.
- Promoted sweepstakes: select this option if you have run ads and managed them directly from Facebook Business Manager.
5) Associate a Facebook account. In order to collect the entries for your sweepstakes post, you must give us permission. Why do you have to associate a Facebook profile to run an Instagram sweepstake? Access to the data of an Instagram account is done through Facebook. Therefore, it is necessary to associate the Facebook account and accept permissions. Once done, Facebook will allow us to collect users' participation.
Click on the 'Connect' button to associate your Facebook account.
6) Once the Facebook profile is associated, select the Instagram user on which you are going to run the sweepstakes.
If the profile you want to run the sweepstakes does not appear, click on 'I can't find my Instagram account' to link your profile. You can also check our tutorial: How to link an Instagram or Facebook profile.
7) After selecting the Instagram profile of the sweepstakes, you must complete certain information related to your sweepstakes:
- Campaign name: write a name to identify your sweepstakes internally (it will not be public). This will be the name that will be shown in the list of your campaigns.
- Time zone.
- Start and end date when the app will start and stop collecting data.
- Select the publication(s) on which you want to run the sweepstake. By default, your last 200 posts will be displayed.
8) Click on the 'Save' button.
Your sweepstakes will be registered in your Cool Tabs account, participants will be collected and you will be able to select the winners at the end of the participation period.
Read on to start selecting winners.
You can review the list of participants by clicking on the 'Leads' section (user icon).
2.2.1. How to add more posts to your sweepstakes.
The Instagram Sweepstake app also allows you to edit your sweepstake to include new posts. This functionality is very useful when posting sweepstakes reminders. This way, all the comments made on the new posts will be collected as well.
To add new posts, just edit the campaign by clicking on the edit icon. Choose, from the list of your publications, the posts you want to add and save the changes.
2.3. Select winners.
To select winners, it is mandatory to have an active plan on the platform, either paid or trial. The trial period allows you to try any of the platform's plans for free (and, with it, to use the Instagram Sweepstakes app), for 7 days and without any usage limit.
Read more about the Free Trial >>
To start the winner selection process, click on the 'Winners' section. You can access it from the main list of your campaigns by clicking on the trophy icon.
2.3.1. How to apply filters.
1) Unique users. If you check this option, each user will have only one opportunity in the raffle (even if a user has made 100 comments), regardless of the number of comments made.
2) One opportunity per comment/publication. If you check this option, users will have as many chances as you have written comments. Each comment will count as a new opportunity in the draw for the user.
3) Mentioned users. You can indicate the minimum number of mentions the participant has to make in his/her comment. The maximum number of mentions per comment is 10.
- Currently, it is not possible to filter comments by people mentioned and avoid repeated mentions. For example, in a sweepstake where you have to mention 3 friends and each comment counts as additional participation. If a person leaves 10 comments and always mentions the same 3 friends if you check the option 'One opportunity per comment', that user will have 10 participations.
- If you have detected that in your sweepstakes there are participants who repeat mentions in different comments, you can control this by checking the option 'Only one chance per user'.
- Another option, to avoid penalizing participants who are complying with the conditions, is to manually review and delete entries from the list of participants. In this way, you will be able to delete participations with the same mentions. The participants are sorted by user name, so it will be easier to review them.
4) Comment includes. If participants had to comment using a specific word, write it here. You can write several words separated by spaces so that comments from participants containing any of them are filtered.
5) Start and end dates. Specify the start and end date on which users could participate.
6) Assign points based on actions. Besides, if it's a draw among users who have commented on your post, you have the possibility to give extra ballot papers to those who have commented or answered with a particular word. Also, in a draw among comments, you can give ballot papers to those who have included a particular answer. Give extra ballot papers are available from our Gold Plan.
7) Post. If your sweepstake is based on various publications, select whether you want to count entries from all publications or only from one publication.
8) Exclude winners from previous competitions. Check this option if you want users who have won other campaigns will not to be able to win again.
9) Exclude users from the blacklist by email or nick. We remind you that with our "Blacklist" functionality, you can block users to avoid them being winners. Thus, users included in the list will not be able to be winners
After completing the filter fields that apply to your sweepstakes, click on 'Step 1: Filter'. Filtering will be performed among the participants who have fulfilled all the requirements you have marked.
Finally, indicate the number of winners you want to draw and the number of alternates. Lastly, click on 'Step 2: Launch Sweepstake'.
2.4. Winners page and certificate of validity.
You will get a link to the public winners' page, so you can share the results with all your followers. Copy and paste the link to the winner's page to publish it and announce the winner.
The winners' page includes the certificate of validity, which certifies that the process has been carried out in a random and transparent way.
In order for the participants to see the winners' page, don't forget to set it to public mode (as shown in the image).
2.5. Winners video.
You also have the possibility to generate a video with the result of your sweepstakes, showing the title of the sweepstakes, the prizes, and the winners/substitutes.
This video can be published via URL or downloaded in different formats, to be published in the feed or in Stories.
For more information, see the tutorial Winners video: how to show the result of your sweepstakes.
2.6. Contact the winners.
Next to the winner's username, you will find the Instagram icon. If you click on it, it will take you directly to their profile. This way, you will be able to send them a private message.
3. Other specifications.
- Remember that, due to Instagram API limitations, since April 2018, it is no longer possible to check in an automated way that users have liked or become followers of your profile/s. You can ask for it because these are not actions that Instagram prohibits, but they must be checked manually.
- You can only make direct Instagram Sweepstakes among those users who comment on a post, always in public profiles.
- Furthermore, you can also make a contest with a promoted post or among posts that belong to different profiles (very useful to make campaigns with influencers).
The use of this application is included in all our plans. You can also use it within the trial days, which allows you to try for 7 days free of our plans.
If you have any questions during the process, do not hesitate to contact us through our web chat or our support email help@cool-tabs.com
4. Related content.
Start your Instagram sweepstake >>
Why my Instagram sweepstake doesn't show all the comments >>
How to create a Sweepstake Among Users Who Comment on a Promoted Post on Instagram >>
How to create a Hashtag Sweepstake on Twitter and Instagram >>
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