Long gone are the days of cutting out competition slips from magazines and popping them in the post to win the latest travel competition, nowadays even the internet is beginning to look like old hat. Today’s most frequent (and therefore winnable) competitions are on platforms like Instagram comments go.
All kinds of companies from tour operators and airlines to hotels and event organisers are using the vast popularity of Instagram to reach a wider audience for their travel competitions and giveaways. This makes Instagram the ideal place to look if you’re hoping to win your next trip of a lifetime.
Share and Share Alike
Of course, the thing to remember about Instagram is that it’s largely visual. People use the platform to share pictures, either that they’ve created or that they’ve found and love. For this reason, many of the travel competitions run on the site tend to be based around sharing travel photos or uploading holiday photos with a competition hashtag to draw other travel-hungry Instagrammers in.
Be Active on Instagram
To put yourself in the best position to win an Instagram travel competition you should try to increase the number of people following you. The reason companies put competitions on Instagram in the first place is to extend knowledge about their brand. If you offer them access to a wide number of followers you will be seen as being more useful and influential, which may increase your chances of winning. To expand your number of followers you just need to get active: follow lots of other people, like and comment on their posts, and the chances are they will follow you in return.
The Picture’s the Thing
To win a competition in which you are asked to upload a photo on Instagram you need to choose your picture carefully. Your entry should have elements that not only chime with the brand running the competition, but which will also attract other discerning Instagram users to like it and share it. The more activity your picture generates in term of likes and comments, the more attention it will receive from the company running the competition.
Tap to Win
Other types of travel competitions run on Instagram are even simpler to enter, although, arguably, the very simplicity of entry makes them harder to win. The ‘like to win’ or ‘follow to win’ type of competitions offer more of a lottery approach – you can’t really do much more than tap your screen and cross your fingers. For this type of competition, volume is the key: the more competitions you enter, the better your chances are of winning.
Last But Not Least…
You won’t win if you break the rules! Instagram is strict on not infringing copyright, so make sure that, if the picture you’re using is not your own, it has a free copyright licence. Also, entrants are not allowed to tag themselves in pictures they are not in, so be sure to not get yourself disqualified before you even start.