Your Instagram giveaway campaign is complete, and you've achieved outstanding results. But you know what? You can get drive even better results and higher ROI by doing just one more thing: publicly announcing the winner.
Here are some tips on how to do it right!
Giveaway announcement tips
First, before sharing publicly, we recommend telling the lucky winner the good news they won via Instagram DM, or email and coordinating any details to give them their prize.
Next, we highly recommend announcing the winner publicly to drive even more engagement. You can even ask if they're willing to share a picture of themselves with the prize when they receive it for you to post on social media.
When it's time to end your giveaway, we recommend you update the giveaway post with the winner and share it in a new post or story (more on this later).
This is the easiest part of the giveaway, but take advantage of it to create engaging content for your followers.
More on how to announce the winner of an Instagram giveaway
At the end of your giveaway, announcing the winner is another opportunity to maximize reach and engage your followers, so have fun with it! With all of the giveaway scams, announcing the winning follower publicly also shows your followers that someone actually won the giveaway and that you're legit. It earns trust.
There's no "right way" to announce your giveaway winner, so here are some examples of what you could include in your announcement:
Who: The winner(s) Instagram usernames
What: What they won
How: How the winners were chosen
When: When/how you will reach out, or how they can claim their prize
Tease: When your next giveaway will be (if one is planned)
Here's a real example using a couple of the above options:
Next, here are the two primary ways to announce the winners of your Instagram giveaway:
Primary Instagram giveaway winner announcement options
Share the winners in a story and tag the giveaway winner(s). This is a better option if you don't want an extra post in your feed just for the announcement.
Create a new Instagram post listing the giveaway winner(s).
In addition to the primary ways to announce your giveaway winner(s), it's also good to do a couple of extra things to maximize your reach and engagement:
Secondary Instagram giveaway winner announcement options
Mention the winners in a comment on the original giveaway post. This is usually good to do also, but not alone since it's less visible.
DM the winners. This is good to do in addition to your other announcement actions, but not alone since it's not publicly visible.
Update the original giveaway post with your giveaway winner(s).
Go on Instagram Live 1 hour before the end of the giveaway showing the original giveaway post or get creative, for example, a countdown timer with giveaway instructions on a whiteboard. Pin a comment that this is the last chance to enter the giveaway, get bonus entries, etc.
Share the winner(s) on your profiles on other social media networks.
Share the Instagram giveaway results with your email subscriber list and on your website (e.g., in a blog post).
Now that you know how to announce a giveaway winner on Instagram, feel free to modify it to match your style. Going the extra mile to share your giveaway results will attract new followers in your niche who don't want to miss out on your next giveaway.
How to maximize the long-term results of your Instagram giveaway
You ran your giveaway to grow your account by attracting new followers, so follow up your giveaway with high-quality content to keep them engaged. Depending on your content process, it's often better to create this content in advance, so it's ready to go!