Run an Instagram contest to really boost engagement levels running a contest on Instagram is just a great way to extend your reach, increase awareness of your brand and interact with your target audience. Not many marketers create Instagram contests because they think that it is difficult but it is not really much harder than creating a conventional post. Create a new post as you would normally and then add an image for your contest. You need to have this prepared beforehand and in your gallery. Make the image really inspiring and exciting. If you can show some of the best prizes that participants can win. Make the necessary edits to your contest image using the same filters and settings that you use for your other brand images. After this it is time to set up your Instagram contest. You will need to determine what kind of action you want the participants to take before you set up your contest. The most popular type of Instagram contest is requesting that users follow you and then like your contest post. You can also go for the Tagger friend, action where a participant has to tag one of their friends to enter the contest. An alternative you can request that users upload a selfie, a user generated image, and add a custom hashtag to it. Also you could go for the Repost, Tag and hashtag strategy where participants repost your contest image, tag your account and include your hashtag in this repost. To set up your contest you need to provide a compelling description for your contest. This must include details of the major prize. After this you need to tell users what they will need to do to participate in the contest. We recommend that you add two types of hashtags to your contests. The first is a custom hashtag which will help to drive brand awareness. You can use the name of your brand and a keyword for this hashtag for example. The second is a niche hashtag which will help to increase the reach of your Instagram contest. At the end of the contest you need to select a winner. If you have a group of names then you can add these to a random name picker app. Be sure to put each name on a new line. Once you have chosen a winner or winners you need to contact them. Use direct messaging and announce the winners in a post as well.