Instagram Loop giveaways have become increasingly popular on Instagram. If you follow small businesses, influencers, or bloggers on Instagram; you may have witnessed them participate in a secret or loop giveaway.
If you’re a blogger, Instagram Loop giveaways can be a way to grow a following for your business. It can be a strategy to get in front of potential customers. The big question is:
Is a secret or loop giveaway right for you?
Rest easy! In this post we will show you
- What loop giveaways are
- How loop giveaways work
- How to find loop giveaways to join
- Examples of loop giveaways in action
By the end of this article you’ll know everything you need to know about IG loop giveaways to make the right decision for your business.
What are Instagram Loop Giveaways?
Instagram Loop giveaways are basically giveaways that include a group of Instagram accounts (usually influencers or brands) working in concert to grow their following on the app and reach new audiences. To participate in a loop giveaway, a user must follow every account involved.
The number of accounts that should/can be involved in a loop giveaway will vary based on the giveaway organizers. In general, the more accounts involved, the more likely it will be to convince users to participate. Standard loop giveaways typically involve 40+ accounts.
Pooling together like this allows participants to reach a much larger audience. More importantly, their collective buying power provides an opportunity for more compelling giveaway prizes. Prizes at loop giveaways range from large sums of cash, iPhones, laptops, white goods, handbags, and even designer clothing.
When Instagram was still relatively new, people saw loop giveaways as an illegal or unethical way to boost their numbers and grow their followings. However, since the Kardashians and the Jenners became a fixture on our screens, Instagram loop giveaways are proving to be strong.
There are two main types of Instagram loop giveaway. Assuming you won’t be partnering with Armani, or Gucci. The second kind is mostly what will interest you.
Loop Giveaways for Big Brands
This is usually done from the pages of huge Instagram influencers with hundreds of thousands or millions of followers; huge prizes are always on offer for this type. Big brands’ loop giveaways can generate tens of thousands of followers immediately.
Standard Loop Giveaways
For this type, a team of smaller participating brands all tag themselves and post a particular giveaway graphic created by an organizer, advertising the contest and the prizes on offer in the process.
How does Instagram Loop work?
Step 1: The Loop
This is where a loop of people pool together their resources and cash to pay for a prize. Most of the time, it is something as simple as a gift card, but basically, a loop giveaway is more effective when grand prizes relevant to an audience are what is handed out.
For example, a gaming/tech audience would appreciate a high-end graphics card or gaming console, while a digital artist audience would want a drawing tablet.
To have a successful loop giveaway, you need to ensure that every post is made at the same time, have the same images, and have the same tags linking the next person in the chain. The main prize has to be really valuable. Users expend more energy than they normally would entering a contest like this, even if they do not win. So, the prize has to really compensate for their effort.
Step 2: The Entry
Following the loop or joining the content is probably the most essential part of an Instagram giveaway. To ease this process for your followers, ensure that the loop can be joined through tags. If you are part of the loop, you should be tagged by one person in their photo, while tagging the next person in the chain you are tagged in.
If you follow the chain properly, there will be a single tag for everyone that leads to them, and a tag that leads to the next person. This way, a perfect loop is created.
Usually, each person within the loop is expected to be followed by entrants. At times, this could involve liking every image, even though this is not compulsory for bigger loops. Lesser loops enjoy benefits from the extra engagement the most, but more often than not, a simple follow does the job.
Step 3: The Rewards
A loop giveaway on Instagram should leave everyone feeling like they benefit something afterward, whether they win the prize or not. That leads us to the question, how do people in the loop and their followers get rewarded?
The common motivation for running a loop giveaway on Instagram is simple: to gain a majority of the combined pool of participants. There is a high tendency that these people will remain on your Instagram page if it’s good enough.
This shouldn’t be news, but you have to ensure that your Instagram is quality and up to standard before you take part in a loop giveaway.
You may not get another chance to gain the following on offer after a giveaway, so it is imperative that you make a great impression on those involved to keep their loyalty.
Step 4: Things to look out for
While the majority of the followers you gain should remain, especially if your page is good, with time you should lose some of the followers you gain from the giveaway.
Why? Well, because the majority of them are from someone else in the loop who does not have so much in common with you. Other times, it could just be a habitual thing for these people to unfollow Instagrammers after giveaways. Bearing this in mind, you should not immediately look at your new, large follower count when the giveaway is at its peak.
Forget the count for a couple of days and just pay attention to dropping some more quality content. When this period is over, check your followers again to see how many of them stayed due to liking your page activities. Also, try to keep everyone participating on track, especially with knowing when (and when not) to post. A late person could break the loop for everyone else, affecting the effectiveness of the whole campaign.
Ensure that the chosen time is one that everyone can comfortably meet up – use a timer or an alarm if necessary. Remember, an hour’s delay can do a lot of dame to an Instagram loop giveaway.
How to find Instagram Loop Giveaways to participate in
There’s every possibility that you have entered one or two loop giveaways if you follow bloggers on Instagram. Love or hate them, loop giveaways are proving to be effective when it comes to growing Instagram following and making new blogger friends while at it.
Hosing one can be stressful though, so it is always easier (some would consider it better too) to participate as a user. Below are two loop tips for those that would want to join a loop giveaway, instead of hosting theirs.
Tip 1
Did you just scroll past a successful loop giveaway on one of your favorite blogger’s feeds? Kindly scroll back; take a screenshot of the giveaway image, and send the blogger a direct message. What you want to do here, is ask for the host of the giveaway.
Try saying something like, “Hey! I scrolled past your giveaway on here, and I must say, it looked great! Do you mind if I ask who the host was? I would love to get into some loop giveaways in the nearest future and love to be updated”.
The moment you get the host’s contact information, reach out through email or Instagram, and tell him or her that you would like to join in the next loop giveaway.
Tip 2
Go to Facebook and join a blogging group. Doing this is another great way to network with other bloggers, get new blogging friends, and partner! Some bloggers usually post directly in the group if they want to host an Instagram loop giveaway, so just comment, letting them know you want to participate.
5 Examples of Instagram Loop Giveaways
Example 1 – Dream Giveaways
The account above posted a loop giveaway and directing users to the giveaway account @dream.giveaways to participate. Users are required to only follow the 41 accounts being followed by @dream.giveaways.
Example 2 – Kylie Jenner
Kylie Jenner endorses a giveaway of $20000 and 9 luxury bags in May 2019 for CuratedBusiness. This led to the new wave of celebrity-fronted loop giveaways. To participate and win, users were required to follow every account (70 brand accounts in total) followed by @letthelordbewithyou (Scott Disick).
Example 3 – Jake Paul
Jake Paul and his Team 10 from YouTube also did a loop giveaway for prizes worth over 100k$. To win, users were asked to follow every account being followed by the handle, @Team10official.
Example 4 – Kyle Richards
Recently, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ very own, Kyle Richards ran a loop giveaway with Big Crowd Media that involved followers winning three pieces of Gucci products, a $2500 cash price, and a $1500 paid trip to the famous Doctor Spa.
Example 5 – Maria | The Chic Pursuit
In 2017, the Chic Pursuit’s Maria committed $500 to partake in a giveaway with fellow beauty and fashion bloggers. The giveaway included a cash prize, a pair of Louboutin, and a MacBook pro. Despite an initial engagement spike, Maria said that her engagement levels after the giveaway dropped significantly. This is an example of a failed loop giveaway.
Conclusion
If you are involved in the same secret or loop giveaway group, you’d see that your numbers do not grow as much since most of you have the same followers. In an abstract way, this can be considered a good thing, due to the fact you are retaining followers. Every other person is focused on growth, they forget the need to engage their loyal followers. You shouldn’t forget these followers, they are the bedrock of your business!With Instagram loop giveaways, perspectives differ; what works for you won’t necessarily work for someone, and vice versa. Try to consider all options and choose which is best for you and your blog.
