On an episode of Shopify Masters, MiJa Books cofounders Muammar and Stephanie Reed discussed how regular social media contests and giveaways have become a valuable part of their social media programming and marketing strategy. “If I had a tactical piece of business advice for new business owners, it’s to give away something for free, if you can,” says Muammar. “And it doesn’t need to be something free for everyone, but a chance for everyone to win something free.”
Learn how MiJa Books and nine other Shopify merchants used social media giveaways and contests to expand their reach and the necessary steps for hosting a contest of your own.
What is a social media contest?
A social media contest is a giveaway that a business facilitates through its social media channels. In social media giveaways, customers complete one or more tasks to qualify for entry, such as following a brand’s social media pages, liking or commenting on a contest post, and/or tagging a friend in the comments section. At the end of the contest, the brand announces a winner, who receives a prize, which can include free products, merchandise, or experiences.
A successful social media contest has two primary benefits: First, it improves brand visibility when customers like, share, and tag others. Social media algorithms may also be more likely to show your posts to non-followers if they’re getting a high degree of engagement. Second, well-run contests can boost engagement with your social media pages—ideally in the long term, as customers who interact with the brand during the giveaway may be more likely to see and engage with future posts as well.
Types of social media contests
Social media contests typically fall into one of these categories:
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Tag a friend. Brands ask users to tag a friend to enter into a raffle for a prize.
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Follow and comment contests. These contests require users to follow the brand’s social media account or comment under a post to enter.
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Caption contests. This kind of contest involves posting a photo—often humorous or mysterious—and asking users to come up with a creative caption.
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Quizzes. Trivia or other quiz contests can happen as livestreams or as comments on posts. The topic is typically related to the brand’s area of expertise (a “types of coffee drinks” quiz by a roastery, for example) or about the brand itself.
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User-generated content (UGC). A UGC or photo contest requires a heavier lift from customers—asking them to create content, such as a photo, video testimonial, or written review, to enter. Prizes may correspondingly be bigger than those for simple tag or share contests.
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Scavenger hunts. These contests can move from social media to the physical world, asking customers to complete a list of challenges or find specific clues to unlock an answer.
10 social media contest examples
Whether your goal is increasing your follower count or keeping established followers engaged, social media giveaways use the allure of winning free stuff to encourage consumer participation and build brand awareness. Here are 10 social media contest ideas to help inspire your own ideas.
Olipop
This social media contest by probiotic soda brand Olipop featured a collaboration with fashion accessory retailer Portland Leather. To enter for a chance to win a Portland Leather crossbody tote and two cases of Olipop’s Shirley Temple soda, contestants had to follow both businesses on Instagram, like the post, and leave a heart emoji as a comment. By the end of the contest, Olipop’s post generated more than 9,000 likes, creating buzz and attracting greater attention to the brand.
With a collaborative post like this, requiring users to follow both companies’ accounts helps ensure that each business gains followers from the contest. Requiring users to like and comment on the post signifies engagement within Instagram’s algorithm and can help you expand your brand’s reach to other social media users.
Dieux Skin
Many social media contests require tagging friends as a way to invite new viewers to their content. This example from skin care brand Dieux asked users to tag their friends and follow the brand as the primary requirements for entry into its product giveaway, which invited users to “win a Double Angel set for you and a friend.” By awarding prizes jointly, Dieux incentivized its followers to convert their friends into new followers of the brand, too.
This approach goes beyond generating views or clicks by increasing the brand’s following and expanding its audience for future marketing campaigns. Requiring fans to convince their friends to follow your brand as a means of entering into your contest is a great way to encourage word-of-mouth marketing from your current audience.
Best Day Brewing
While product giveaways can be enticing, a high-value travel giveaway can substantially increase attention to your social media contest by offering a unique experience. This example from non-alcoholic beer maker Best Day Brewing offered contestants the chance to win free beer subscriptions and a snowboarding trip to Lake Tahoe, including a day with pro boarder and collaborator Jeremy Jones.
To enter to win, participants were required to follow both the brand and Jeremy on Instagram, like the post, and leave a comment. While these contest entry requirements are fairly standard, Best Day also offered entry through an online form, which would have expanded its email marketing reach if consumers chose to participate that way. This kind of giveaway has a second advantage for brands, which can document the experience and use it to create additional marketing materials.
Kismet Rotisserie
Similar to a getaway, tickets to an upcoming concert or event can be an enticing social media contest prize. These promotions can help you build brand reputation and association by generating crossover between your business and the artist, team, or performing act. In this example, Los Angeles–based fast casual café Kismet Rotisserie offered tickets to a live performance by the band TV on the Radio. The aim of this kind of giveaway is to add new followers both for the brand and the artist; such collaborations are often most successful when there’s a significant crossover in target audience between both collaborators.
Graza
While a yearlong supply giveaway isn’t likely to be a contest your businesses can afford to host frequently, offering a bountiful prize can inspire significant attention from your consumers. Larger quantity prizes can feel more enticing because they are less common and increase the perceived value of entering.
As with social media giveaways by other brands, olive oil producer Graza asked contestants to like its post, follow its account, and tag a friend for entry in its giveaway for a yearlong subscription of extra-virgin olive oil. However, the brand took it one step further by offering consumers an additional entry if they added this contest post to their own Instagram Stories. This incentivized participants to share the giveaway directly to their own networks, exposing Graza to a broader audience and taking advantage of customer enthusiasm and word-of-mouth marketing. With the right prize, brands can motivate loyal followers to increase the post’s visibility.
Bark
While contests often have more than one winner, dog toy supplier Bark’s social media giveaway awarded multiple small prizes and one grand prize. Featuring a tiered prize system, Bark’s contest gave customers more opportunities to win, a strategy that could have made users more likely to participate.
While Bark’s contest requirements included liking the post, tagging a friend, and leaving a comment, eligibility for the grand prize required participants to use specific words (in this case, “ball pit”) in their comments. By announcing the winners via Instagram Live, Bark incentivized its followers to engage with its account page in real time. This approach helped drive traffic to the Bark Instagram page from both contestants and viewers directed to the livestream via the algorithm.
Ryze
Superfood business RYZE collaborated with bedding retailer Brooklinen, sleepwear brand Eberjey, and alarm clock seller Hatch to curate a social media contest commemorating World Sleep Day. The businesses promoted one another’s products and created new shared followers, each one committing to contribute a prize to a luxurious sleeping experience for the winner.
Using this approach for your own business not only leverages a niche holiday for marketing, it also helps create partnerships between complementary brands.
Owala
In addition to tagging friends and sharing contests to their stories, asking followers to work your brand into their own content is a great way to create UGC opportunities from your contests. Just like this example from water bottle brand Owala, you can ask followers to create an ad or testimonial review to qualify for your contest, or simply ask them to tag you in their related posts.
Owala’s contest offers a fun and interactive way for people to physically participate in a challenge. By encouraging participants to document their journey and tag the company, Owala is creating sustained engagement and a collaborative, creative relationship between the brand and its customers, while building a pool of content to potentially repurpose in future ads.
Clare V.
Social media giveaways don’t have to be limited to taking place entirely online. This scavenger hunt from women’s fashion boutique Clare V. shows how you can run a social media contest that gets customers into your physical store.
During the 2025 holiday season, Clare V. hosted a scavenger hunt that led participants to all 13 of their stores. Consumers were instructed to find a hidden box and present it at the nearby Clare V. store in exchange for a prize. Every day, the brand posted a new clue on Instagram with details of which store location had the prize. A contest like this is a fun and interactive way to get customers to pay attention to your social media updates, while also encouraging them to physically make their way to the store location nearest them.
MiJa Books
Recurring giveaways can be a valuable part of your social media contest strategy, inspiring sustained, repeated engagement. Multicultural and bilingual bookstore MiJa Books’s regular giveaways are a great example of giveaways meant to increase brand awareness.
Giveaways have since helped to grow its newsletter circulation, increase its social media following, and build a network of supporters that has helped MiJa host almost 200 school book fairs. “Part of the criteria to enter was to sign up for our newsletter and follow us on social media,” says Muammar.
Hosting a recurring social media contest not only provides your followers repeated chances to win—it also creates incentives to recommend your page to others. It also provides brands with a source for new content—documenting winners and new readers, like in the post above.
How to run a social media contest
- Define your contest goal(s)
- Create your contest rules
- Determine possible collaborations
- Launch your contest
- Track engagement
- Celebrate your winner
Use these steps to put together a successful contest. Remember that social media giveaways can be subject to legal requirements and disclosures. It is important that you follow all applicable federal, state, and local laws as well as any terms of service on your preferred social media platform to ensure your contest goes smoothly. Requirements vary across regions and platforms, so you will need to do your homework in order to ensure legal compliance.
1. Define your contest goal(s)
Having a clear understanding of your goals can help you focus your efforts. For example, if you’re hoping to grow your newsletter like MiJa Books, a giveaway for subscribers can be a valuable trade. Alternatively, if you’re hoping to get customers into your store, a scavenger hunt like the example from Clare V. may be the best option.
2. Create your contest rules
Once you’ve established the goal of your giveaway, you need to set the official rules and giveaway details. Choose rules that motivate participation in support of your overall goal. For example, if you’re hoping to boost social media engagement, the criteria for entry may be following your page and tagging a friend. To boost interaction with your page, you can ask participants to share your contest post to their stories for an extra entry.
3. Determine possible collaborations
While collaborations are not necessary for a successful social media contest, they can help you reach a wider audience and build relationships with influencers and complementary brands. Once you have decided who you wish to collaborate with, start a dialogue and pitch your giveaway. Services like Shopify Collabs make it easy to invite creators to work with your brand and facilitate rewards like discounts and commissions with user transparency.
4. Launch your contest
After you’ve determined the parameters of your contest, it’s time to post on the various social media platforms you’ve selected. Make sure that your post includes important contest details like contest rules and requirements for entry, as well as a clear outline of the contest’s timeline. Pin your post so it’s easily visible to viewers throughout the contest’s timeline, and share it on your Stories periodically.
5. Track engagement
Throughout the contest period, track user engagement to observe its efficacy in meeting your intended goal. On an episode of Shopify Masters, State Bicycle cofounder Mehdi Farsi shared that he likes the app ViralSweep because it can run email signups for contest entry and includes settings where people can get additional entries into the contest if they share the post or follow your account. It also integrates seamlessly with both Shopify and your social media channels to provide you with valuable insights on contest participation. Even after the contest ends, you can continue tracking user engagement by using a survey to ask customers if their purchase was influenced by the contest.
6. Celebrate your winner
Once you’ve selected a winner at the end of your contest, use a celebratory post to showcase the lucky follower who gets to take home your prize or take a complimentary trip. Celebrating your winner provides proof to your audience that your giveaway was legitimate, it shows appreciation for fan participation, and it plants the idea that they could win a future contest too.
Tips for converting leads from a social media contest
When hosting a social media contest, growing your audience is certainly a benefit, but ideally, you want it to bring an increase in purchases as well. Here are some tips to help ensure that your giveaway yields better lead conversions:
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Make your store a part of the contest. Just as Clare V. did with its scavenger hunt, think of creative ways to include in-store visits with the contest experience. This not only makes the giveaway more interactive, but also puts the customer in direct proximity to your products.
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Automate participation emails or DMs. Send an email or DM thanking those who enter the contest and include a direct link to a landing page or product page to encourage browsing and buying.
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Offer discounts to participants. Even if you can’t afford to give every participant the grand prize, slip them a discount for their participation. Whether you reward participation immediately or at the end as a consolation prize, offering even 10% off or early access to sales in exchange for their efforts can lead to new purchases.
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Launch a sale immediately after your contest. You’ve just invested time and money into drawing attention to your brand, getting viewers to tag friends and share your social media posts in their stories. Use that momentum to roll into a sale that holds the interest of your new followers and contest participants.
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Compare engagement rates with sales data. Compare key performance indicators like post views, website visits, and contest entries with sales throughout the duration of your giveaway. This will indicate whether these marketing efforts are actually increasing your return on investment (ROI).
Contest social media FAQ
What is a social media contest?
A social media contest is a giveaway facilitated through a business’s social media page(s). Typically, businesses will host a social media contest and invite their followers to enter to win a prize by tagging friends or turning friends into new followers. Social media contests can be a great way to grow your audience and boost sales.
How do I run a contest on social media?
To run a contest on social media, start by identifying a goal you hope to achieve with your contest, such as increasing newsletter subscribers. Look for collaborators like complementary businesses or creators that you can team up with. Then, establish clear parameters for contest entry, prizes, and how you’ll select a winner, ensuring that you’re conforming to applicable federal, state, and local laws. Once you share the contest with your social media followers, track engagement and provide follow-up communication with participants.
Are giveaways on social media legal?
Social media giveaways can be subject to legal requirements and disclosures. It is important that you follow all applicable federal, state, and local laws as well as any terms of service on your preferred social media platform to ensure your contest goes smoothly. Requirements vary across regions and platforms, so you will need to do your homework in order to ensure legal compliance.
