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New Update: Boost Social Proof with Reviews & Automation
Stacey Corrin
Stacey Corrin
John Turner
John Turner
Do you want to learn how to use giveaway hashtags in your online contests?
Chances are you want to reach as many people as you can, and you’ve heard that hashtags are a great way to make your giveaway go viral. But hashtags change all the time, so which ones are the best to get maximum reach and the most entries for your prize draw?
Luckily we’ve put together a guide on the best giveaway hashtags to use, so you’ll never be stuck for ideas.
Here’s what we’ll cover in this article:
Shall we get started?
First of all, it’s worth knowing why it’s a smart choice to use hashtags in your giveaway and there are 3 key benefits to doing so.
Plus, giveaway hashtags are a pretty effective way for you to keep tabs on what’s happening during the course of the contest.
Truth is it can be as simple or complicated as you want it to be. The easiest way to use hashtags in your giveaway is to simply add the hashtag symbol # followed by the word you’d most associate with your contest.
For example, if we were running a giveaway for an iPad, the most simple hashtag we would use would be #iPad.
But there are plenty of other ways you can use hashtags to make things more interesting. Let’s look at some options.
A branded hashtag campaign is a marketing tool to help you get more attention and engagement on social media. Branded hashtags can drive traffic to your website and even raise awareness about a product or cause.
Your branded giveaway hashtag could use your company name to link your brand to the giveaway or product like the following examples:
This way it’s clear to see who the message belongs to, what the product is, and that it’s a giveaway.
Charmin’s #tweetfromtheseat branded hashtag campaign is still going strong today, showing how a creative marketing strategy can go a long way to engaging people.
If you’re feeling particularly creative, you could come up with a hashtag challenge to drive potential viral traffic.
But what is a hashtag challenge?
A hashtag challenge is a way to get more people to engage with your content. Normally they dare people to do something fun, silly, or even scary.
The thing with hashtag challenges is that if they take off, they can go viral quickly, exposing your message to millions of people who all want to take part.
Think about the Ice Bucket Challenge that swept social media.
This challenge started as a way to raise awareness of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neurone disease, and it involved dumping a bucket of ice water over someone’s head. The challenge went viral during July-August of 2014, and even some big celebrities got involved.
Now, we’re not saying you’ll have the same level of success as that, but there’s heaps of potential for you to create your own hashtag challenge that might just take off.
Another way to use giveaway hashtags is to include it on your blog or website. WordPress users can use hashtags and display them as blog tags making it easier for readers to find.
And by using RafflePress, the best viral giveaway plugin, you can add your giveaway hashtag automatically into giveaway entry actions.
For example, in the Tweet a Message action, entrants have to post a tweet to enter. In RafflePress, you can define what the message of that Tweet should be and include your own hashtags to raise awareness of your giveaway.
Now, when someone enters using that method, they’ll send your message to all of their Twitter followers instantly sharing your giveaway hashtag. Simple as that!
Before we move on to looking at the best hashtags to use in your giveaways, let’s look at Facebook hashtags.
Hashtags on Facebook don’t seem to be as popular as they are on other social networks, so you might be wondering if it’s worth using them at all.
In our opinion, there’s not much point in using hashtags on Facebook if you’re using your personal profile because most of them are private. And private profile hashtags won’t show up in Facebook’s search results which defeats the goal of using hashtags to raise awareness and engagement.
But if you’re using a business page, there’s little harm in adding one or 2 hashtags to your posts on the off-chance that people will search for them.
With the explanations out of the way, let’s dive in and look at the top trending giveaway hashtags to use right now.
To effectively promote your giveaway on social media, it’s a good choice to add a few relevant hashtags to your posts.
Here are some of the most popular giveaway hashtags to help increase entries and boost your reach:
Hashtags related to your giveaway:
If you’re giving away a product, use hashtags related to that product. For example, if you’re giving away a new iPhone, you could use hashtags like #iphonegiveaway, #iphone13giveaway, or #applegiveaway.
If you’re giving away a service, use hashtags related to that service. For example, if you’re giving away a free month of a subscription service, you could use hashtags like #freesubscription, #freetrial, or #freemonth.
If you’re giving away a gift card, use hashtags related to the store where the gift card can be used. For example, if you’re giving away a $100 Amazon gift card, you could use hashtags like #amazongiveaway, #amazongiftcard, or #amazon.
Hashtags related to your target audience:
Think about who your target audience is and what hashtags they might use. For example, if you’re targeting young women, you could use hashtags like #girlboss, #girlpower, or #womensupportingwomen.
If you’re targeting a specific industry, use hashtags related to that industry. For example, if you’re targeting the beauty industry, you could use hashtags like #makeupgiveaway, #skincaregiveaway, or #haircaregiveaway.
Twitter is where hashtags were born, and it’s still the best platform to use them to increase your engagement.
Here are some of the most popular Twitter hashtags to use right now to boost engagement:
Instagram is a highly visual platform, so hashtags here are used to categorize posts and make them much easier to discover. You often see posts crammed with hashtags.
But how many hashtags can you use on Instagram?
30 hashtags are the most you can include in an Instagram post. Yet, it’s important to use hashtags that are relevant to your content and giveaway prize; otherwise, you risk losing engagement rather than getting more of it because you’ll be reaching the wrong kind of audience.
So what are the top Instagram hashtags? Let’s take a look.
That’s it!
Now you have a good idea of what the best giveaway hashtags are for you to use in your upcoming contests. All that’s left is for you to use them in your campaign to reach more people and get heaps of contest entries.
While you’re here, want to know how to do a giveaway on Instagram? We’ve got just the thing with our guide to running a successful Instagram giveaway. Go check it out!
And if you liked this article, why not follow us on YouTube for more helpful giveaway tips. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter. See you there!
Disclosure: Our content is reader-supported. This means if you click on some of our links, then we may earn a commission. We only recommend products that we believe will add value to our readers.
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