An Instagram Photo Contest Run on a Hashtag

Ten days into the contest

The contest opened at the start of July: post a summer photo with the business's hashtag, and the best one wins a prize. Ten days in, the owner opens the tag's page.

Real entries are there, mixed with posts selling followers and sunglasses. One striking photo turns out to have come from somebody else's account.

Two customers say they entered, yet their photos appear nowhere. Their accounts are private, so only approved followers can see them.

A hashtag is open to everyone

Nobody owns a hashtag. Any account can add it to any photo, and the business cannot take a post off the tag's page.

Spam accounts attach popular and new tags so that strangers see their posts. A tag made from a common phrase also gathers photos from people who never heard of the contest.

So the tag only gathers posts. The rules, and a person checking each one, decide which are entries.

Rules that settle the questions

Write the rules before the contest opens, on a page of the website, covering each of these:

• Who can enter: age, where entrants live, and whether staff and their families are excluded.
• How to enter: the tag, the opening and closing times, and how many photos each person may post.
• Whose photo it is: taken by the entrant, with the agreement of anyone recognisable in it.
• Who can see it: entries stay on a public account until the winner is announced.
• What you may do with it: the entrant keeps the photo and agrees only to the uses you list.
• How the winner is chosen: by whom, on what basis, and by what date.

The fourth item settles the private accounts before anyone is disappointed. An entry nobody can see cannot be judged, and the rules say so from the first day.

Instagram leaves the rules to you

Instagram does not run or check contests. The rules, and running the contest lawfully, are the business's responsibility, and the rules should state that Instagram has no part in it.

Captions cannot carry a working link, and each account has one link, in its profile. Point it at the rules page while the contest runs, and say so in each contest post.

Canadian contests carry legal requirements too, such as stating the prize, its value and how the winner is chosen. This is general information, not legal advice; have your rules read by someone qualified.

A tag nobody else uses

Search a tag on Instagram before announcing it. If strangers already use it, choose a longer one with the business's name in it, and spell it the same way everywhere.

A distinctive tag still draws some spam, but it keeps strangers' holiday snapshots out of the entries.

Private accounts and borrowed photos

A private account shows its posts only to approved followers. Its photos never reach the public tag page, so the business cannot see an entry from one, judge it or share it.

Borrowed photos take more care. Someone saves a striking picture from another account, posts it with the tag, and waits.

Look for an account with no other photos from the place, a picture far sharper than the rest of its feed, or copies found through Google's search by image. Ask shortlisted entrants for the original file.

A worked example

A llama trekking company leads guided walks on forest trails near a small Interior town, with the llamas carrying lunch and gear. This summer the owners announced a photo contest, with a family trek as the prize.

The announcement was a single post: tag your trek photos and we will pick a favourite. A week later the tag held a few real entries, some advertisements, and a llama portrait copied from a photographer overseas.

Two guests commented that they had entered from private accounts, which nobody at the company could see.

The owners wrote a rules page and pointed the profile link at it. Entries must come from a trek this season, be the entrant's own photo and stay public until judging.

Shortlisted entries are now checked against the season's bookings, which shows at once whether the entrant ever came on a trek. The two guests switched their accounts to public.

Each awkward decision now points to a line published before the first entry arrived.

Judging that can be explained

Choose the method before entries arrive. A judged contest says who judges and on what, such as the photo itself and how well it shows a summer day.

Two or three judges choosing from a shortlist are harder to accuse of favouritism than an owner alone. Keep the shortlist with screenshots, account names and posting dates.

If the winner is drawn instead, say how and by whom. Either way, the record answers an entrant who asks why someone else won.

Ask before you repost

Instagram has no button for sharing another account's photo. Reposting means saving a copy and posting it again, which uses a photo that belongs to someone else.

Even when the rules allow it, ask in a comment on the photo and wait for a yes. Credit the photographer by account name, and leave the photo uncropped.

The same goes for the website or a brochure: each use should be one the rules listed and the entrant agreed to, along with anyone pictured.

The counter-case

A small contest among regulars, for a modest prize, can feel overdone with a page of rules. Plenty of owners run one with a single post and nothing goes wrong.

That holds while every entry comes from someone who knows the business. It stops holding when the tag spreads and a stranger's entry needs an answer nobody wrote down.

A short rules page takes an afternoon to write and a qualified reading to check. Keep it brief, but have it in place first.

Before the contest opens

1. Search the tag before announcing it.
2. Write the rules on a page of the website.
3. Have the rules read by someone qualified.
4. Point the profile link at the rules page.
5. Require public accounts until the winner is announced.
6. Check shortlisted entries against your own records.
7. Ask each winner before reposting the photo.

Step two carries the rest. Every later decision, from a private account to a borrowed photo, then points to a rule that was there from the start.

If you announce the contest on Twitter as well, the pinned tweet that can keep it at the top of your profile is explained in Twitter's new profile layout.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.