How to pick an Instagram giveaway winner, fair and square

Write the rules before you post

Your giveaway rules are a promise to your community. Publish them before the first comment comes in: in the caption, in a story highlight or on your website. A rule you forgot can’t be added once entries have started arriving.

At a minimum, they should state:

• The dates: the day and time it starts and ends, with the time zone (for example “until Sunday at 8 p.m. Eastern Time”).
• How to enter: what people need to do, the minimum age, and whether you count one entry per person or one per comment.
• The prize: exactly what the winner gets, and who pays for shipping.
• The number of winners, and the date of the draw.
• Where it’s open: the countries you can ship the prize to.
• The reply deadline: how long the winner has to get back to you.
• The alternates: how many there are, and in what order they replace a winner who doesn’t reply or doesn’t meet the conditions.
• How you’ll get in touch: the winner will only be contacted by your account, by direct message.

Take a dated screenshot of the published rules: it’s your first record. This guide isn’t legal advice. Giveaway rules vary from country to country, so if you’re running the giveaway for a business, or if the prize is worth real money, check the rules that apply where you live before you launch.

What Instagram’s guidelines ask for

Instagram’s Help Center has a page of promotion guidelines. Read it again before every giveaway, since it can change. Right now, it says in essence:

• the organizer is responsible for running the promotion lawfully: official rules, eligibility requirements (age, location) and compliance with the rules that apply;
• each participant must release Instagram from any liability;
• the promotion must say that it is not sponsored, endorsed or administered by Instagram, nor associated with it;
• content must be tagged accurately: you don’t encourage people to tag themselves in a photo they’re not in;
• Instagram won’t help you run the promotion.

So add a sentence like this to your rules: “This giveaway is not sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Instagram. By entering, you release Instagram from any liability.” If you also run the giveaway on Facebook or TikTok, each platform has its own rules: read those too.

Collect every comment

When entries close, open your post on a computer. Scroll down to the very last comment and expand the collapsed replies, so everything is showing. Select it all, copy, and paste it as is into the giveaway winner picker.

The site keeps the @usernames and ignores the rest of the text. It removes duplicates if your rules say one entry per person, as well as any accounts you mark as excluded: your own, plus your family’s or your team’s if your rules leave them out.

Before you draw, look at the number of entries found. If it looks much lower than you expected, some comments probably weren’t showing: copy them again.

Only check the conditions for the winner, after the draw: if they don’t qualify, the first alternate takes their place, just as your rules say.

Do the draw in public

A draw nobody saw breeds suspicion, even when it’s honest. Three ways to show it:

• Live: start a live video, show your screen, paste the list and run the draw.
• In a story: record your screen from pasting the list to the result, without cutting, and post the video.
• With the results page: the Buzzloo server does the draw at the moment you press the button. The page is then locked and shows the date and time, the number of entries, and the winners and alternates in order. Anyone can search for their username to check they were on the list. Nobody can change it, not even you.

You can combine them: a live video during which you create the results page, then its link in a story. Only one rule really matters: the first draw is the one that counts. A second draw, even for a good reason, damages trust.

Announce the winner and get in touch

Announce the result where the giveaway happened: in a story, in a pinned comment or by editing the caption. Tag the winner’s @username and remind them how long they have to reply.

Then message them yourself, privately, from your own account. A short note is enough: “Congrats, you won! Reply by Thursday at 8 p.m. with your name and shipping address.” If they don’t reply in time, move on to the first alternate and announce that publicly too.

Keep everything: the screenshot of the rules, the pasted list, the results page or the video, your messages and proof that the prize was shipped. If someone asks a question three months from now, you’ll have the answer.

Watch out for fake accounts

Accounts that impersonate you

It’s a well-known giveaway scam: an account copies your name and profile picture, then messages entrants to tell them they’ve won. Next, it asks them to pay a “shipping fee”, share a card number or click a link.

To protect your community:

• state in your rules that you will never ask for money, fees, codes or bank details;
• repeat it when you announce the winner, along with the exact name of your account;
• hide or delete comments from these impostors under your post;
• report them to Instagram from their profile, and warn your followers in a story.

Fake entrants

Some accounts exist only to enter giveaways. If your rules allow it (“one account per person”, for example), you can disqualify a winner who breaks them. Explain your decision publicly, then move on to the alternate.

What about a small draw among friends?

You don’t need all this to decide who gets the last slice of cake: a random name picker is enough. The reflexes that make a draw hard to argue with stay the same everywhere, and our guide to running a fair random draw spells them out. Giving the prize as a holiday treat? Our gift ideas by budget can help you choose one, and if your followers would rather swap gifts among themselves, here’s how to organize a Secret Santa.