TikTok Giveaway: How To Host a Successful Giveaway

Do you need a gimmick to increase your follower numbers? Are you looking for a way to boost awareness for a new product or service? Try a TikTok giveaway! Here’s everything you need to run a successful giveaway on TikTok.

Can You Do Giveaways on TikTok?

Can you do giveaways on TikTok? Giveaways are common on TikTok, as they are on any other social media platform. They’re an excellent way to get greater brand/product exposure and drum up new followers and higher engagement.

When should you host a giveaway?

• When you need to drive traffic to your website
• When you need to increase your reach and brand awareness
• When you need to increase your TikTok followers
• When you want to drive sales
• As part of a promotional campaign for launching a new product/service.
• To promote an upcoming event and round up more attendees
• To celebrate a special occasion, such as your brand anniversary, and boost top-of-mind brand awareness
• To show followers your appreciation for their continued support

How To Do a Giveaway on TikTok?

Curious about how to do a giveaway on TikTok? You can follow a basic follow-like-and-comment format and use a randomizer app or random number generator to pick a random winner. You can invite your followers to participate in a challenge to win a prize. Or use a raffle plugin to automate your giveaway fully.

Basic Giveaway Format Using a TikTok Giveaway Picker

A basic giveaway format doesn’t involve much preparation or management. You can run one spontaneously or on a regular basis. This is best for small giveaways that are just for fun or to help you get more views and engagement for a video. Participants only need to complete a simple task to join. The basic format is as follows:

1. Set a goal. Your giveaway goal will dictate what action you want people to take. Do you want to get more likes for your video? Are you promoting a new product?
2. Choose a prize. Your prize should be valuable enough to be worth the giveaway participants’ efforts. 
3. Craft the rules for your giveaway. Keep them simple. The rules should also include an explanation for how you will choose the winner/s.
4. Set a start and end date and when you’ll pick and announce the winner/s. You will include this in your giveaway announcements. 
5. Select a third-party TikTok giveaway picker. You will assign a number to every entry and use the app to pick the winner/s. 
6. Launch and promote your giveaway on all your social media channels. 
7. Choose and announce your giveaway winners. You can do a LIVE stream when picking and announcing the winner/s. Or you can record the process of choosing the winner/s and upload the video.

Fully Automated Giveaway

A fully automated giveaway is ideal for giveaways if you expect it to generate tons of participants. This is also a good option if you want to track giveaway entry data. RafflePress is one of the top WordPress plugins for automated giveaways. Below are the general steps for using the app.

1. Install RafflePress. You will need to choose a plan based on your budget and needs. The Plus package lets you use the app’s TikTok template. The Growth plan gives you access to more features, as well as your giveaway data and reports. 

2. Select a TikTok template for your giveaway. You’ll enter a giveaway name and select a template based on your goal, such as Grow Your TikTok Following. 

3. Specify your prize. Enter a custom prize name and description. Upload the prize image. 

4. Set a start and end date. Set a run time for your contest. The ideal timeframe is 14 days. This will give you enough time to generate enough entries. It’s short enough to create a sense of urgency, and it won’t run too long that people will forget about it. However, the length of your giveaway will depend on your goals.

5. Customize your giveaway entry requirements. Edit the default entry requirements and add more entry actions as necessary. 

6. Add the final touches to your giveaway. Customize how your giveaway will look. 

7. Manage your giveaway settings. The most important setting you should edit is the giveaway rules. This setting allows you to specify eligibility requirements for participants. Make sure to comply with TikTok’s official rules for hosting giveaways. 
8. Publish your giveaway. You can add the giveaway you created to an existing page, embed the giveaway using a shortcode, or create a giveaway landing page.

TikTok Contest

You can run a contest as part of your giveaway to make things more exciting for participants. A contest is also an excellent opportunity to collect user-generated content you can repurpose for your brand. Here are some great TikTok contest ideas:

• Ask followers to Duet or Stitch with your video
• Ask customers to create a video showing the most creative way to use your product
• Invite followers to participate in a TikTok challenge
• Ask followers to complete a task using your product

Your contest may have a voting or judging component to determine the winner/s. You can have your followers vote on their favorite entry. The contest rules may say that the entry with the most likes wins, so participants’ followers can also vote. Or you and your team can make up the judging panel and decide who wins.

An important thing to remember when running a contest that requires participants to submit original work is usage rights. Original work, like videos or artwork, remains the property of the creator. If you plan on using any of the submitted content for your purposes, you need the creator’s permission. You can include a blanket statement in the contest rules that clearly says the creator of a submitted/winning entry automatically assigns the rights to you.

However, to cover all your bases, ask the creators of the content you want to use to sign a consent form allowing you to use their material.

TikTok Giveaway Rules

You’ll discuss your TikTok giveaway rules in your video and list them in your caption. If the rules are too long for the video description, you can prompt viewers to check the comments section for the guidelines. Common rules include the following:

• Follow you on TikTok
• Like and comment on your video
• Tag people in the comments
• Like and share your video, and tag you and your friends when they share
• Use your brand or giveaway hashtag in the comments or a separate post
• Duet or Stitch with your video and use your giveaway hashtag

Make sure your giveaway complies with TikTok’s Community Guidelines. For example, if you’re hosting a giveaway via a LIVE stream, you need to be at least 18 years old. If your giveaway is part of a brand sponsorship, you also need to comply with their Branded Content Policy and Industry Entry Policy.

In addition to TikTok’s policies, you also need to follow state and federal regulations for online giveaways. The regulations will depend on whether you’re running a sweepstakes type of giveaway or a contest giveaway. For both types, entry should be free.

• A sweepstakes type of giveaway typically only requires participants to complete a simple task to become eligible to participate. This task may involve following your page or liking your post on social media platforms. Everyone has an equal chance of winning. The winner is random. 
• A contest often involves a more challenging task, and the winner is often selected based on skill or popularity.

Keep in mind that a purchase must not be required to enter your giveaway. If any type of purchase is a requirement, then it becomes a lottery. TikTok considers lotteries as a form of gambling and is prohibited on the platform.

Give Viewers Something To Be Excited About To Fuel Your Growth

Social media is responsible for people’s extremely short attention span these days. Active users lose interest in a social media post as soon as they scroll up on their feeds. TikTok’s short video format has proven to be the most effective in keeping audiences engaged longer. They’re bite-sized — allowing viewers to consume a single video in minutes.

However, running a giveaway is an effective way to get your followers excited if you’re seeing your engagement plateau. Do it regularly to give people something to look forward to and sustain top-of-mind brand awareness.

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