Remember a few months ago I talked about how I started doing giveaways as a tactic to help me gain followers? You can read all about it in this post HERE!
At first, I viewed giveaways as a fun inviting way to gain followers while giving them an incentive for following your content. Now that I have a little bit of experience with giveaways I can give you an honest assessment of my experience.
Just a couple of weeks ago, Style Collective came out with a podcast about “Why Loop Giveaways is Hurting Your Brand,” this also gave me some insight into everything I did wrong.
My First Giveaway
I did a little giveaway with JORD watches last summer, you can read the post right here! Unfortunately, that giveaway was a complete flop! I had 3 submissions total. That’s when I decided that I should never do a giveaway on my own ever again.
I have a few theories as to why my giveaway was so unsuccessful:
- By the time I started collaborating with JORD, most of my fashion followers had a collaboration of their own with them.
- I did not have a strong enough following/engagement at the time
- It is possible that I did not promote the giveaway using the best tactics.
- Lastly, the timing could have also been a huge factor. At the time, I don’t believe I had a fresh following of people interested in wood watches.
What is Wrong with Loop Giveaways?
It sounds like a great concept, right! You team up with 30-40 other Instagram accounts to give away something special to your audience. You do have to pay a fee for your spot in the giveaway but it is your opportunity to expose yourself to bloggers and non-bloggers. You gain a mass amount of followers during the loop giveaway but there is a flaw with a majority of these followers.
- Most of the participants are not loyal followers and will unfollow you as soon as the giveaway is over.
- The Majority of the participants will not engage with you leaving you with a huge following and little engagement.
The Truths of Loop Giveaways
Last fall, I started doing these Loop Giveaways and I went from 2000- 5000 followers in a 4-5 month period and that’s with co-hosting 1 to 2 giveaways a month. During December I hosted 3. I used to view Loop giveaways as an opportunity to expose my Instagram and gain a better audience. Through experience, I am here to tell you that I was completely wrong! Loop Giveaways did not help me with engagement at all and I do not recommend them.
What Your Follower Might Think
I have also heard people describe Loop Giveaways as “paying for your followers,” and people will question your credibility as a blogger, seriously.
A few good followers may have come out of these giveaways but the majority are:
- Never on Instagram
- They trickle off my Instagram.
- They might be fake accounts
- And they do not engage or are not interested in engaging with me
Future Giveaways
I stopped doing the mass Loop Giveaways and should see my true following adjustment in the next few months. That’s the hard truth, but I want an authentic following.
Don’t get me wrong, I think giveaways are fun for your followers, and as soon as I have a good experience with one, I will tell you all about it, providing tips and all.
Gaining the proper engagement is an enigma to me. Ladies, if you have it figured out, please share! I would love to hear your thoughts! I have some ideas of what prevents us from growing, but I will leave that for another blog post.
Currently Wearing
Palm Print is my obsession this summer season and I cannot get enough!
Top (M): Shop Here
Earrings: Kiwi & Ellie 20% off with code Brandi20
Espadrilles (8): Shop Here
Pants (8): Shop Similar Here
Have a Great 4th Weekend!
Shop the Post
I love this blog, I hope the blog grows.
New Post:http://blondepow.blogspot.com/2017/07/healthy-foods-comidas-saludables.html
This is so true! I myself have joined loop giveaways in the past but when I don’t win, I simply unfollow. That is the reality of it – if I don’t like the content I am seeing on my feed, I unfollow! I prefer not to hold giveaways and have engagement from people who are truly interested in following me versus big numbers without much engagement. I have seen a ton of these bloggers with about 40K plus followers but only get 200 likes and maybe 5-10 comments. I think that is more alarming than having only about 1-2k followers but ones that are truly engaged.
Abby | Life in the Fash Lane
I love that you’re getting real about giveaways. The best ones I’ve done have been entirely on my own, or organized with a local brand whom I have cultivated a relationship with. They’ve taken place on my blog itself and happen so rarely that it’s really exciting when they do happen. I’ve noticed that doing it this way is actually really helpful in building a following and I’ve found some awesome new people that way.
Loop giveaways are something I’ve always shied away from for the reasons you listed above. And that was even before Style Collective had something to say on the matter. On top of everything you’ve said, they can be EXPENSIVE! I’m doing this blogging thing on a very tight shoestring budget and I just don’t have the money to give to maybe get some followers who MIGHT stick around. Not worth it.
Cheers to lessons learned and sharing the real truth behind blogging!
xoxo,
Dannie
http://www.stilefotocibo.com
As much as I loved the outfit you’re on, I admire your bravery and authenticity to expose all this through experience! love people giving away true reviews and confidence without hesitation to speak their mind. you go girl! xoxo
Courtney Bentley || http://www.starsystemz.com
Such a cute shirt, I love the palm print!
xo
http://www.laurajaneatelier.com
I really admire you for this! I haven’t done any giveaways before since I’m new to blogging and still trying to build a following, but it’s good to hear some perspective. <3
xo Josephine | floralextract.com
First off, I love this outfit. Everything about it is perfect <3 I swore I'd never so a loop giveaway but recently I did one to try and how and see how it'd go. I wasn't expecting much, I just wanted to experience it for myself so I could give a real judgement call on it and you're totally right. I would not recommend them. Even with just three "posts" it was more hassle than what it was worth. I have found that my own giveaways have been successful and I've gained some loyal followers.
Kimberly
http://www.brunchandgloss.com
Kimberly, thank you for sharing! I need to jump back into it and try my own giveaway one day 🙂
-Brandi K
Your shirt is so pretty! Love it!
Linda
Great post! I too and learning the hard truth about loop giveaway’s and while it might hurt for a minute having a true authentic following in the long run will be the best outcome for everyone! Loving that palm leaf top, so cute!
x – Leah
http://www.ellemae.blog
Leah, I agree! I am trying to clean it all up and start new <3 beside, style collective did put out that businesses are now looking into our engagement and I want to have true content for them to work with me 😉 Thank you for your post!
-Brandi K
Hey Brandi, this is a great post, thanks for sharing your experience with the loop giveaways. I haven’t tried one yet, I was planning on entering one next week. I hope it goes well!
For your loop, were the accounts you looped with other fashion blogger with a similar style to yours or were they other businesses? I know sometimes people have retail stores looped in, or fitness bloggers? I wonder if the drop off rate would be lower if all the accounts looped had the similar style and following?
Hope you have a great Fourth of July! xo, Emily
http://bailylamb.com
Hello Emily! Happy 4th! It was a mixture of all types, mostly fashion bloggers but some small businesses too. There might be some good Loops out there that will work. I won’t give the name of the one I went through but this person was reparable, a highly respected blogger used them a few times and completely stopped. This blogger has blown up overall in the past year but not with just using loop giveaways. But my outcome using the same Loop is no engagement! Ladies with the same about of followers get 10 times more like and comments on their posting than I do. I hope you have a better experience 🙂
-Brandi K
This top is so pretty! I love everything palm leaf print!
Thank you Brandi for posting your honest opinion with loop giveaways. I know myself I am getting very frustrated with growing a following. It has been a year and I just got to 1,000! This is certainly one of the struggles of being a blogger but it is a great challenge lol.
Cristina
http://www.timelessoptimist.com
Cristina, I agree 100%! Getting my blog/Instagram noticed has been a long struggle. A ton of recent bloggers struggle with this too. Some ladies seem to grow over night and the deals start coming in. Some ladies take longer to grow. I have accepted the fact that my blog is going to take longer 🙂 and I will be aiming for a true authentic audience in the future! Thanks for reading and good luck with your following!
-Brandi K