Running a giveaway on social media is not a new concept. But running a collaborative giveaway, together with a brand or your bestie? Now, that’s a novel idea.
If you want to run a giveaway with a partner, we (and by we, I mean Trilce Jiròn Garro) figured out how to make it as painless as possible. Read on for the details.
How to Run a Collaborative Giveaway Using Manychat
In theory, collaborative posts have better reach than regular posts because they’re shown to followers of each account listed as an author. That expanded reach is one reason to do a collaborative giveaway, and here are a few more:
- To gain followers
- To establish cross-brand or account credibility
- To share the cost of an expensive prize
If any of these appeal to you, good news: You’re about to learn how to run a giveaway with another account. And to make sure we’re giving you the best advice possible, we ran our own: The Magic Mic Giveaway. 🕺🏻
1. Sign up for Manychat
If you’re going to run a giveaway with Manychat, you need Manychat (duh). So, sign up: Make a Manychat account. Then, connect your Instagram.
2. Know your goal
What is your motivation for running the giveaway? Do you want more followers? Do you want to create hype for an upcoming product launch or event?
Know what you’re going for before creating the giveaway so that you can tailor the prize and entry instructions to your goal.
For example, our goal with the Magic Mic Giveaway was to get new followers for the Chronically Online Magazine Instagram, so we made following that account part of the entry rules. (BTW, it worked — we gained nearly 70 new followers over there).
3. Pick a prize
When picking a prize, you want to choose something exciting enough to get people to enter but still relevant to your brand. For instance, a creator could offer a merch bundle or a few free months of access to their paid content. A brand might offer limited-edition or seasonal versions of its products, like this example from Olipop.
Avoid generic prizes (cash, iPhones, etc.) as they attract the wrong audience — everyone. At Manychat, our audience is mainly creators, so for the Magic Mic Giveaway, we chose to offer a set of RØDE microphones as a prize.
4. Craft an awesome post
To get people to enter your giveaway, you need them to see your post (so make it good). And don’t bury the lede: People should know you’re running a giveaway as soon as they see your post in the feed.
Create a Reel or carousel that shows the prize and provides clear instructions for entering. There are some rules you need to follow here, but don’t worry, we have a lawyer-approved breakdown of that just a few scrolls away.
Reels are generally better than carousels for reach, so that’s what we went with. And because our theme was Magic Mic Mike, we hired a stripper to star in our post.
We decided to publish our giveaway Reel from the main Manychat account and invite the COM Instagram account to collaborate. The main Manychat Instagram has way more followers than the COM Instagram, so we let the Reel pick up some traffic for a few hours before we accepted the collaboration.
Include clear entry rules
When your entry instructions are simple and specific, more people will complete the required steps to enter (and you’ll have fewer disqualified entries to comb through when it’s over). Make sure your caption sets clear expectations around eligibility requirements, deadlines, and winner selection.
Pin the post while the giveaway is active so it’s easy to find on your profile, and update the caption when the giveaway ends with something like “GIVEAWAY CLOSED.”
| Giveaway compliance checklist | |
|---|---|
| Instagram disclaimer | You must include a statement such as, “This giveaway is not sponsored, endorsed, or administered by, or associated with Instagram.” See Instagram Promotion Guidelines for more info. |
| Official rules (written and posted) | Create an official rules document outlining eligibility, how to enter, timing, prize, and winner details. Use Manychat to send it to users as soon as they enter. |
| No purchase required | Participants must be able to enter for free to keep it a legal “sweepstake” (not a lottery). Clearly state “No purchase necessary” in your caption or rules. |
| Start and end dates clearly stated | Specify the exact opening and closing times for the giveaway (including the time zone). |
| Winner selection method explained | Include details about how you’ll pick the winner — e.g., random draw, judging criteria, or Manychat’s Randomizer tool. |
| Data use disclosed | If you collect email addresses or phone numbers, explain how you’ll use them (e.g., to contact winners or send updates). |
| Local laws reviewed | Check the giveaway laws for every country and state you target — they differ for age limits, permits, and prize values. Search for “Giveaway laws [your state/country]” to make sure there aren’t any weird laws you’re overlooking. |
5. Build your giveaway automations in Manychat
The simplest way to run a giveaway in Manychat is a comment-to-enter approach. That said, for collaborative giveaways, keyword-triggered automations will only work for one account — the account the automation was created for.
Essentially, what you need to do is build two Manychat automations:
- A primary automation to collect entries from one account, and
- A secondary automation to confirm entry from the other account.
And yes, that means you will need to connect Manychat to both Instagram accounts.
For the Magic Mic Giveaway, we chose to set up the primary automation on the main Manychat Instagram (@manychat).
When someone commented the keyword (“Magic”), they got a DM with a link to the full terms and conditions. Trilce also included a Condition block in the flow to check if the user was a follower. The last step of the automation instructed the user to DM the word “cowboy” to the COM Instagram account.
Our secondary automation was set up from the COM Instagram. We set “cowboy” as the trigger keyword and included another Condition block to check if the user was following.
Finally, Trilce set up both automations to store entrants’ information in a Google Sheet. This made it easy to see who was actually following both accounts and, therefore, eligible to win. And I know that was a lot to take in, but don’t worry — Trilce’s got you covered with a step-by-step:
6. Promote your giveaway
If your account is relatively small, you’re probably going to need to post about the giveaway more than once.
Don’t muddy the waters with another feed post — people might get confused and try to enter the giveaway on the wrong post. Instead, share the original post to your Story, and if you have other channels (TikTok, YouTube, newsletter, etc.), promote it there too.
Our editorial director, Sarah Parker (AKA, Sparker), shared about the Magic Mic Giveaway in Manychat’s newsletter, which helped bring in dozens more entrants:
7. Close and announce the winner
I’ll be honest: This is the most tedious part of running a giveaway, and the more entries you get, the harder it’s going to be. However, you need to verify who is actually eligible to win before putting any names or handles into a randomizer and choosing a winner. It’s the only way to avoid an “Oops, you actually can’t be the winner” situation.
For me, this process involved duplicating the Google Sheet where entries were stored and filtering out anyone who didn’t follow both the Manychat and Chronically Online accounts. Then, I manually looked up each user to confirm that they’re based in the United States.
To check where an account is located, hit the three dots and tap About this account.
Here’s a little peek behind the curtain: We had almost 200 comments on our giveaway post, but only about 60 people followed the instructions and followed both the Manychat and COM accounts. Of those people, even fewer had a verifiable US-based account.
Once I had a final list of eligible entrants, I used Wheel of Names to pick a winner. I simply copied and pasted my list of entrants and spun the wheel.
Of course, there are other tools you can use to choose a winner — just Google ‘random name picker’ to browse more options.
Once you’ve chosen a winner, reach out to let them know and gather any information you need (mailing address, email) to get them their prize.
To-do: Find a Giveaway Buddy 🤝
Collaborative giveaways are one of the fastest ways to expand your reach without paying for ads — and now you know how to build the automations to make it happen.
All that’s left? Find an account to partner with.
Look for a brand or creator whose audience and content complement your own, and if you’ve worked together before, even better.
Need help setting up your automations or troubleshooting your flow? Join the Manychat Community for support from other users.
