Instagram Follower Challenges to Try in the New Year

Instagram is one of the most powerful tools for promoting your brand and taking your online presence to the next level. With an audience of various demographics, interests and behaviors, Instagram serves as the best platform at present to promote your brand. However, due to the presence of millions of brands, Instagram has become saturated and highly competitive. To stand out from the crowd and engage your target audience, it’s important to think of something outside of the box. 

This new year, kickstart your Instagram growth with fun, creative, interesting and engaging follower challenges. These challenges aim to attract the interest of your audience and encourage them to engage with your brand. They help you foster a sense of community among your followers, which results in long-term brand loyalty and relationships. From 30 days of content to Behind-the-Scenes week, we have curated a list of some of the most interesting follower challenges. Using these follower challenges not only helps you attract an audience but also boost engagement and build connections.

30-Day Content Challenge

Most of the creators and brands may not be able to post regularly. Social media content creation is not as easy as it sounds; therefore, most brands either post on alternative days or in a 2–3-day gap. If you are one of them, commit to posting every day for the next 30 days from 1st January. Announce your 30-day content challenge to attract your potential audience and encourage them to follow you for the content. The content can vary, like photos, reels, infographics, stories, carousels, etc. The consistency will keep your followers engaged and encourage Instagram algorithms to promote your content. If you are struggling with followers, it’s best to purchase some genuine followers from Blastup and boost your reach and visibility.  

Story Takeover Challenge

A “Story Takeover Challenge” is a fun and interesting way to engage your current followers while also tapping into new audiences. Whether you are a brand or a creator, each week, create or pick a new theme to share in the story. This includes “Motivation Monday,” “Transformation Tuesday,” “Throwback Thursday, “Sunday Funday”, etc. Announce this as a takeover challenge so that your followers can also participate by submitting their content related to the challenge. To boost engagement and interaction, offer an exciting reward like featuring on your feed, story shoutouts, gift vouchers, discount coupons, etc. 

Daily Gratitude Challenge

A daily gratitude challenge is a simple and pleasant approach to spread optimism and connect with people who appreciate meaningful content. Every day, share something that you’re thankful for, whether in a story or a post. You can use prompts like “Something you’re proud of,” “A person who made you smile,” or “Your favorite moment of the month” etc., to make the process simple and enjoyable. Invite your followers to participate by responding with their own daily gratitude in the comment section and encouraging them to save and share. You can even develop a unique hashtag to distinguish your gratitude challenge and foster a sense of community around it.

Poll-a-Day Challenge in Stories

Polls in the stories are one of the most interactive and engaging content that attract audience interest and boost engagement. By viewing the two options in a poll, very few people can resist themselves from sharing their preferences. Therefore, it is one of the best Instagram follower challenges to try in the new year. To do this, share a daily poll or quiz in the story and encourage your audience to share their opinion or preferences. Polls can be as simple as a beach or mountains, tea or coffee, black or white, etc. and can even be brand, product or service specific. Mix up different themes like food, travel, tech, fashion, current affairs, etc., to keep your followers engaged. 

Behind-the-Scenes (BTS) Week

Today, people are more interested in watching behind-the-scenes content of a brand or influencer than actual content. To show the human side of your brand and develop personal connections, dedicate one week to showing behind-the-scenes of your daily life, work, content creation, travel, and hobbies. Sharing such content brings a personal touch to your profile that attracts followers and boosts engagement. This helps your audience know the real you, which ultimately creates long-lasting relationships and, thus, devoted followers. 

Photo-a-Day Challenge

Similar to the story takeover challenge, this challenge includes sharing content daily related to a specific theme but in the post format. This includes Monday Motivation, Throwback Thursday, etc., as well as other challenges like “a beautiful sunrise”, “your favorite meal”, “something that makes you happy”, “your biggest achievement”, etc. Perform this challenge with a specific hashtag and encourage your audience to participate in the same. When your followers participate in your brand-specific challenge, this boosts your brand awareness and fosters a community of loyal followers. 

Weekly Q&A Challenge

The weekly Q&A challenge is an interesting way to interact with your audience, answer their queries and develop a sense of community. To do that, fix one day in a week and use a question sticker on your story to get questions. Invite followers to ask relevant and interesting questions, queries, solutions, or anything else they want. Filter out the best questions, whether they are about your niche, personal experiences, products, content, or anything else. Set a schedule, which means a fixed day on which you will answer each question to spark anticipation. Answer the questions with text, photos or videos, creating a deeper level of engagement. 

Before & After Challenge

Before and after challenge is one of the most popular and engaging follower challenges you can try in this new year. It is like a UGC or user-generated content challenge where you post before and after on a certain topic and encourage your followers to do the same. This can be any transformation like fitness, room decor, outfit change, creative projects, product design, or something else. Such UGC challenges help gain maximum brand awareness, reach, visibility and engagement. Not only that but with the right strategies and hashtags, you can use this challenge to skyrocket your followers in less time due to high reach.

Conclusion

Instagram can help you boost engagement and followers to the next level, but only with some unique and out-of-the-box approaches. Follower challenges are a great way to reach your target audience, attract their interest, and encourage them to interact with your content and brand. From 30-day content challenges to before and after challenges, we have mentioned the top 8 most effective and proven challenges to try in the new year. These challenges not only bring you followers but also foster a sense of community and trust that improves our brand’s goodwill and reputation.