A marathon in sports is a race for a long distance. By analogy, the Instagram marathon is training for a “distance” of 3 to 30 days.
The main topics of the marathons: painting, cooking, design and many other areas. Conducted by one or more bloggers. May be paid or free.
In the article we will tell you what a marathon on Instagram is and for what purpose it is held. Let’s figure out how to organize and conduct it - from setting goals, determining the audience and publishing the announcement to summarizing and evaluating the results.
What is a marathon on Instagram and why is it needed
Nobody would run marathons if they were not profitable. At the moment, they are singled out as one of the most effective methods for promoting expert blogs on Instagram. Probably all of them held at least one such event: eminent bloggers and accounts with a small audience.
However, among novice bloggers there is an opinion that a marathon is difficult, expensive. They say they "no longer work" because they are fed up with the public. I would like to debunk these myths, as holding such events is not just useful for the blog. If you are a coach, trainer or consultant, they are simply necessary for you to attract a new audience and engage the existing one.
What for?
The meaning of the marathon for the participant is to learn something new. For the organizer - "sell yourself." And this can be a “sale" in both direct and figurative meaning.
The goal of the marathon may be:
- expanding the audience of subscribers / engaging a "silent" public;
- attracting the attention of subscribers to a paid product;
- monetization of the audience.
You ask, is it necessary to conduct a marathon to solve these problems? Why not use other promotion tools: mutual advertising with other bloggers involving posts or contests.
Firstly, account promotion is a set of activities. It’s better to use all the tools, rather than just one. Mix them to surprise the audience. Secondly, Instagram is a platform for communication and entertainment, not for sale and advertising.
The "magic" of marathons in an interactive and sense of unity with other participants. People like to perform various tasks, learn something useful, find like-minded people.
How?
A marathon must:
- Be interesting . For example, not just training "How to lose weight," but an event with an attractive feature. “A marathon of low-calorie sweets”, “Weight loss by breastfeeding” or “Week of your body’s detox”. The marathon should offer the participant to plunge into something new and previously unknown. Well, of course, the topic should be adapted to the audience of the account.
- Be of practical use . Give the participants a guarantee that they will not leave the marathon empty-handed. Invite them to solve relationship problems together, learn languages, or develop writing skills. Thus, you will attract followers.
- To be simple . Do not “scare” the audience with complex tasks or scientific and encyclopedic material. The tests should be feasible to the participants, the implementation should not take much time. It is better to present information in a simple and understandable language.
- Have a prize pool . It is important to awaken the spirit of competition. Motivate participants to be active by promising a pleasant gift. This works great. The vast majority of Instagram marathons award winners.
Examples and types of marathons
Globally marathons can be divided into group and individual:
- Individual . Held alone by a blogger in their own account. The topic corresponds to the profile topic.
- Group Organized by several bloggers. The general theme of broadcasts / tasks / content is invented and the prize fund is co-sponsored. The trick is that to participate you need to sign up immediately for all the organizers.
What could be a marathon? Subject, it can be any. Let's look at a few examples.
Slimming marathon
The absolute leader among topics, since nowadays everything is losing weight. Thanks to the fashion for healthy lifestyle. Here they teach "eat potatoes at night and grow slim", pick up vitamins, prepare PP dishes.
For example, at the “School of harmony” group marathon @school_stroinosty, 25 bloggers conduct an educational program on this subject: starting with a nutritionist, ending with a massage consultant.
Sports and fitness
Another fruit of the trend on healthy lifestyle. Sports events are launched even by bloggers whose account theme is not related to training at all. So much for this current trend.
Instagram coach Max Mukovnin @maks_mukovnin together with fitness trainer Arthur Azizbekyan @arturfitt launched the # marathon #newnlife21 sports marathon under the hashtag of the same name to encourage their subscribers to spend at least 21 minutes a day on sports.
Bloggers for bloggers
Today on Instagram there are so many people who want to develop a personal blog that there is a need for successful people to share their experiences. Marketing marathons are popular.
“Design and visual in marketing” @insta_marafon. The speakers declare that they will teach to transmit uniqueness in their blog through design, structures, images. The marathon is organized by bloggers.
Creative marathons
Photographers, artists, designers and other creative experts offer participants tests for pumping their skill. For example, do 10 days in a row on a cool photo a day or write texts on assignments. There are purely training events: "Learn to knit" or "Every day we bake a new pie."
A group of artists and content specialists conducts creative # marathon_autumn_histories . Participants are invited to learn how to write incredible texts and pictures.
Business marathons
Making money is always relevant. Moreover, not everyone knows how. Issues of increasing income, proper financial management or legal reduction of tax payments are never ignored.
How to find the idea of your own business, to conclude a contract with a client correctly, to overcome fears that impede development, was discussed at the “My Business” group marathon @marafon_svoe_delo.
Self development
A marathon can be collected on almost any topic. Example: “You're the Best” @ lu4shaya_ty. Here you can manage your own life, and choose an economical stylish wardrobe, plus even a live broadcast with a dentist blogger. 11 expert girls found common ground in such different topics of their blogs and organized an interesting women's event.
How to organize a marathon
Stages of preparing the marathon:
- Account preparation . Make a beautiful profile design, fill out the section about yourself, make relevant stories and so on.
- Determining the target audience . Who are you waiting for at this event? Write portraits of each category of participants, if there are several. The more detailed these descriptions, the better. Something like: “A young mother, a blogger, a business owner, follows trends and strives for excellence in everything.”
- Formulate the theme of the marathon . It is better to do this on the basis of how your marathon will be interesting and useful. It is necessary to consider what his purpose is: to expand the audience, engage existing subscribers or stimulate sales.
- Think about organizational issues . You can hold a marathon in your account or create a separate profile. Make a prediction of how many approximately participants will fit into the event, and decide how the interaction between you will occur. It’s also better for an event to come up with its own hashtag.
- Organize a prize pool . You can play a trip to Bali, lipstick or a discount on your own paid product. It all depends on the goals of the marathon, your creativity and solvency.
- Create a plan of tasks and events . Schedule a marathon every day. For example: “1 day - Live broadcast on crocheting”, “2 day - Task: knit a scarf without a pattern”, “3 day - IGTV video with an overview of the best product according to the results of the first task” and so on.
How to conduct a marathon on Instagram
Stage 1. Announcement of the marathon
5-7 days before the start, notify subscribers about the planned event. Prepare a post ad. The announcement should contain information on why the marathon is interesting and what is useful. Review the benefits of participating. If you have a small subscriber audience, start publishing promotion.
Think over the design of all the graphic materials that will be published during the marathon, including the cover of the announcement. Everything should be in the same style.
The announcement is best repeated immediately the day before the start of the marathon. You can make it not as official as the first announcement, but simply recall the event in any post of your account.
It’s better to share announcements in story so that more people see information about the event. And be sure to follow the comments below the ads.
Stage 2. Organization of the event
It is time to provide the promised material and offer the participants tasks.
Do not forget that the marathon is designed to make subscribers feel your interest in them. Respond to comments: like, reply.
It is important to provide feedback on assignments. Many bloggers make reviews in the form of separate posts or live broadcasts.
Requesting feedback from participants is also welcome. Ask, for example, whether the material is useful to them or what difficulties they encountered in completing the assignment.
Arouse excitement. Remind about the prizes. You can provide information on the intermediate results of the marathon.
Stage 3. Summing up
Determine the winners (one or more depending on the conditions). Post your results on your blog. Check out the comments below the post. Ask participants to write feedback on the event in their accounts.
Stage 4. Evaluation of effectiveness
So, everything is behind. Now it’s important to draw the right conclusions. The evaluation strategy depends on the goal that the marathon pursued. If you want to grow your audience or engage subscribers, then it's time to start. If the goal was to increase sales of the product, then it is better to take a while and do an analysis after 7-10 days.
In any case, to evaluate it, you will have to work with the statistics of the account. You can do this manually using Instagram functionality or use third-party services.
What is important to analyze:
- increase / decrease in subscribers;
- number of likes under posts;
- coverage of publications;
- involvement (the ratio of reactions to fasting to coverage);
- number of blog sales.
Assessing these indicators, you will identify strengths and weaknesses. It will become clear what worked and what didn’t.
Conclusion
Even if the event did not bring the desired result, work on the errors and prepare the following. This format of account promotion and engagement can be used as often as you think is necessary.
Use the marathons on Instagram to develop a personal blog. Such events are incredibly effective for presenting expertise, “warming up” the audience and stimulating sales.
