Blogging: The Great Loop Giveaway Debate- The Pros and Cons of Loop Giveaways

There is a new phenomenon going through the blogging world, and it’s called a Loop Giveaway. These are very popular on instagram, and you really can’t go a day without seeing a new loop giveaway pop up! If you aren’t familiar with these types of giveaways, they are done on instagram, and a bunch of shops/blogs pool money to giveaway a great prize! And yes, there is really a prize, and yes, it is really given away (just in case you had your suspicions).

These have been around for long enough for bloggers to see the true pros and cons of these giveaways. Today I thought I’d share my insights on loop giveaways and the pros and cons of participating in one. Of course, these pros and cons are all my personal opinion and what I’ve noticed as I’ve grown my instagram following. Let me know what you’ve experienced in this realm and what you’ve noticed too!

Also, I would like to do a post about how to grow your instagram, so If you’d like to see that, leave a comment down below!

Pros:

• You get to giveaway something REALLY awesome to a follower of yours! Nothing feels better than giving a gift!
• You get to make connections with other bloggers and shops! Networking is key to blogging success!
• You get an influx of people (usually thousands!) following your instagram account.
• Your blog/shop is exposed to new eyes, so you are able to get your name out there more, and make more sales!

Cons:

• After the loop giveaway is over, it isn’t uncommon for half (or more) to unfollow you. You will lose hundreds of those new followers you were so excited to receive.
• The more loop giveaways you do, the more followers are only there for the giveaways, and could care less about your content! That is horrible for bloggers and shops because it never converts to real readers and real sales.
• Once a loop giveaway is over, you will continuously lose followers for MONTHS! This really throws off your statistics, and it’s extremely hard to analyze your true growth and to identify improvements you could be making.
• A large majority of the new followers you receive are spam accounts. You don’t ever want spam accounts or fake followers on your social media.
• Companies will see that you lost hundreds of followers, and they will not work with you because of that.
• Your engagement is usually low (because of the spam followers). Companies actually care less about how many followers you have and care SO MUCH MORE about how your community interacts on your account. If you have 10,000 followers, but only get 25 likes per picture, that looks extremely bad, and no one will want to work with you.
• There are a good amount of loop giveaway scams out there. These bloggers will put together the giveaway, collect the money, and never put the giveaway together. Or even worse, they will let the giveaway run and never choose a winner. Always be cautious about who you work with!
• Loop giveaways are starting to get really spammy. I honestly hate when I’m scrolling through my feed and there are a ton of loop giveaway pictures. I start to unfollow people that post too many loops!
• 

All in all, I really enjoyed loop giveaways at first, but after doing a couple, I’ve started to notice what a true detriment they are to my instagram! The best way in my opinion to grow your blog followers and social media followers is through rafflecopter giveaways. These are directed towards people who actually follow blogs, so they are more likely to become real followers of all your social media! I put rafflecopter giveaways together every month for all bloggers (and shops with blogs), so if you’d like to participate, sponsor my blog HERE. On average, bloggers that participate in my giveaways gain 75-100 new readers! It’s a great way to grow!

Let me know what your thoughts on loop giveaways are! Do you love them? Or despise them?

xoxo