Increasing Instagram Followers by 15X With Contesting & Influencers

Key Findings

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Chime is driving significant audience growth on Instagram using cash giveaways: the Chime account has seen dramatic increases in monthly follower growth as a result of engagement-focused giveaway contests. 

Chime built a large millennial following on Instagram through portraying a youthful brand voice via memes, cultural references, and working with relevant influencers

What Brands Should Be Thinking About

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Run giveaway contests on Instagram: Contests that have minimal barriers to entry (ie. details and time spent to enter) generate significant engagement when users are prompted to engage/follow when incentivized with a prize - this provides a pipeline to new followers, where they can then be converted into customers through additional incentives.

If you want to reach millennials, speak their language:

Convey a youthful tone of voice with casual slangs and trending hashtags or use humour to resonate with a younger audience through the use of memes.

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In January, Chime Bank saw a +1599% increase in new monthly Instagram followers compared to the 2019 average, followed by a +1319% increase in April.

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These major spikes in monthly followers growth to can be attributed to Chime’s acquisition strategy of running cash giveaways, which require users to follow their account, post using their hashtags, and if selected, to open a Chime Spending Account.

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Aside from contest/giveaway posts, the top performing organic content buckets on Chime’s Instagram page are....

To further appeal to Gen Z, Chime began an influencer partnership in July with global rap sensation 21Savage, which aimed to promote financial literacy for elementary, middle & high school students - which contributed to a +2.7K rise in followers.