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Elizabeth Schutte
Last Updated: Mar 10, 2023
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Instagram games are a great tool to use in order to boost engagement and promote a community feeling on your Instagram account.
This means that they’re a key aspect of social media marketing, as they help account owners to reach their goals of increasing followers and using Instagram as a means of business success.
But what exactly are Instagram games, and how can they be used in the most successful way possible? We’ll talk about all this and go over 9 Instagram game ideas that you can use.
Quick Links
What Are Instagram Games?
Instagram games are (you guessed it!) games or challenges that can be posted to boost engagement among your audience. If you’re running out of content ideas, this is a great way to add some diversity to your feed and change things up with what you’re posting.
Instagram games take on a variety of forms, from contests in which people submit photos to multi-person challenges that invite followers to participate and then pass the game along to friends.
Why They’re Helpful
When you post Instagram games or challenges on your account, your followers can be asked to tag their friends, fill in the blank, etc. This encourages followers to engage with your content and share your profile with others.
Each of these serves as an effective means of social media marketing, since they boost your among your audience increase traffic on your page. So, hosting a game on Instagram could be a smart idea if you’re thinking about switching up your marketing strategy.
How Do You Play Games On Instagram?
There are tons of ways you can play games on Instagram, and we’re about to give you nine ideas for Instagram games below.
Setting It Up
One way to play Instagram games is by going to ‘Stories’ and scrolling to the right where it says ‘Browse Effects.’
At the top of the screen, you will see ‘Effect Gallery.’
Right below that, you can scroll through various effect options. All the way at the right of this list, you’ll see ‘Games.’
Within this category, you can find a ton of games that you can post on your Stories. After posting the Instagram games for Story, you can invite followers to respond by sharing their thoughts on your post or by posting their own version of the game. These are great to play when you want to do something fun with followers, or even if you’re just bored!
Let’s Play!
There are loads of fun options for Instagram games for story. One game that can be a lot of fun to play and post as encouragement for others to play is ‘Song Association.’
This game will provide the player with a prompt, and the player must then think of a song that fits. In the example shown below, the player must think of a song that involves the word “hero.”
This game is great to play on your own, but if you’re with someone else, you could include that person on the screen as well and compete to see who can think of a song faster.
This friendly competition would be a fun twist on the game that might inspire followers to play and include more people as well.
Another fun game that’s pretty easy for everyone to understand (and therefore accessible to all followers) is ‘Make Ur Own Meme.’
This game acts as a filter that inserts a caption above the player’s head. The player must then make a face that’s accurately described by this caption.
This game involves a lot of variety and can be a lot of fun for multiple people as well. In order to encourage more players to join, you can post a video of yourself using this Instagram game for Story and invite your followers to play as well. But, when they post their video, ask them to tag some friends in the Story, which can create a chain of players.
Another Option For Instagram Games
Another way to access some templates for Instagram games and challenges is by going to ‘Stories’ and selecting the ‘Aa’ that says ‘Create’ on the lefthand side. Then scroll over three times to ‘Templates.’ At the top of the screen, select the button that says ‘See All.’ There will be a ton of templates in this location that you can use as well!
Now that you know some of the ways to create Instagram games, let’s take a look at some examples of Instagram games you can use on your account!
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9 Instagram Game Ideas
There are practically endless options of games and challenges that you can host for your followers on Instagram, but here are nine ideas to get you started.
1. Three Truths And A Lie
Three Truths and a Lie is a fun game that many people are familiar with, and it’s pretty self-explanatory.
To play this Instagram game for Story, simply make four posts to your Story, each with a fact about yourself or your business. Then, add another post using the Poll Sticker to have followers choose which of the facts isn’t true.
This Instagram game is easy for all followers to participate in, and it gives them the opportunity to get to know you or your brand better.
2. Quick Draw Challenge
If you’re looking for something especially interactive, try challenging your followers to a Quick Draw challenge. This template can be accessed through the second set of directions provided in the above section.
You can also use this Instagram game for Story to help followers get to know you better by challenging them to create the best Quick Draw of your pet or a product that your business sells.
To take this challenge a step further, you can turn it into a giveaway. For example, whoever can draw the best version of a specific product from your brand will receive a free sample of it.
3. Nominate Your Friends Challenge
You’ve probably seen a lot of these particular challenges around Instagram. It’s a simple game to host and a fun way to get lots of followers and friends involved in the challenge.
There’s also a lot of creative liberty within this game — you can design the challenge to be whatever you want it to be. Followers who participate will have to complete the steps posted with the game and then challenge their friends to join in.
An easy way to spread your challenge across Instagram is by using the challenge sticker that’s available on Instagram Stories. This feature allows users to easily participate in challenges when nominated. Here’s how it works:
After recording a video or taking a photo to show that you’ve completed a challenge, use the challenge sticker to mark it. This can take the form of a specific hashtag or simply the name of the challenge.
Followers will then be able to click on the sticker when viewing your Story, which will take them to their own Stories, where they can create their contribution to the challenge and have it marked the same way.
Using this sticker will allow your challenge to be easily recognized and joined, which will help it to spread in popularity.
As shown in this example, participants can tag friends, who will have the ability to easily participate in the “Baby Face Challenge” by clicking the sticker in the Story post.
4. GIF Challenge
Another fun Instagram game for Story that has grown in popularity recently is the idea of hosting a GIF challenge.
In these challenges, the host will create a template that fits under a certain theme such as a holiday or a big event like March Madness or Halloween. The template would include blank squares that are labeled in a variety of ways.
Participants in the challenge would screenshot and repost the template, filling in each square with a GIF of their choosing. Then, they would repost the blank template so that any of their followers could participate.
As you can see from this example, GIF challenges do not always have to fit a specific theme. They can simply be a way for participants to introduce themselves, as shown above.
5. Hashtag Challenge
Hashtag challenges are another great way to spread awareness of your brand on Instagram. And, they’re another super simple option when it comes to hosting the challenge!
To host a hashtag contest, simply invite followers to enter the contest by creating a post for their feed or their Story and accompanying this post with a brand-specific hashtag.
As your followers post to enter the challenge, their followers will see the posts and, therefore, see your hashtag. This will help you to expand your reach and engagement as it creates a ripple effect among Instagram users.
6. Quiz Game
Quiz games are an awesome way for you and your followers to get to know one another, which is great when you’re looking to promote a community feeling on your page.
Similar to the GIF challenges, quiz games are commonly used as Instagram games for Story and are based on a template that the host will post first.
These games also have a lot of flexibility as to how they’ll actually look. For example, the questions can follow any theme, and the format varies as well. Sometimes, the quiz templates look like bingo cards, and other times, they simply display a list of questions that have space for the participants’ answers.
When hosting a quiz challenge, it’s a great idea to invite participants to challenge their friends and followers to join as well.
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7. Music Challenge
Music challenges are another fun way to build community in your online space and help everyone to get to know one another.
These Instagram games are often posted on Stories and invite participants to share the music they’ve been listening to lately or their favorite music overall. And, as with all challenges, anyone who participates should invite friends to join!
30-day song challenges, like the one shown above, have become very popular recently and give participants the opportunity to share music based on a variety of prompts every day for 30 days.
This essentially creates a month of sharing music with followers, which gives everyone the opportunity to learn more about one another and connect with other members of the community.
8. This Or That
A This or That challenge is a great Instagram game for Story that encourages lots of followers to engage with your account.
Everyone seems to love reposting the templates for these games and sharing their opinions with other users, as well as seeing how everyone else feels about debatable topics.
To host one of these challenges, simply find or create a template, post it to your Story, and let your followers take it from there!
This or That templates can fall into a specific theme, or they can be random, like this example:
9. Get To Know Your Followers Challenge
Many of the Instagram games that we’ve talked about are effective in helping you get to know your followers. But, you can also host a challenge that has the specific goal of “getting to know you.”
To hold one a Get to Know Your Followers challenge, post a template and challenge your followers to fill it out and tag your account so that you can repost it and share their answers among your community.
The template can be a list of favorite things, hobbies, occupations, etc. — anything you want to know. Aside from helping you become more familiar with your followers and promote a sense of community, these challenges will also help you get a better understanding of who your audience is.
By more fully understanding your audience, you can fine-tune your feed and tailor your posts to the people who are seeing them, therefore enhancing the effectiveness of your online community.
Time To Get Started
Now that you’ve read through our best guide to Instagram games, you’re basically an expert, right?
And, there’s no time like the present to host a challenge, be it on your Story or through a post. So, what are you waiting for? Play an Instagram game with your followers today!
If you use our tips, feel free to come back and let us know how they help. We’d love to hear all about your experience hosting a game or challenge on Instagram!
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