How to run a fair giveaway on Telegram

Write the rules before you post anything

Most giveaway complaints come from rules that weren't written down. Before you announce anything, write a short post that answers these questions:

• What's the prize? Be exact. "Telegram Premium for 12 months" or "a $50 gift card for a named store", not "a great prize".
• How many winners, and does each one get the same prize?
• How do people enter? List every condition, such as joining a channel.
• When does it end? Give a date and time with a time zone.
• How are winners picked? A random draw, or points for inviting friends.
• How will winners be contacted, and how long do they have to reply before you pick someone else?
• Who can't enter? For example, admins and their families, or people in countries you can't ship to.

Pin that post and don't change the rules once the giveaway starts. If you must fix a mistake, say so publicly and explain what changed.

Giveaways and prize draws are regulated in some countries, especially when money is involved. If you're running one for a business, check the rules where you and your participants live.

Choose entry conditions that help you without annoying people

The most common condition is "join our channel". It makes sense: you're giving something away, and in return you get an audience. Some extra conditions are fine too, but each one loses you entrants.

• Join one channel. Simple and fair. Most people expect it.
• Join several channels. Common in joint giveaways where several channels share the cost of the prize. Beyond three or four, people start to give up.
• Visit a link. Useful if you want people to see a product page, but you can't verify they read it.
• Enter a password. A nice way to reward readers: hide the password in a post or a video, so only people who actually read your content can enter.

Expect that some people will join your channel to enter and leave after the draw. That's normal. A prize that only your target audience wants keeps that number low. A free phone attracts everyone. A course in your niche attracts the people you actually want. For more on this, see how to grow a Telegram channel with bots.

Random draw or points: which is fairer?

There are two common ways to pick winners, and they reward different things.

A random draw is the fairest choice and the easiest to explain. A points contest grows faster, but you should expect some entrants to try to cheat with extra accounts. If you run one, say in the rules that you'll disqualify obvious fake referrals, and look at the top entrants before you announce them.

Bots that run the draw

Using a bot for the draw is fairer than picking names yourself, because the bot doesn't know who your friends are. Two templates you can create with Echo Maker cover both styles:

• Contests runs a giveaway for 1 to 30 days with 1 to 20 winners, each with its own prize. You choose a random draw or points from inviting friends, where top scorers have a better chance. Entry conditions can be joining a channel or group, visiting a link, or entering a password. You can see how many people joined and message all the winners at once.
• Roulette is for a quick draw in a group or channel. Create a room with a name, optionally require people to join up to 5 channels, share it with buttons, and start the draw when you close entries. There's no limit on participants, the random winner is notified by direct message, and rooms expire 24 hours after they're created.

In both, the bot must be an admin in any channel you set as a condition, so it can check who joined. See how to add a bot to a channel as admin.

Telegram also has its own built-in giveaways for Telegram Premium that don't need a bot. They're worth a look if Premium is your prize. A bot gives you more control over the prizes, conditions and how winners are picked.

Announce winners so people can check

People trust a result they can see. When the giveaway ends:

1. Post the results in the same place you announced the giveaway.
2. Say how many people entered and how the winners were picked.
3. List the winners. A username is enough, but ask first if you plan to show more.
4. If you can, add a screenshot or screen recording of the bot showing the result.
5. Later, post when each prize was delivered. Winners who confirm in the comments are the best proof you can offer.

If a winner doesn't reply in the time your rules set, pick a new one the same way, and say so publicly. Quietly giving the prize to someone else is how giveaways get a bad name.

Contact winners the safe way

A bot can only message people who have started it, so winners in a bot-run giveaway can be reached through the bot. That's safer than DMing them from a personal account, because the message comes from the same bot they entered with.

Ask for as little as possible. For a digital prize, you usually need nothing beyond their Telegram account. For a physical prize, you need a name and delivery address. You never need a card number, a password, or a code sent to their phone.

Tell winners in advance exactly how you'll contact them. "Winners will get a message from this bot, and we will never ask you to pay anything" is a sentence worth putting in your rules.

Protect your entrants from people impersonating you

Popular giveaways attract impersonators. The usual trick: a scammer creates an account with your channel's name and photo, messages people who commented or entered, and tells them they've won. Then they ask for a "delivery fee", a "verification payment", card details or a login code.

You can't stop scammers from creating lookalike accounts, but you can make them much less effective:

• Say it clearly and often: "We'll never ask you to pay to receive a prize." Put it in the rules and in the results post.
• Name your only official accounts. List your channel, your bot and, if needed, one admin username. Anything else isn't you.
• Watch your comments during the giveaway. Scammers reply to entrants' comments or collect their usernames to message them later. Delete those replies and ban the accounts.
• Report impersonating accounts to Telegram, and warn your readers when you spot one.
• Never pay a winner's "fee" yourself to make a scam go away. Report it and move on.

For more on fake accounts and bots that ask for codes, see are Telegram bots safe?