How To Run a Nice Twitter Contest [Ideas + Examples]

News Author


Twitter contests and giveaways are a enjoyable and straightforward strategy to drive engagement. They’re fast to arrange, easy to run, and will help you collect helpful details about your viewers.

Better of all, operating a Twitter contest doesn’t should be difficult or time-consuming. In truth, the easier, the higher!

Hold studying for a simple information to operating contests on Twitter, together with 9 nice contest concepts to jumpstart your subsequent promotion.

Bonus: Obtain the free 30-day plan to develop your Twitter following quick, a day by day workbook that may allow you to set up a Twitter advertising and marketing routine and observe your development, so you’ll be able to present your boss actual outcomes after one month.

Why run a Twitter contest?

You need to use Twitter contests or giveaways to attain quite a lot of totally different objectives. Earlier than you get began, take into consideration what you wish to accomplish along with your contest.

For instance, your objectives might embrace the next:

Rising your follower base

Twitter giveaways will help increase your follower depend. In case your objective is to develop your viewers, embrace a “tag a buddy” or “retweet” part in your contest. Earlier than launching, resolve what number of new followers you’re hoping to realize. (Bear in mind, your objectives ought to all the time be SMARTspecific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound)

Constructing model consciousness

Twitter contests are a good way to construct model consciousness. As of mid-2022, Twitter has 206 million day by day energetic customers worldwide. Meaning your contest has the chance to achieve an enormous variety of customers. If you wish to construct buzz, embrace a transparent and simple model message.

Selling a brand new product

Use a Twitter contest or giveaway to construct hype across the launch of a brand new product. This sort of contest depends closely on imagery, so preserve this in thoughts, as it might incur a value. Be sure to have nice photographs of your product or giveaway bundle so your social posts pop.

The right way to arrange a Twitter contest

Establishing a Twitter contest or giveaway is straightforward. It simply requires a little bit of planning in your half.

1. Set an goal to your Twitter contest

Begin by defining a transparent objective to your Twitter contest. Embody measurable targets equivalent to elevated follower depend or impressions. This can allow you to gauge your success after the competition closes. Strong numbers will help you resolve whether or not to run contests once more sooner or later.

2. Plan your contest

Kind out the logistics to your contest, together with:

  • What kind of contest or giveaway is it?
  • When will your contest or giveaway begin?
  • How lengthy will it run?
  • What’s the cut-off date? Be particular right here to keep away from disappointment, ex. September thirtieth, 2022, at 11:59 PM ET

3. Choose a prize

Subsequent, choose a prize to your contest or giveaway. This can be a digital prize or a bodily merchandise that have to be shipped or picked up by the winner.

Digital prize concepts:

  • Credit score to your on-line store
  • Digital tickets to an unique occasion or particular efficiency
  • Digital experiences equivalent to Zoom meet-and-greets

Bodily prize concepts:

  • Finest-selling merchandise in an unique colorway
  • Particular prize pack or bundle
  • In-person experiences equivalent to a celebration for the winner and a gaggle of associates

In case your prize contains an merchandise or giveaway bundle, ensure to point out off your prize with an eye catching publish. This can inspire customers to share your posts and assist your contest acquire traction on-line.

4. Develop your contest tips

What would you like customers to do with a view to win? Possibly they’ll must observe your account, retweet your publish, or submit particular content material. Make your contest necessities and deadlines clear, so there’s no confusion.

Don’t overlook to overview Twitter’s tips for promotions earlier than launching your contest. We advocate setting clear Twitter contest guidelines to discourage spam. These embrace barring customers from making a number of entries in a single day or getting into utilizing a number of accounts.

5. Promote your contest

Now it’s time to launch your contest! However the work isn’t over but.

Schedule common posts to advertise your contest. Regulate entries, too. Interact with customers who’ve entered by liking their posts or responding to their questions.

Select a singular hashtag so that you’re not sifting by way of unrelated tweets to search out contest entries. Attempt one thing like #YourBrandNameGiveaway or #ItemNameGiveaway22.

In case your model is energetic on one other platform, strive cross-promoting your contest. Attempt posting a direct hyperlink in your Instagram Tales to deliver a few of these followers over to Twitter.

6. Observe your contest entries with a social media administration software

A strong software will help you observe contest entries and monitor engagement in real-time.

Hootsuite Streams is a superb software to trace the exercise in your social channels. You may keep watch over publish engagement, conversations, mentions, key phrases, and hashtags – multi functional place!

7. Choose a winner and ship the prize

Selecting a winner can appear daunting, however don’t fear. You don’t want to shut your eyes and level to a random tweet!

Many on-line instruments can automate this course of. They will additionally be sure that your winner has happy all the competition necessities. (Hold scrolling for extra on these instruments)

8. Evaluate your contest

After your contest closes, overview your unique objectives. Was your contest successful? Did you enhance your follower depend or increase your model impressions?

An analytics platform like Hootsuite will help you overview the numbers. You may even create customized stories to point out the influence in your model and backside line. This knowledge will help you design your subsequent profitable Twitter contest or giveaway.

9 simple Twitter contest concepts

Unsure how one can construction your Twitter contest? We’ve outlined 9 several types of Twitter contests to assist encourage your subsequent giveaway.

Select one of many choices under or combine and match to create your individual distinctive promotion.

Retweet to enter

Asking customers to retweet your publish to enter is the simplest strategy to run a Twitter giveaway. It requires little or no effort on the person’s half, so that they’re extra more likely to hit the retweet button. In case your objective is to construct model consciousness, this contest choice is for you.

Like, observe, and retweet to enter

This variation on the “retweet to enter” giveaway requires a bit extra work for customers. Nevertheless it delivers a greater payoff from a model standpoint. Likes and retweets assist construct model consciousness whereas asking customers to observe to enter is a surefire strategy to enhance your follower depend.

Reply to win

Improve model consciousness and increase engagement with a reply-to-win Twitter contest. Asking customers to answer will help increase your publish within the algorithm rankings, so get artistic! For instance, ask customers to drop an emoji within the feedback or have them reply a easy immediate, like “Inform us why you wish to win….”

Tag a buddy to enter

If you wish to enhance your follower depend, embrace “observe and tag a buddy” in your contest necessities. Tags help you attain a broader viewers with out requiring an excessive amount of effort from customers to enter.

Accomplice with a model or influencer

Attain a brand new viewers by becoming a member of forces with one other model or a social media influencer. Choose a contest kind that addresses your mutual objectives, and ask customers to observe each accounts to be eligible to win.

Use a hashtag to enter

Don’t overlook to create a singular hashtag to your Twitter contest. Nobody desires to spend hours sifting by way of unrelated tweets to search out contest entries. Hashtag contests are a good way to extend model consciousness.

Share a photograph to enter

A photograph contest makes it simple to collect user-generated content material (UGC). UGC is unique, brand-specific content material created by clients. UGC could be photographs or pictures, movies, critiques, testimonials, and extra.

Interact on one other platform to enter

If you wish to construct your following on one other platform, strive operating a Twitter contest that drives site visitors elsewhere. For instance, you’ll be able to ship followers to your model’s Instagram account or customized app:

9. Bonus: Mix parts to create a singular promotion

Right here’s an awesome contest instance that mixes a number of Twitter contest sorts to create a singular promotion with a social twist.

The Late Present with Stephen Colbert has partnered with HeadCount and Ben & Jerry’s to get folks registered to vote. Their marketing campaign incorporates the next parts:

  • A novel hashtag
  • Model partnership with Ben & Jerry’s
  • Influencer/movie star partnership with Stephen Colbert
  • Participating elsewhere to enter by directing site visitors to HeadCount.org

The right way to choose a Twitter winner

Selecting a Twitter giveaway winner can appear intimidating. What in case your contest receives 1000’s of entries? How do you select a random winner who has adopted your contest’s guidelines?

Fortunately, many on-line Twitter contest instruments can automate this course of. These websites will help you choose winners from retweets, likes, or your current Twitter following.

Regardless of which on-line software you select, overview their choice insurance policies rigorously. Some instruments can solely choose a winner from the newest 100 retweets, which can not embrace all contest members. Search for a software that may choose from all of your contest entries, not simply the newest ones.

Don’t overlook about Twitter’s tips for promotions

We all know you’re excited to launch your Twitter contest! However to keep away from operating into any points, overview Twitter’s Pointers for Promotions first.

Twitter’s tips are primarily designed to discourage spam. Contest guidelines ought to discourage customers from creating a number of accounts to enter. Don’t overlook that Twitter’s guidelines concerning security, privateness, and authenticity apply always.

Be sure that to cowl your bases with regards to native and federal legal guidelines. For example, giveaways that embrace alcohol have to be age-restricted to guard minors. When you’ve chosen your giveaway format and prize, do a little analysis to guarantee that your contest isn’t violating any legal guidelines.

Save time through the use of Hootsuite to handle your Twitter presence alongside your different social channels. You may run contests, share movies, schedule posts, and monitor your efforts — all from one handy dashboard! Attempt it at no cost in the present day.

Get Began

Do it higher with Hootsuite, the all-in-one social media toolkit. Keep up to the mark, develop, and beat the competitors.