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How to run a successful Twitter contest

May 2, 2012 by Aaron 6 Comments

A Twitter contest is a great way to not only generate buzz for your brand but also to grow your followers whom are interested in what you have to offer.

A Twitter contest is pretty straight forward. Ideally, you get people to share tweets with their followers in return for a chance to win a prize.

Before you launch a twitter contest, here are the four must-haves in your Twitter contest

1. Great Prizes

You don’t have to give away an iPad because its ‘hot’. Instead, give something that relates with your customers and something that your customers really WANT (besides an iPad).

It’s best to give away a couple of prizes rather than one big prize, that way it will give participants more incentive to join. It will also help you to increase participation. You can even schedule it daily, so even if a user doesn’t win today, they will try their luck again tomorrow.

If you don’t have the budget, alternatively, you can approach potential sponsors. That way you’ll be able to give away better prizes, and you can use your contest as a branding/marketing platform for your sponsors.

2. Rules

Like every contest, you will need rules! You will need to outline the contest terms and conditions, time frame of the contest, eligibility, and how the winners will be chosen.

You will also need to make sure that your contest meets legal requirements in your country.

You should read the guidelines for contests on Twitter. Twitter discourages users to keep retweeting the same messages. What you could do is ask users to write their own tweets and share them.

3. Generate pre buzz

You will need a plan beforehand. The idea of a contest is great, but you will need to create some buzz prior to the launch to get people know that there is actually a contest coming up. Pre-buzz helps in participation because people are already expecting the contest to happen.

Ideally you will need to use social media to start conversations with targeted followers before the contest launches.

You may also need to reach out to bloggers to help spread the contest. One important thing to note is to have a personalized email to every blogger.

4. Landing Page

A landing page is important, it will help you to explain the details of the contest such as rules, conditions, prizes/rewards, time frame of the contest, how users can join, how winners will be notified, and so on.

The Binkd Twitter contest app is a free application that helps you to create a branded contest page easily and ease the work for you.

With the application you’ll be able to create a contest in minutes. You don’t need to worry about the share button as it already comes installed for you. You can also set a hashtags (to track) when people shares from the application too.

Did I mention the Binkd Twitter contest application is FREE?

In my future post, I’ll write a step by step guide on setting up a twitter contest using Binkd.

What do you think? What other tips would you give to those who are considering running a Twitter contest?

Photo credits: getty image: photodisc

Filed Under: marketing, Social Media, Twitter Tagged With: binkd twitter contest, twitter contest app free, twitter contest application

About Aaron

Aaron is the owner of this social media blog and founder/writer of ShortofHeight.com, a men's fashion blog that shares style & fashion tips for short men. When he is not writing, he's finding the perfect cup of coffee. Connect with him on Facebook and Twitter.

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Comments

  1. Debra Askanase says

    May 2, 2012 at 10:46 pm

    Good step-by-step for the company/organization thinking about Twitter contests. Have you run one using Binkd, or can cite an example of one?

  2. zulseffort says

    May 2, 2012 at 10:59 pm

    This is cool! I have been organizing twitter contest ‘manually’. With this free apps it will be a lot more easier. 

  3. Aaron Lee says

    May 2, 2012 at 11:04 pm

    Cheers mate, let me know if you have any questions. Will answer them. 

  4. Aaron Lee says

    May 5, 2012 at 2:20 pm

    Hi Debra, sorry for the late reply.

    I’ve not launched one using Binkd, but I’ve launched a couple of contest before. There will be an article on brands/businesses that have launched a twitter contest coming up soon. 

  5. Ricky says

    August 24, 2013 at 1:36 am

    Hey Aaron , nice article. I follow the GAME stores as they often drop codes for free game downloads. Or they do giveaways for cool gaming hoodys/Tshirts/Promo games ect. , My local @GAMEStevenage has run a few good contests , and the @GAMEDigital guys are always running some kind of giveaway 😛

  6. #tweet-a-lot says

    January 5, 2015 at 12:27 pm

    Have you heard of #tweet-a-lot?
    It uses Gamification to encourage users to post with your hashtag to all their followers.
    A very simple way to get thousands of tweets. Give it a try.

Trackbacks

  1. Social Media Contests That Work « OnlineFantastic's Blog says:
    August 23, 2012 at 8:27 am

    […] The tremendous response is to the large point cause by the fact that Shutterbug Social used promoted tweet, which is a sponsored tweet that appears in user timelines or search. Promoted Tweets are priced on a Cost-per-Engagement (CPE) basis, so you pay when someone retweets, replies to, clicks or favorites your Promoted Tweet. Promoted tweets are expensive for most small businesses (over $120k per day) but if you really want to get your tweet across the Twitterverse, they’re a very good way to do so. If you don’t have $120k to drop in a day, you can still run a successful Twitter contest. Twitter celebrity and social media maven, Aaron Lee, wrote a good post about that: https://askaaronlee.com/binkd-twitter-contest/ […]

  2. 6 Contest Ideas for Twitter & Social Media Worth Exploring says:
    December 14, 2012 at 7:07 pm

    […] Twitter contest is a great way to increase engagement, increase followers as well as increase product awareness. […]

  3. Confluence: Marketing & PR says:
    December 22, 2013 at 4:04 am

    2014.01 MC Twitter Contest

    Plan is to organize a twitter contest to promote t

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