Successful Twitter marketing strategies begin with a robust content plan, and what better way to make your content fun than to have a contest or giveaway. Not only do they add some excitement into the mix, but they are also a really simple way to engage your audience. There’s no need to overcomplicate Twitter contests. Start by considering what your brand wants to achieve, whether that’s increasing brand awareness or gaining more followers, and then you can plan your approach from there.
Twitter contests may appeal to new followers in the moment, but what’s going to make them stay once the giveaway is over? It’s important to give your followers, new and old, something that is going to keep them coming back for more. Before you start any Twitter giveaways, it’s vital that you familiarize yourself with Twitter’s Guidelines for Promotions to ensure that you follow the contest rules.
We’ve compiled a list of 12 brilliant Twitter giveaway examples and ideas to help you get creative. Let the fun begin!
1. Brand or influencer partnerships
There are many benefits to be had from partnering with a brand or an influencer. It is one of the most effective ways to reach new audiences, and also allows you to do so without spending too much money.
A partnership can work in a variety of ways; making it a requirement that participants follow both your account and your partner’s account in order to enter is just one example. Another way could be teaming up with another brand and running a hashtag campaign to promote a new product launch, if you feel this would be more appropriate for the campaign you are running.
Whichever approach you choose to take, it’s important to keep it simple when partnering with a brand or influencer. You don’t want the Twitter contest to appear overly challenging or the additional brand power will prove ineffective. Stick to keeping it short and sweet, and you will achieve what you set out to do.
Here are some examples of brands that have done just that:
Pro tip: Use Audiense Insights to find your followers’ favourite influencers. Choose partnerships that are mutually beneficial for more valuable results. Think about how you want your brand to be perceived on Twitter and partner with a brand or influencer who shares your vision. The contest will mean more to your target audience and they will be more likely to stick around afterwards.
2. Tell or show participants how to enter
Do you want to increase your Twitter engagement? Then why didn’t you say - all you have to do is ask. Quite literally! Ask participants to do what you want them to, whether that’s following your Twitter account, retweeting a tweet or commenting for a chance to win.
This method requires participants to engage with your brand if they wish to win the giveaway, but it doesn’t stop there! It’s also a great way to open a line of communication with a wider audience. It can also be a great way of collecting valuable feedback if you ask participants to add a comment on their favourite product, for example.
boohooMAN is a great example of how you can run a simple giveaway, which requires participants to follow, like and retweet in order to enter. Something as simple as this can reap the rewards of an increase in both engagement and followers.
Pro tip: Keep it simple. If you’re asking too much of participants, they are unlikely to engage with your giveaway. Limit the entry requirements to no more than three actions; any more than that and participants are likely to find it tedious.
3. Vote to enter contests
Twitter polls are quick and easy to take part in, and they’re fun. So why not turn your Twitter contest into a poll? It’s a great interactive mechanism for earning more brand exposure on Twitter and increasing your engagement, especially if you haven’t had much success with your content in the past.
Asking the right questions is the key to running a successful Twitter poll. You need to ask a question that participants will actually want to answer. Use this as an opportunity to gain valuable feedback, which can help you in your future marketing efforts.
Pro tip: You don’t have to limit yourself to just a Twitter poll, instead you can mix it up by asking participants to provide feedback via a hashtag or by adding their comment to a thread. Not only is this an opportunity to gain valuable insights, but it also allows you to connect with your audience by responding to their replies.
4. Hashtag to enter
Running a Twitter hashtag campaign, or a cross-platform campaign can be a great way to get Twitter users involved, as it allows them to put a personal touch on participation. However, with a hashtag campaign, you do run the risk of participants just tweeting the hashtag alone, so it’s vital that you choose one that makes sense on its own.
Pro tip: If you require more participation and context with your hashtag campaign, then consider running it alongside a different Twitter contest idea. This will support your hashtag campaign and increase your engagement - a win-win all around!
5. Pictures to enter
Connect with your target audience by making your Twitter contest more personal. Get your followers to send in pictures in order to enter, just remember to outline what and how participants should share so you can find them easily. Depending on your campaign, you could ask followers to share photos, jokes, drawings, poems, or pictures of something they have made - whatever best applies to your brand.
It’s an excellent opportunity for you to reply to participants and comment on their creations, which is a great way to improve your brand awareness and build relationships with your following.
Check out the Twitter marketing calendar for more seasonal ideas.
Pro tip: Whether the campaign is closely related to your brand, products or services, or is based on a theme like cute pets or a throwback to the ’90s for example, the more room for creativity, the better your engagement will be.
6. Play to win contests
Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Twitter contests should be just a bit of fun. So why not do exactly that? Have fun with it! Now is not the time to plug your product. Interactive contests, brain teasers and quizzes that offer a giveaway prize for the winner, are more likely to increase your Twitter engagement. This is especially true if visual content is included in your contest: remember, Twitter users are three times more likely to engage with visual content.
Pro tip: While it’s important to make these contests as fun as possible, try to keep them as on-brand as possible to maintain a consistent tone of voice. Going too ‘off-piste’ with your content may confuse your existing followers. Experiment by all means, just make sure the theme of your contest makes sense for your brand.
7. Tag a friend to enter
Looking to increase your Twitter following? Ask your existing followers to tag a friend (or friends) to enter the giveaway. Something as simple as this will grab participants’ attention and has the potential to reach new audiences rapidly. You can even add criteria for participants if you wish to make it more interactive, such as follow and retweet requirements.
As followers are more likely to tag their friends who share similar interests, why not make the giveaway about a topic or theme that your followers are likely to respond to. It could be about an event, topical news or even a product launch - the choice is yours.
ASOS is a great example of how you can drive engagement by asking followers to tag a friend using a hashtag:
Pro tip: Stuck on what to choose for your giveaway topic? Use Audiense Insights to look up the top interests of your followers and compare your audience segments to see which ones they have in common. That way, you can be confident that the topic you choose to run with will appeal to your audience and their Twitter followers for better engagement.
8. Retweet to enter giveaway
If your goal is to increase your brand exposure on Twitter, this giveaway is the one for you. Possibly one of the most easy-to-execute Twitter giveaway ideas, ‘retweet to enter’ contests are simple to get involved in. You can explain the rules, adjudicate and draw a winner with little effort and time needed. Just outline the terms of the giveaway and the details of when a winner will be announced - it’s as simple as that!
Pro tip: Prevent your giveaway from being deemed as spam by encouraging participants to retweet only once, or you risk followers from being automatically filtered out of the Twitter search.
Check out Twitter’s Guidelines for Promotions for more information.
9. Retweet, like and follow to enter
One of the most popular Twitter contests around, ‘retweet, like and follow to enter’ contests are formulated to gain exposure, increase engagement and increase your following, all at the same time! It’s best if you stick with the rule of three, but if you do want to add more requirements try not to have too many, as participants are less likely to get involved if the process is too complicated.
Pro tip: Retweet, like and follow contests also play nicely into the hands of Twitter’s algorithm, providing that participants aren’t all posting the same thing. Avoid this by encouraging participants to personalize their content before retweeting.
10. Cross-platform contests
Yes, this idea may appear counterintuitive, but it’s actually a great way to promote your less successful social channels. If your Twitter channel is your strongest platform and you’d like to grow your Facebook audience, then cross-platform contests can be really effective, especially when promoting your products.
11. Reply to win contests
Encourage followers to engage with your content by running a reply-to-win Twitter contest. Simply ask participants to reply to your post with a specific hashtag, phrase, or even an emoji to tell you what they think. Provide a question or prompt to guide their responses. Activities such as these can help your tweets perform in the algorithm rankings, allowing you to extend your reach to various Twitter audiences.
12. ‘Caption this’ contests
‘Caption this’ contests are easy to organize and are a great way to increase your Twitter engagement while improving your brand awareness. It also provides your followers with the perfect opportunity to showcase their wit and personality and engage with other users. All you have to do is ask participants to tweet a caption in response to an image you’ve provided. You can even include a hashtag as a requirement to widen your reach and track participants’ entries with ease.
Pro tip: For the best engagement, it’s a case of the funnier the better when it comes to selecting the image you want your followers to caption.
Twitter contests and giveaways are a fantastic way to interact with your followers while gaining new ones. Remember, the key to a successful contest is keeping it simple - both to organize and participate in! Shake up your Twitter content plan and introduce some contests or giveaways, and it doesn’t have to be a regular thing to be successful either.
Audiense Connect is the number one Twitter Marketing Platform, which allows you to identify new audiences and engage with them directly. Discover accurate information about your Twitter community that allows you to interact with them more effectively.
