Are you looking for ways to increase your engagement on Twitter? This article that JC Sweet & Co. found on Hootsuite discusses different ways to gain followers (and keep your existing ones!) through exciting contest ideas.
11 Winning Twitter Contest Ideas and Examples
From the simplest to the most complex, these Twitter contest ideas are tried and true. Use these pointers and examples as inspiration for your next promotion.
Retweet to enter
Retweet to enter is one of the most simple Twitter giveaway examples. It’s easy to explain, easy for your audience to take part, and easy to adjudicate and draw a winner. If one of your primary Twitter goals is to increase brand exposure, this is option is a no-brainer.
Don’t let this kind of Twitter contest to get too spammy, though. For instance, don’t encourage to retweet your post more than once. As Twitter warns, “Your contest or sweepstakes could cause people to be automatically filtered out of Twitter search.”
Retweet, like, and follow to enter
Up the ante by adding a like and follow the requirement to the retweet-to-enter formula. Besides exposure, this type of Twitter contest will increase your follower count and engagement figures. The added interaction could also curry favor with Twitter’s algorithm (so long as not too much duplicate content is being created or reposted).
Keep in mind that the more requirements you have, the more important it is for you to clearly state them. And remember: If you plan to increase your follower count and engagement rate with a contest, make sure you follow through with a Twitter strategy that will help you keep them.
Reply to win
A reply-to-win Twitter contest asks followers to engage with your content. You can be specific, and ask followers to reply with a specific emoji, hashtag, or phrase. Or you can ask followers to respond to a prompt or question. This may help improve algorithm ranking, in turn helping you reach a wider audience. Adding a RT requirement can help with that, too.
Tag a friend
A variation of the reply-to-enter format is asking your followers to tag a friend (or more) to enter. As with any other contest, you can add criteria such as like, retweet, or follow requirements.
This can be an effective way to reach a new audience and gain meaningful followers since followers will typically tag a friend with similar interests. And done well, your Twitter contest has the potential to spread exponentially as each tagged person tags another.
Partner with a brand or influencer
There are many benefits from partnering with a brand or influencer. By joining forces, brands are able to reach two Twitter audiences without spending much more.
Depending on your mutual goals, these Twitter contests can work a variety of different ways. Maybe participants are required to follow one of both accounts to enter, for instance. Or maybe you’ve teamed up for a product launch and want to promote a hashtag campaign.
Use a hashtag to enter
If you’re running a Twitter hashtag campaign (or a cross-platform one), what better way to encourage followers to use it than with a Twitter contest?
This approach lets tweeters put their own spin on participation if they like. But keep in mind that most often, if all you’ve asked participants to do is use a hashtag, that may be all they do. So make sure your hashtag can stand on its own. If more context is important, consider a different Twitter contest idea.
Send in pictures to enter
Get more personal with your followers by asking them to send in pictures to enter. You could also ask participants to send in poems, feedback, or whatever applies to your brand campaign. Just be clear about where and how participants should share.
This type of Twitter contest could be centered around a theme like a throwback or the holidays—or even something more closely related to your brand. Check out the Twitter marketing calendar for holiday ideas and stats. You could even ask followers to send in pictures featuring your product or service.
You could run this contest based on merit (e.g. best photo wins), or as a sweepstakes. If you have a large enough platform, sometimes the chance to have a photo featured is prize enough.
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