10 Tips to Run a Twitter Giveaway (To Get Maximum Engagement)

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Twitter has over 326M monthly active users and is still one of the most popular social media platforms around.

If you’re looking for a way to build more engagement on your Twitter page and rake in some sales along the way, look no further.

A Twitter giveaway may be the answer to your problem.

And it’s a lot easier than you think. Giveaways encourage more sales, followers, and engagement.

In this article, I’ll show you ten tips to run a Twitter giveaway to get maximum engagement along the way.

Twitter Giveaway Tip #1: Choose a Giveaway Goal

Before starting any type of giveaway, it’s important that you have a goal in mind or you’ll end up with unwanted results while missing the ones you need.

Having a goal helps you to focus on how to get the most out of your giveaway and how to measure how successful your giveaway is.

Twitter giveaway goals might include:

*Gaining more Twitter followers
*Getting more engagement on your posts.
*Getting people to know about your product or services
*Growing your email subscription list
*Gaining more user-generated content (UGC)

Twitter Giveaway Tip #2: Choose The Type of Twitter Giveaway

There are five types of Twitter giveaways that are commonly used. Each method is a great way to get a large amount of engagement if done right.

1. Retweet Giveaway:

For this giveaway, you can ask people to retweet your tweet to enter to win the giveaway. Taking it a step further you can also host a giveaway and ask people to retweet your tweet. The person with the most retweets of your post wins.

2. Replies:

This method is similar to an Instagram caption or comment entry method. Ask people to reply to your tweet to enter your giveaway.

3. Mention + Hashtag:

Ask people to enter your Twitter giveaway by mentioning and using a branded hashtag. This method is a great way of growing your brand’s hashtag popularity.

4. Use a Landing Page/Website:

Require persons to click a link to a landing page or website to enter your giveaway. This method is the most preferred by brands because it’s easier to track and you’re able to gain data for a higher chance of converting participants into paying customers.

With Wishpond’s landing page builder, it’s easy to get more leads from your Twitter giveaway. Take a look at the Bumpboxx giveaway landing page.

5. Followers:

One of the easiest entry methods is to ask people to follow your Twitter account to enter to win your giveaway. The only con is that it’s a bit hard to track and separate your organic followers from your giveaway followers. I’d advise combining this method with any of the four listed above for better engagement for your Twitter page.

Twitter Giveaway Tip #3: Keep Your Giveaway Copy Short & Sweet

Since 2017 Twitter has doubled its character count from 140 to 280, but that doesn’t mean that you have to use all 280 characters. Unlike Facebook and Instagram long captions aren’t as welcomed on Twitter. In fact, according to data from Buddy Media, Tweets with 100 characters get 17% higher engagement rates than longer ones.

If you’re thinking” 100 characters are pretty short,” you’re right. It’s very short, but it means that you’ll have to write to the point, you only have a few seconds to capture your reader’s attention. In my opinion, try to use 100-140 characters and let your giveaway image do the talking.

Know Your Post Limit: The Ideal Length of Every Social Media Post.

Pro Tip: Use buzzwords or power words in your Twitter giveaway caption. When you use power words in your caption you’re able to pique your viewer’s interest, which means they’re more likely to click and enter your giveaway. It’s also important to avoid using clickbait words unless you want to be marked as a spammer.

Twitter Giveaway Tip #4: Use A Branded Twitter Giveaway Hashtag

Earlier we spoke about how using hashtags can help you to measure your engagement and grow your brand’s popularity. In fact, tweets that include hashtags are 33% more likely to be retweeted than those without hashtags.

Adespresso analyzed 23,858 tweets and found that higher-performing tweets contained two hashtags for higher engagement value. At the same time, they also found that using more hashtags in your tweets won’t increase the engagement rate. So it’s best to stick to a 1-2 hashtag rule for your Twitter giveaway.

Now that we know why using a hashtag for your Twitter giveaway is important, it’s time to create a branded hashtag.

Create a brand hashtag that is unique to your company. If it’s too generic it can easily be confused with another brand or topic. If your company name is common, it’s best to choose a different hashtag name. Your hashtag can be a slogan, event or holiday. For example, Nike uses the #justdoit instead of their name.

If you’re ready to tap into the power of hashtags here are3 Key Hashtag Strategies: How to Market your Business & Content you can try today.

Twitter Giveaway Tip #5: Bring it to life with a photo, GIF or video

Brandwatch reported that tweets with images are 34% more likely to get retweeted than tweets with no pictures. They’ll also receive 18% more click-throughs, 89% more likes, and 150% more retweets.

So needless to say, adding an image to your giveaway tweet sounds like a critical ingredient to increase engagement and success.

We already talked about how important it was for your tweet to be 100-140 characters, but with a photo or a video, you can add more information and allow your brand’s voice to shine through.

Six Giveaway Image Guidelines

  1. Captivating image or video: The image needs to stop your readers from scrolling and draw their attention to your giveaway. Try to use bright images.
  2. State or Add an image of the prize: People are more likely to enter your giveaway when they can see the prize they’re going to win (make-up, food, products) or the lifestyle around the giveaway prize (someone on vacation for a cruise giveaway, people shopping for a free shopping spree).
  3. Match the landing page: If you’re using a landing page for your giveaway, the look and feel of your giveaway image should match your landing page. We see colors before we see words, so if people feel that the landing page and giveaway image don’t match up, it can make them less susceptible to enter it.
  4. Follow Facebook’s 20/80 Rule: Following Facebook’s 20% text and 80% image rule when it comes to ads or giveaways helps you to promote your ad effectively without making your image look too crowded or hard to read. People need to take a quick look at your image and know what it’s about without thinking too much.
  5. Add Your Logo or Branded Hashtag: Twitter is a messy web of tweets. It’s easy to get lost or find an image with little to no information. Adding your logo or branded hashtags helps readers who’ve probably seen a retweet of your image without any context to find you and enter your giveaway without much effort.
  6. Use the Right Size Image: I’d recommend that your Twitter image be 1024 x 512 pixels. Yes, you can use an Instagram-sized image, but it’s better to stick to this size because it fits the platform better. If you need help creating a Twitter-sized graphic for your giveaway you can use free tools like Canva.

Twitter Giveaway Tip #6: Write Clear Instructions & a Strong Call-to-Action

Write Clear Giveaway Instructions

If you want to have a successful giveaway, you need to give your followers clear and precise instructions. If participants have to take multiple steps to enter, be sure to make the instructions as simple as possible.

Giveaway instructions aren’t just for your Twitter followers, but to prevent any misunderstandings or legal actions that might be taken against you. Writing instructions may seem a bit tedious but it increases engagement and reduces the likelihood of user errors which might cause trouble down the road.

If you need to use detailed instructions you can use your Facebook page or website as a landing page so readers can click and see the details.

Forever21 posted their detailed contest rules on Facebook.

Twitter Giveaway Example: OFRA Cosmetics

Write a Strong Call-to-Action (CTA)

CTA’s (Call-to-actions) should be front row and center so that your readers know what to do and where to click to enter your giveaway.

Your CTA should have a clear meaning, even if a visitor has only skimmed your page, for example, “Click here to enter”, “retweet to win”.

Twitter Giveaway Example:Splat Kid TV

If you need some help coming up with actionable CTA’s here are 25 proven call-to-action words to maximize conversions.

Maybe you’re already using CTA’s on your Twitter giveaway but not getting enough giveaway entries? You might be making some of the 7 CTA mistakes that are killing your conversion rates

Pro Tip: Postcron found that if you put your URL in the middle of your tweet, you are 26% more likely to get retweeted or clicked on rather than putting it at the beginning or end. So try doing this for your Twitter giveaway.

Twitter Giveaway Tip #7: Include the Start and End Dates of the Giveaway

When you’re hosting a giveaway, you have to let people know how long your giveaway is going to run. Participants need to know how many days they have to enter and when the giveaway ends.

The last thing you want is someone entering to win your giveaway that ended weeks ago!

If you’ve already used up all your tweet characters, you can place the start and end dates on your landing page or in your giveaway image details.

Twitter Giveaway Example: 4T Medical Ltd

Pro Tip: When you place a deadline on your giveaway it gives readers a sense of urgency to get your followers to participate and avoid missing out on your offer.

Twitter Giveaway Tip #8: Follow up with Replies and Reminders

Tweets have the shortest life spans on social media, unlike other platforms like Facebook and Instagram. A Tweet’s lifespan can last between 5-30 minutes depending on how high your tweet engagement is at the time.

So how do you keep the engagement going on your Twitter giveaway?

Here are four ways to increase the lifespan of your giveaway tweet:

  1. Send reminder tweets about your giveaway every other day or once a week (depending on the length of your giveaway) to remind people your giveaway is still on.
  2. Reply to replies and retweets of your Twitter giveaway post. This helps with your engagement and allows readers to see that you’re active.
  3. Pin your giveaway at the top of your page so that if anyone visits your profile, it’s the first tweet that they see.
  4. Share your giveaway on your other social media platforms and website to get better awareness and giveaway entries.

If you’re not sure how to pin a tweet, here’s a step-by-step guide on how to pin a tweet on Twitter:

  1. Open up your Twitter account.
  2. Scroll down to the tweet you want to pin.
  3. Click on the inverted triangle on the top corner of the right-hand side.
  4. Choose the option “pin to your profile page.“
    Done.
  5. You just pinned a tweet to the top of your profile page on Twitter.

Twitter Giveaway Tip #9: Announce Your Giveaway Winner

In your instructions or tweet, you should let participants know how you’ll be announcing your Twitter giveaway winner. You can choose a winner at random or the person with the most retweets or likes. Based on your entry method you should be able to figure out how best to select your giveaway winner.

Once you’ve selected your winner, you should contact them via email and social media; this is to ensure that the winner is aware that the contest is over and that they’ve won the prize. After, you’ll need to tweet about it on your social media pages, so your followers know that you’ve selected a winner.

Twitter Giveaway Tip #10: Follow-Up After the Giveaway

After your giveaway is over you’ll have a set of new followers on your page. That means you’ll have to continue to engage them and convert them into buyers or loyal customers or they’ll unfollow and leave.

This means keeping your Twitter page active and encouraging more engagement. This could mean coming up with a content plan for your Twitter page to keep the momentum going, keep in mind you might want to avoid these nine common mistakes most brands make on Twitter.

Summary

Twitter giveaways are one of the best ways to generate leads, increase brand awareness, and boost sales for your business. Now that you’re ready to create a giveaway we can recap the following steps:

  1. Choose a Giveaway Goal
  2. Choose The Type of Twitter Giveaway
  3. Keep Your Giveaway Copy Short & Sweet
  4. Use A Branded Twitter Giveaway Hashtag
  5. Bring it to life with a photo, GIF, or video
  6. Write Clear Instructions & a Strong Call-to-Action
  7. Include the Start and End Dates of the Giveaway
  8. Follow up with Replies and Reminders
  9. Announce Your Giveaway Winner
  10. Follow-Up After the Giveaway

I hope these tips helped. Have you ever run a Twitter giveaway? Let me know how it went in the comments below!

victoria-taylor

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