Twitter is a powerful social media platform. Besides its function as a tool to spur social change, it has also completely altered the way businesses engage with their customers. Enter: the Twitter giveaway.

Even Forbes recognizes the power of Twitter when it comes to increasing sales for small-sized and medium-sized businesses. According to Forbes, more than 50% of people who are active on Twitter are “more likely to be the first to buy new products.”

If you’re able to break through all the noise and capture the attention (and contact information) of Twitter users, you’ll be well-positioned to convert these prospects.

Of course, you have to do more than just have an active Twitter account or optimized profile — you need to get creative in how you engage your target market with a Twitter giveaway.

The benefits of a Twitter giveaway are myriad:

• Generate leads
• Increase product/brand awareness
• Drive traffic to your landing pages
• Grow your Twitter following
• Increase target market engagement on Twitter

Of course, to achieve any of those goals in a meaningful way, you need to know how to do a Twitter giveaway. 

By following a handful of golden rules and tips, you can ensure your Twitter contest will be a smashing success.

Establish SMART Goals for Your Twitter Giveaway

As with any marketing effort, the first step to figuring out how to do a giveaway on Twitter is establishing your goals. 

When setting goals, use the SMART system:

• Specific: Decide on your target market and what you want them to do. This could involve following you on Twitter, providing contact information for leads, or visiting a product page. Note that each social platform has its own social media contest rules and you’ll want to be aware of them before launching. For example, Facebook does not allow organizations to require entrants to “like” a Facebook page in exchange for an entry.
• Measurable: Clarify which metrics will best measure the success of your Twitter giveaway.
• Achievable: Set reasonable expectations.
• Relevant: Ensure your contest goal fits into your overall business strategy.
• Time-bound: This one is easy — any contest on Twitter requires a deadline to drive urgency.

Pick the Perfect Prize to Give Away

Don’t give away an iPad — seriously, don’t do it. Your campaign’s success depends on you choosing the right giveaway prize.

If you offer something generic that nearly anyone would want (like an iPad…), then you’re casting your net too wide. You’ll scoop up lots of low-quality leads that end up wasting your sales team’s time and energy.

You need to offer something that will resonate specifically with your target market. This can mean using your own products or services as a prize — what better way to identify people who might be interested in them?

Decide on Twitter Giveaway Rules for Participation

Making sure your Twitter giveaway is not only fair, but seen as such, is essential to building brand loyalty within your target market. If people think your giveaway is sketchy, the contest will do more harm than good.

The first step to ensuring your Twitter giveaway is perceived as fair is to establish clear rules for participation. Lay out the basic rules in all of your promotional Tweets. 

Of course, there’s no practical way to boil down all the terms and conditions into 144 characters. Instead, set up a terms-and-conditions landing page. Then, post the URL (shortened with bit.ly link) to give participants easy access to all of the rules.

Include full details about the prizes, any demographic and geographic entry requirements, and all prohibited actions. Be sure to post relevant dates, including when the contest starts and ends, when the drawing happens, and when the prize will be delivered. 

For additional transparency, share details regarding how interested parties can learn more about the prize winner.

Twitter also asks that anyone organizing a giveaway on their platform include a rule that states if a user is found entering the contest with multiple accounts, they are ineligible to win. 

Not only is this sort of cheating unhelpful to your giveaway’s goals, it is also against Twitter’s policy and could result in all of a user’s accounts being suspended.

Select the Best Start and End Times for Your Contest

Though you can start and end your Twitter giveaway whenever you want, it’s best to be strategic. You’ll get better traction with your contest if you start and end it during peak usage times.

Give yourself a running start on advertising your giveaway, as well. Start building up hype days, if not weeks before it starts. The specific length of time necessary to adequately promote your contest will be a factor of the complexity to enter and the value of the prize.

It’s not a bad idea to spend money on Twitter ads for this part of the marketing campaign. Twitter says visitors spend 26% more time engaged with ads on the platform than other leading social media sites.

Additionally, don’t forget about all the marketing and promotional work to be done between the start and end of your Twitter competition. 

Don’t put your Twitter contest ideas in motion then forget about them — stay focused on boosting engagement throughout the contest.

Let Multimedia Elements Drive Twitter Contest Engagement

If a picture is worth a 1,000 words, can you imagine how many text-only Tweets it’s worth? 

According to Twitter, when you include an image with your Tweet, you generate 35% more retweets than a text-only tweet.

Your image should be a visual representation of the prize (or the prize itself), as well as incorporate additional contest information to encourage the image to be shared on other social media platforms.

Decide How to Select the Twitter Giveaway Winner

For your Twitter contest to be fair, you need to select a winner in a way that isn’t biased — so don’t just pick whoever has the most followers.

There are several solutions out there for choosing a random winner. RetweetPicker and Lucky Retweet are two popular Twitter giveaway pickers. 

Whatever Twitter giveaway generator you decided to use, make sure it is randomized.

Some contests are a little more complex — in those cases, consider the use of judges to pick a winner.

Pro Tips for Twitter Contests and Giveaways

There are a number of ways you can conduct a Twitter giveaway. 

To be entered to win, you can ask your users to:

• Tweet a particular update.
• Send a Tweet with a specific contest hashtag.
• Follow a certain account.

Whatever method you choose, Twitter recommends you also ask participants to mention (tag) your company or brand in their Tweet. 

Alternatively or in addition to doing this, you may also ask entrants to use a contest-specific hashtag when they enter to win. That way you can go back and see all of the entries when you’re selecting a winner (and measure the social media impact of your contest).

When you’re mentioned in a Tweet, it will be saved in your Notifications timeline.

Easily Integrate Your Twitter Giveaway

Recognizing the importance of Twitter giveaways, Simple Giveaways has created a helpful WordPress integration to power your contest.

Our plugin lets you quickly and easily set up a simple, clean landing page design for your contest. It includes everything you need for a successful giveaway — a countdown clock, registration form, as well as a place for relevant information about the contest, including the contest rules and giveaway prize details.

Final Thoughts: How to Do a Twitter Giveaway

Figuring out how to do a Twitter giveaway isn’t rocket science. By following a few simple guidelines and understanding the pain points of your target market, you can easily meet your marketing goals with such a contest.
Try out the Twitter giveaway integration from Simple Giveaways and watch engagement with your contest take off.