Twitter is a powerful social media network. You can connect with anyone on Twitter. It is a never-ending conversation & I find it’s the best way to communicate with fellow bloggers, followers & brands. I’ve been experimenting over the past few months & have figured out how to run a successful Twitter giveaway. I’m going to share my tips with you in this post. I hope you find them helpful.
Regular readers might groan at another Twitter post – this is my fifth post about Twitter to be exact. There is just so much to say about this network! It’s still my favourite & my strongest blog network. If you missed my previous posts you can catch up here:
How to Use Twitter – a beginners guide.
Twitter Guide for Websites – how to up your game on Twitter, especially for bloggers & small businesses.
Twitter Etiquette – knowing when to RT, follow & fav. There’s a lot to be said for good Twitter etiquette.
Twitter Share Counts are Gone – I’m still depressed about this.
Setting up your Twitter Giveaway
Let’s decide what to give away, what to write in the tweet & when to launch our giveaway. Having an engaging image & tweet makes a big difference.
1. Select visually appealing items to giveaway.
The item or items don’t have to be expensive but they do have to look good. My more successful Twitter giveaways were for 3 items that visually go together – they have complimentary colours &/or purposes. I have gotten better at choosing the items & placing them to look nice. It might sound silly but it makes a big difference in engagement!
2. Create an eye-catching image.
Spend a few minutes rearranging & make the item(s) look appealing. I then edit my photo in Instagram to increase sharpness & highlights. When I’m happy with the look, I take a screenshot then edit the photo to remove the Instagram editing features from the screen shot.
I like to add text to the image as I think it adds something to the look. I use the Word Swag app to add the text.
For example, this is my newest Twitter giveaway is part of my summer giveaways post. Pop over for your chance to win some lovely goodies!
3. Choose the right time to launch.
I have found Sunday evenings, bank holiday Mondays & other holidays are great times to launch a giveaway because people are online. For Valentine’s day, I launched my very first Twitter giveaway. It only lasted for 24 hours & received 367 RTs.
There was a mascara there too that you can’t see above. The three items went well together as a group & people were excited to enter the giveaway.
4. Work the hashtags & emojis.
I use #giveaway & #win. You can see above I forgot to add the # before win. Doh! It’s a simple addition that will bring your tweet to a much larger audience. Throw in a few emojis to make it fun & stand out.
5. It’s a tweet so make it short & sweet.
Come up with something snappy to say about your giveaway to make it sound fun. If you are launching on a holiday bring that aspect into the Tweet. Be sure to state when the giveaway ends & how to enter. I ask people to RT (retweet) & follow me to enter.
Promoting your Giveaway
So we have a visually appealing giveaway, strategically launched with hashtags & it’s ready to see the world. So let’s get it the biggest audience we can!
1. Share your giveaway on your other social media channels, with a link to your tweet.
Don’t forget about all of your followers over on Facebook, snapchat & elsewhere. They might like to come follow you on Twitter & be in with a chance to win. So, share the photo of your giveaway with a link to the tweet so they can enter. To obtain the link from a laptop, click the three small dots at the bottom of the tweet & select “copy link to tweet.” From a mobile, touch the tweet, then hit the three small dots, select “share via”, then “copy link.”
Alternatively, you can pin your tweet to the top of your Twitter feed & direct people to your Twitter account to find the pinned tweet. The option to pin a tweet also comes up under the three small dots.
2. Share your giveaway in Blogger Facebook groups.
Blogger support groups are a great way to spread the word about your giveaways & blog posts. Groups like Blogger Club UK have daily threads you can add your social media & blog posts to.
3. Add your tweet to prize listing websites.
You can add the giveaway tweet url to Loquax & The Prize Finder directly yourself. Doing this has made a huge improvement to the reach of my last giveaway tweet. The last one I ran & added to these sites received over 1,100 RT’s!! So it’s definitely worth the few minutes to add your giveaway to these sites. If you know of others, please let me know.
4. Mention your giveaway on your blog.
Sometimes I do this & sometimes I don’t. The above giveaway was purely done on Twitter & social media. I never linked to it on my blog. But I have done in the past. If you have a monthly round up post & mention your giveaway, add the direct link to the tweet if anyone wants to join in.
Final Thoughts
Running a Twitter giveaway like this boosts your Twitter engagement & in turn boosts your Klout score. It also increases your followers. It’s all good!
You can also boost your Twitter via blog giveaways. I use the Gleam app for my giveaways & always have three entries options for Twitter. One to follow me on Twitter, one to follow the brand on Twitter & one to send a tweet.
Let me know how your Twitter giveaway goes. Tweet if you need any help, @CuddleFairy! x
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