Twitter competition advice

A competition through Twitter has become something every user of the application is used to and something that many of them take part in. The reason they take part in them is because there’s very little to lose – pressing “Retweet” or typing a 140 character message isn’t going to take them any more than 60 seconds (if it is, you’re doing something wrong) – and the benefits are massive.

There are a few reasons to run a Twitter competition:

• To increase the number of followers you have.
• To improve your social media presence.
• To increase the number of visitors to your site.
• The final one, to get as many links as possible.

How to structure your Tweet

The structure of your tweet is the most important part of the competition, it will be what everyone sees and Retweets and is each person’s entry to your competition. Your tweet needs to contain the following information:

• Your Twitter account handle – ie @digi_guerrilla
• Landing page URL – ie ly/abc123
• A hash tag – although use with caution, it’s easier for people to search and see if it’s a big competition. You can look daft
• A Retweet request.

That seems like a lot of information for a 140 character message, but it’s possible:

Follow @digi_guerrilla and RT to win SEO Secrets by Danny Dover – http://ly/c2ra24 #seocompetition

The above message is just short of 105 characters, so another 35 characters can be included but I prefer to keep it short.

What to have on your landing page

The landing page is your competition hub, where people will go to and read more about the competition they want to enter, it’s also where all your links are going to, so you need to make sure your page contains the following:

• Keyword-rich copy about the competition. Try reading this free landing page resource for help with your landing page copy.
• How to enter the competition – include an easy “tweet this message” button.
• A share bar – for people to share on as many social networks as possible.
• Requirements and legal information – don’t bother writing something massive, just something to cover all aspects of the competition, a few paragraphs of small print is fine.

The landing page doesn’t necessarily have to be a unique page on your site, it’s acceptable to make it a blog post with a keyword-rich URL and all of the information mentioned above as long as it’s attractive and reads well.

Promoting your competition

Promoting a competition on Twitter is the most difficult part. If you’ve got a low-traffic website then it means a lot of manual labour but it’s a great way to get links. Here are a few ideas:

• People are always looking for good content, so write a few guest blog posts on peoples’ sites, linking back to the landing page on your site. Not only will this get you publicity, it will give you a few free links within the post and within your author bio.
• Write and send out press releases online, many of these are picked up in search engines, so people searching for Twitter competitions are likely to find your site.
• Put an advert on your websites home page and other key landing pages throughout the site.
• If you’re on other networks, invite your fans from them too!
• Send out an email to all of your existing clients, asking them to tweet and share the competition with their friends and colleagues.
• Use sites like FollowerWonk to find Twitter users who may be interested in your competition, you can Tweet and follow these but watch out for being reported as spam!

These tips aren’t the be all and end all of promoting your competition, if you have any other tips/advice, let us know in the comments below.

When the competition has ended

Once the competition has ended and your prize has been given away, analyse the results on Twitter by looking at the number of new followers, @replies and retweets. You can also use tools like Open Site Explorer to check your back link profile once they’ve performed a refresh of their site.

Finally, you should take a look at the people who have taken part in the competition and interacted with you. Competitions are just about getting new followers, they’re about forming new relationships online so try and look for people who are willing to talk and interact online in the future and build a relationship with them.