Twitter Competitions: What Works & Why

Rather than writing about how another footballer has got into trouble using Twitter or highlighting some new tech I thought its about time I wrote something that will hopefully help others out there and draw on my own experiences from the last number of months.

One of the areas I have been heavily involved with is Twitter.  It is a platform I spend most of my day on for both personal and business reasons, one that I enjoy using.  I’ve been involved in setting up a brand new account which has done really well since its inception in February.

When it launched we used a Twitter competition to help drive awareness of the account and the follower count.  I may go into at another how we have achieved this but that would be straying from the particular topic of this post.

When it comes to competitions there are a few basic formats that you can use dependent on what you are looking to get from the exercise.  This is the key…. work out what the objective is when you have that first discussion.  This will help shape what the competition looks like and what you would like them to do.  Is it awareness of a product, is it views on a YouTube video, is it data capture?

 

ReTweet To Win

The most basic of competition formats is to ask people to retweet a message you put out.  This needs to be time sensitive so you start it at say 11am and ensure you say when it closes…say at 5pm.  Do ensure that you think whether anyone in the world can enter your competition or just your country.  I would put in “(UK Only)” for my message as that is the only territory I look after and ensures there is no misunderstanding.

One thing to be aware of with any competition is that there are quite a lot of people on Twiter who do nothing but enter competitions.  They used to do it via websites from home but now it is Twitters turn to be the platform of choice.  The easier the competition to enter than the more of these you will get.  If your objective is eyeballs then that could be ok, if you want to target specific fans of your club/product then you may want to use a different format.

The other thing you need to do is specific how it works.  Best practice here is to develop your own hashtag, this could be a one off for this competition or one you use for all your competitions to keep things simple.  The reason for this is that it makes it easier to get stats on how many times it is being used and when you come to picking a winner you can use the # to gain a list of entrants.  It makes your life much easier as the organiser.

Recently we used this format to drive awareness and gained over 1000 mentions of the hashtag.  It is not a format I usually use just because it is so general and if you want something like data capture it doesn’t work. 

Verdict:  its a simple and effective format to driving awareness.  Can be used for new product releases or the launch of a twitter account.

Answering Questions

This is another very simple format that has been tried and tested by TV, Radio and Press for many, many years now.  The advantage with this is that you can make it as easy (if want maximum number of entrants) or hard (to get answers only from keen fans).

Again this comes down to what your objectives are for the business.  You can use it for gaining awareness with a simple question and get as many people entering it as possible – it is best to set the question to relate to what you want to promote (new kit, product, event) to keep it relevant. 

You can also bring in data capture into this competition by linking out to another site.  We did this successfully to launch the Twitter account back in February and bring in a competition for the Olympics that was very unique.  This competition had 2 objectives; 1) launch twitter account for the brand and gain followers and 2) data capture.

Did it achieve its goals?  Hell yeah it did.  We had over 12,000 entries in 10 days to the competition but this wasnt just a digital activation, it had press coverage backing it up too to create greater awareness of the competition and the great prize.  In all it was a great way to create awareness of the new account.

That’s not to say all of these are good.  I’ve also had some fails where I’ve had 30 entries to a competition in a day where two thirds of them have been competition spammers.  Not the best way to target brand fans but there were certainly lessons learned by these that have been beneficial going forward.

Verdict:  If done well can be very engaging and can either hit lots of people or target a certain portion of your fans.  If not done right then can really miss your objectives…. be creative and know what you want.

 

Follow To Win

A tactic used by a number of companies has been to ask people to follow their account for the chance to win.  This is sometimes linked with a question or retweet so people have to do both for the chance to win.

I have never used this method as I do not believe in the benefits of just boosting your numbers, as this is set out to do.  If you are setting out with a new account then it is one worth taking into consideration still as your aim would more than likely be awareness and follower numbers.

As much as hate to be governed by numbers, these competitions often come from marketing or PR.  In a world that is still in a transition when it comes to social media then numbers will still be a target set by those from above.

 

Celebrate a Milestone

This is a format used by celebrities and businesses alike as it is simple, has a call to action and offers one person a great prize.  It could be you are just short of 100, 1000 or 10,000 fans and it can be a nice idea to reward the fan who becomes that milestone number.

It is not a new idea as people have been celebrating being the 1,000,000th customer or 1,000th member for many years.  We are just taking that old concept into a new space as it is something we are comfortable with and know how it works. 

From keeping an eye on athletes for a number of months now it is a method used by many of them to get to that milestone that are looking to achieve.  If you have access to money can’t buy prizes also (signed short, dinner with celeb, etc) than you can gain that sudden, quick boost in numbers that have been aiming for.

Verdict: It has proved to be a popular tactic to celebrate with those fans who have joined you when you hit a milestone.  You can reward the person who hits that number or a general thank you by picking one at random.  Good to use as a spot prize.

 

Upload photos/video

This is one that we don’t see so much of but can be great for connecting with your devoted fans.  Many image upload competitions or engagement mechanics take place off the platform and on websites to gather the ones posted together.

It could easily be used to connect with fans who are truly passionate, thus you wouldn’t get the numbers as you would with a simple competition.  It could take the form of taking a pic in a certain place, with one of your team’s players or showing off their collection of your product.  It could also take a more artistic form with fans showing off their drawings, paintings, advert designs, videos with the most creative being rewarded.

If you are not aiming to collect the products of their hard work then it is very workable on Twitter.  You could also link off to a website for them to upload there so you are including data capture and access to work that could be incorporated into other campaigns.

Verdict:  the highest barriers to entry as requires work from those entering but if the prize is good enough then they will come.  Rather than plain product/tickets use experiences that only your brand/club can offer.

 

Summary

Those are some of the basic ways in which you can work competitions on twitter and my experiences of running some of these during the course of this year.  The key for anyone planning to run a competition is to set out your objectives and KPI’s first, this will determine which format will work for you.  If you do it the other way round then chances are it wont be as successful as you may have hoped.

Prizes are always going to be important as the more appealing it is the greater number of entrants you will receive.  If it is just product then engagement will be relatively low but if you are using a simple mechanic then it can still be successful.  The more work an entrant has to do then the higher perceived value the prize has to be to achieve the same success. 

See what assets you have to use, what your objectives are (I know I keep coming back to this but is so crucial), what you would see as a success…. and be realistic.  The prize is still an important part of any compeition you run, whetehr it be on Twitter or anywhere else.

I know there are other methods and examples out there, some being much more creative than others.  This is a start and hopefully will help those who are looking to learn from others.

 

What have your experiences been in using Twitter for competitions?  Love to hear some of stories and in the end these will help others (both the good and bad experiences).

About author

Daniel McLaren
Daniel McLaren 820 posts

Dan is the Founder & CEO of Digital Sport. Can be found at sports industry events and heard every week on the Digital Sport Insider podcast. @DanielMcLaren

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