Are you running out of ideas to conduct a brand new contest on Twitter?

If your answer is yes, then you have certainly come to the right place.

We all know how powerful Twitter is. Being one of the most widely used social media platforms in the world – it provides an unparalleled support to its users. From small business owners to entrepreneurs, almost everyone can use Twitter in their own way.

If utilized wisely, it can act as an excellent lead magnet for your brand. Not only can you reach out to more people in less time, but can also create a significant presence for your brand. With the help of hashtag monitoring and organizing various engaging contests on Twitter, you can certainly do it all.

A successful contest can help you gain a significant amount of followers in less time. Being one of the most open and fastest mediums, a contest can be organized on Twitter in a hassle-free manner.

If you can’t think of a revolutionary idea to conduct a contest on Twitter, then have a look at these expert suggestions. Be inspired and brainstorm a little to implement a personalized version of these unique ideas of conducting a Twitter contest.

1. Photo Contest

Probably one of the easiest and most effective ways to conduct a contest, it would definitely boost the overall presence of your brand on Twitter. Additionally, it is a great way to collect user-generated content and share it on various social media channels.

With photo contests, the sky is the limit. You can be as creative as you want. You can share a subject or a common theme and encourage your audience to submit their pictures related to it.

If you want to do something different, then you can always provide the images of your product and ask your audience to alter and share them on their own profiles. This was recently done by SKODA India and certainly got people talking about it.

2. Fastest Finger First

Also termed as the “quickest answer wins”, it won’t require much of your time and effort. All you need to do is ask a few interesting questions to your audience and select the first right answer as a winner tweet.

You can always come up with creative questions and puzzle your audience to create a buzz around it. Make sure that you announce the duration, its date and time, and every other detail regarding your contest before its commencement. Prepare your audience and don’t just conduct a fastest-finger-first out of the blue.

In order to be more uniform, you can either ask a question everyday or keep a respective day of the week (Monday, Friday, etc.) reserved for your contest. This will make your audience come back to your page and will increase the overall rate of interaction.

As a social media marketer, you can always take the assistance of some visual aids to make it more interesting. Here’s an example:

3. Best Answer Wins

This is just the opposite of the Fastest Finger First. Instead of simply selecting the first correct answer, your focus is to pick the best answer out of the lot. Be more creative while drafting your questions. Don’t simply come up with a basic question that can be easily searched by anyone on the internet.

Make an effort and ask your audience to share their thoughts on a respective subject. Try to relate it to your brand and leave a message as well.

One of the best ways to conduct a contest like this is by asking people to give a caption to your image. People love to participate in caption contests! Use it in your favor to host an engaging contest on Twitter.

4. Tag-a-friend Contest

This is one of the best ways to propagate your brand presence. Simply ask your audience a question and encourage them to tag their friends as well. This will make others aware of your brand and would definitely help you to generate more leads in the long haul.

Additionally, you can just ask your audience to use your hashtag in their tweets while tagging their friends. This would cause a chain-reaction and can definitely help you market your brand on Twitter.

Almost every other brand has conducted this kind of contest on Twitter. Use some visual aids to make sure you impart just the right kind of your brand’s unique essence while organizing a tag-a-friend contest. You can always encourage your audience to create a game out of it in order to make it more fun and interactive.

5. Follow Retweet and Win

Nothing can get simpler than this! Just ask your audience to follow your account on Twitter and retweet a specific tweet by adding your hashtag. It is a great way to conduct a giveaway as well.

You can simply make a ritual of conducting a weekly or a monthly giveaway to constantly increase your follower count. Additionally, if you own an online store, you can give discount vouchers to your audience as well.

You can also conduct a simple follow-to-win contest as well if your primary goal is to increase your follower count. Give every follower of yours a small token of appreciation. This will certainly boost your follower count in no time!

Additionally, if you want to increase cross-platform traffic and would like to increase the follower count on any other platform (like Instagram, Pinterest, etc.), then conducting a Follow-to-win contest would be a great idea! Ask your audience on Twitter to follow you on other social media channels and vice-versa to win a tempting gift.

This will help you to bring your followers together and would increase cross-medium interaction.

6. Q&A

A classic Twitter contest that can never go out of the trends, Q&A would definitely boost the visibility of your hashtag. If your aim is to get your hashtag trending, then you should definitely think of conducting a classic Question and Answer round.

Start by sharing the basic details and guidelines to create a pre-contest buzz on Twitter. After prepping up, either share a list of questions with your followers or simply keep asking various questions at a regular interval. This will increase the cumulative usage of your hashtag and you might get it trending as well.

7. Hashtag Contest

If your prime motive is to create brand awareness and boost the usage of your hashtag on Twitter, then you should focus on conducting a typical Hashtag Contest.

Unlike a Q&A contest, come up with a single yet engaging question and ask your audience to share their answers by using your hashtag. In order to track their reply, you can always use a hashtag tracking tool.

There are plenty of readily available tools that can help you perform a hashtag monitoring task automatically. This would save your time and resources significantly. Try to be as creative as you can and come up with the kind of question that no one can resist answering.

Also, before announcing the contest, come up with an engaging hashtag. If your brand already has a unique hashtag, then there is no harm in using it as well. Make sure that you have a distinctive hashtag and that it should not be already used by any other brand extensively.

Additionally, try to relate the hashtag to your brand. It should not be extensively long (or short). Don’t combine more than 4-5 words together and come up with an engaging and effective hashtag to boost your Twitter marketing.

8. Sweepstakes

Sweepstakes are one of the smartest ways a brand can use Twitter as a lead magnet. There are different kinds of sweepstakes that you can organize on Twitter on the basis of your marketing needs.

If your motive is to land more people on your website, then simply include its URL in your tweet and encourage your audience to retweet it. Later, you can simply pick a random winner out of the lot. You can ask your audience to use your hashtag and later use a hashtag tracking tool to monitor its reach.

Also, sweepstakes can be used to collect email ids from your prospective leads. Simply provide a link to your landing page and ask your followers to provide their email ids in order to participate in the giveaway. This would be an excellent way to collect your participant’s email ids that can be later used to gain more leads.

There are different kinds of sweepstakes that you can organize on Twitter. Almost every established brand on Twitter keeps coming up with different kinds of sweepstakes to lure more leads. You can also learn from their example and organize a unique and interesting sweepstake on your page as well.

9. Celebrating a milestone

A subtle yet effective way to interact with your audience, celebrating a milestone will make your followers feel as if they are a part of your family. Crossed a certain milestone on Twitter? Why not celebrate it with the rest of your followers as well.

Instead of simply creating a traditional contest, organize a kind of giveaway and give your loyal followers a chance to celebrate with you. This is one of the simplest ways to organize an event on Twitter while sending a message at the same time.

Things to remember:

While conducting a contest on Twitter, make sure that you remember the following key suggestions.

  1. Twitter has a set of rules and guidelines for promotion that should be followed by every brand and individual. Make sure that you don’t spam your followers and follow all the stated guidelines to conduct a promising contest.
  2. Don’t simply start your contest out of the blue. Set a proper schedule and make an announcement in order to inform your audience about it.
  3. No one likes to participate in a contest without reading all the important guidelines. It is always advisable to publish a set of rules and regulations in order to avoid any confusion before commencing the contest.
  4. As suggested, there are different types of contests that one can organize on Twitter. Nevertheless, just because a contest seems appealing to you, it doesn’t mean that it would be profitable to you as well. Before you take any step, select the kind of contest that would go well with your marketing plan and brand tone.
  5. Needless to say, you have to be fair while conducting a contest. By being partial, you can sabotage your brand’s reputation on Twitter.
  6. While running the contest, try to interact with your audience as much as you can. Be more fast and fun. Don’t let others wait for a long time to get your reply. Try to walk an extra mile and follow-up with a fast delivery of results in order to provide an unforgettable experience to your audience.

I hope these suggestions would come handy to you while running your next contest. Think something out of the box and try to relate it to your audience. Most importantly, don’t forget to have some fun while running your next contest on Twitter!