How to Engage and Grow Your Twitter for Business Followers with a Twitter Contest

Think Facebook for business has the corner on the social media contest market?  Have you often wondered if the success your business sees from its Instagram photo contests could translate to another social network – possibly Twitter?  In our latest Twitter for business blog post, we’re going to share all the information and tips your business needs to create and implement successful Twitter contests.

Practice Makes Perfect

No matter which social media marketing channel (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.) your business uses to create and implement social contests, there are a few best practices to follow.  These best practices will help your brand promote and run a contest which attracts and engages with your social network fans and followers.  Instead of spending an entire post going over these all-important practices, here’s an excellent social contest article to get you started.

Follow the Rules

So now that you’ve reviewed the best practices for running contests on social networks, let’s talk about more vital information your business must understand before launching a Twitter contest.  Your business must follow Twitter guidelines for contests or you could risk having your company account shut down.  You can read more about those Twitter contest rules here, but two of the most-important requirements include asking entrants to use an @reply in their update and notifying entrants to not Tweet repeatedly.

The Simple Solution

Want a simple way to get started?  Your business can start adding Twitter contests quickly and easily to its social media strategy by running a simple “follow and retweet” contest.  Tweet out what your contest entrants will win, and then notify people that all they need to do to enter your contest is to follow your company on Twitter and then ReTweet your original contest Tweet to be entered to win.

The Next Step

Looking for a more creative option for your social network contest on Twitter?  Brainstorm a creative contest hashtag and ask your followers to tweet a photo or Vine video to your brand using @yourcompany and including the hashtag.  The hashtag affords you the opportunity to create a nice photo/video stream to show off all the contest entries.

One Step Beyond

How do you take your Twitter contest to the next level?  Consider using Twitter Advertising options like Promoted Tweets, Promoted Accounts or Trending Topics to increase the reach of your contest.  Another effective way to improve the reach and engagement of your contest is to embed your contest Tweets on your company blog.

Has your business used Twitter contests in its social marketing?  Please share your success stories and tips in our comments below.