Twitter Contests Increase Traffic (Just Be Sure To Play By Twitter’s Rules)
By Anna Johnson on July 21st, 2010Running contests on Twitter can be a great way to get more followers, web traffic, sign-ups and sales… but be warned: not just anything goes on Twitter. To avoid having your Twitter account banned, you should know what is and isn’t allowed when using the service for contests.
Check out Twitter’s guidelines for running contests here but here are a few overarching ‘dos and don’ts’ to keep in mind:
DO ask people to make it clear they are participating in your contest. In particular, ask them to include an @reply to you in their Tweets.
DO ask participants to include relevant hashtags e.g. #contest or #yourcompanyname in their Tweets.
DO NOT encourage participants to include unrelated hashtag topics in their contest Tweets.
DO NOT structure your contest so that people are rewarded or encouraged to create multiple Twitter accounts.
DO NOT structure your contest so that people are rewarded or encouraged for posting the same Tweet multiple times.
