Twitter for Prizes and Profit
Posted on: July 12, 2009Author: Cali Lewis
15 comments so far
12 Days of Twitter :: Day 11
(What the heck are the 12 days of Twitter?)
There’s been a lot of controversy lately about Twitter spam. I’ve already talked about the kind that we don’t have to want. The kind you can get rid of by unfollowing or blocking. Tonight though, I’m writing about something that many people might argue isn’t spam at all. It’s stuff in the gray area, and if it isn’t spam, at the very least, it’s Twitter pollution. You’ve seen it. It’s everywhere. Companies create a contest that encourages people to tweet with a branded hashtag. I’m a capitalist. I’m all about free speech, so I think if a company wants to do that, they should have the right to do it, but my hope is that the Twitter community will say no by not participating.
Twitter is a great place for community, and communities are a great place to do giveaways to promote a product or service. Giveaways are fun for community members, and get lots of attention for companies. If you spend more than five minutes a day on Twitter, I’m guessing you’ve seen multiple tweets with #squarespace and #moonfruit in them lately. The tweets have absolutely nothing to do with the companies Square Space or Moonfruit, though. The included hashtag is purely an effort to enter a contest put on by those companies to win something, and the rules typically specify that you can tweet about anything you want, as long as you include the branded hashtag.
In full disclosure, Square Space is coming on board as a new sponsor of GeekBrief.TV. While I like the service they provide, I don’t agree with any company using hashtag spam to create interest in a contest. If you’re one of the people who doesn’t think it’s specifically spam, I think you’ll agree that it does add clutter and confusion.
Now, I want to be clear on something. I love giveaways! I love the use of Twitter for giveaways. I just think there’s a better way.
I’ve use a service called TwitRand to do giveaways. I let everyone know I’ll be doing a giveaway in the next month (or whatever the time frame is … usually a Drobo). They have to be following me in order to enter, then I let TwitRand randomly pick a follower. I have nothing to do with the outcome, so I can’t be biased in picking a winner, and I don’t have to do any extra work in collecting information from the contest entries. It’s much cleaner and much simpler.
The downside to this option is it doesn’t get people involved. There are ways to get people involved that doesn’t clutter up the space, though. You could ask a trivia question, you could ask people to comment on something and pick the funniest response. You can also use TwitRand to pick a random person that has retweeted a particular phrase or keyword. There are many options that encourage your followers to be active without cluttering up Twitter and confusing people who aren’t clued into what’s going on.
When you’re building a business, the only thing that really matters is your reputation. MoonFuit and SquareSpace are good companies. Their Twitter spam damages them more than it helps. On Twitter, you want your message to be who you really are. Companies will always offer you incentives to be something different, but no amount of money is worth adding and abeding the twitter spammers.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on contests and Twitter. Leave a comment below!
Read More
Introduction to the 12 Days of Twitter
Day 1: The Secret Code: What are all those initials and symbols?
Day 2: Use TweetDeck to Manage Conversations
Day 3: Share Your Funny Anecdotes While They’re Still Funny
Day 4: Follow Responsibly
Day 5: 3 Newbie Mistakes Made by New Tweeters
Day 6: Use Twitter Search to Connect and Find
Day 7: Twitter Mobile
Day 8: Five Awesome Things You Can Do with Twitter
Day 9: Mix It Up!
Day 10: If You’re Not a TweetDeck, You Might Be a Seesmic
Day 12: Schedule Tweets in Advance
« If You’re Not a TweetDeck, You Might Be a Seesmic
My Cyborg Name »
July 12th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
[...] Things You Can Do with Twitter Day 10: If You’re Not a TweetDeck, You Might Be a Seesmic Day 11: Twitter for Prizes and Profit Previous Post« Five Awesome Things You Can Do with Twitter Next PostIf You’re Not a [...]
July 12th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
Cali,love the information you have and your ideas. Spam is never fun for us that have to sift thru it and add more work to our days. Now contests and giveaways We all love to be a winner!!thx. for the well written blog and look forward to the next!’
~Karol Kyno
July 12th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
[...] 7: Twitter Mobile Day 9: Mix it Up! Day 10: If You’re Not a TweetDeck, You Might Be a Seesmic Day 11: Twitter for Prizes and Profit Previous Post« Twitter Mobile Next PostMix It Up! [...]
July 12th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
[...] Do with Twitter Day 9: Mix it Up! Day 10: If You’re Not a TweetDeck, You Might Be a Seesmic Day 11: Twitter for Prizes and Profit Previous Post« Use TweetDeck to Manage Conversations Next PostFollow Responsibly [...]
July 12th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
[...] Do with Twitter Day 9: Mix it Up! Day 10: If You’re Not a TweetDeck, You Might Be a Seesmic Day 11: Twitter for Prizes and Profit Previous Post« Twitter Porn and Spam? Next PostShare Your Funny Anecdotes While [...]
July 12th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
I got so sick of seeing #spymaster #squarespace and #moonfruit that I was about to start blocking people but it finally died down.
That just ruins a brand for me. I will specifically avoid any company that encourages people to spam their followers repeatedly like that. If they feel it’s okay to encourage people to irritate their friends, then what might they do with any personal info I gave them?
July 12th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
I disagree. You even said that you can use these hashtags anyway you choose. Do a search for TCOT, almost everyone that uses that hashtag puts a ton of hashtags in every tweet.
Everyone I have ever seen using TwitRand, usually ends up getting someone who is in an area where they can’t receive the contest prize, or simply doesn’t use twitter and won’t accept. Especially in cases where someone has 50,000 followers. With TwitRand you are just as able to cheat, just keep searching for someone until you get someone that lets you keep the contest prize for yourself.
Me I choose this guy. @msanie http://twitrand.com/qq7bh3 He hasn’t been online since April.
July 12th, 2009 at 11:10 pm
I agree. And congratulations on being gutsy enough to mention your future sponsor. We are looking for a way to use contests on Twitter, etc. to promote iSamurai, our iPhone game. We won’t be rewarding hashtag spam, but I will be watching for other suggestions.
July 13th, 2009 at 2:25 am
I’ve seen the #squarespace offer and don’t agree with their methods at all. Take a look at how we use Twitter (@KernelEncore). We encourage our regular customers to tweet about us using a few simple “rules” listed on our website. Our hope is that their followers that don’t know about us will see it and ask questions of their friend for more information about our product. It’s not volume of tweets we are looking for, just positive word-of-mouth advertising. Keeping our customers thinking, tweeting and talking about us in their everyday lives is our goal. A few quality referrals are well worth the incentive we offer each week. And we’ve never been accused of spamming this way.
July 13th, 2009 at 4:36 am
We have local restaurants and shops that offer discounts with special keywords, or even games of rock-paper-scissors.
July 13th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
Respectfully I have to disagree with you Cali. When Squarespace and Moonfruit were doing those contests they were both the number one trending topics on Twitter. That means they were on the homepage of Twitter. How much do you think that brand placement is worth? LOTS. For example, I had no idea what Moonfruit was, then I saw they were the number one trending topic and Googled them. Now I know they are a tool to build websites.
You may not agree with the method, but I’d bet those contests were worth their weight in gold as far as brand awareness to both of these companies.
July 14th, 2009 at 3:31 am
I’d love to know what the Twitter community considers good/productive and not annoying ways to promote your business on Twitter?? I’d love a follow up blog post that gives all the businesses out there good ways to promote your brand/website/business.
July 14th, 2009 at 6:16 am
[...] Do with Twitter Day 9: Mix it Up! Day 10: If You’re Not a TweetDeck, You Might Be a Seesmic Day 11: Twitter for Prizes and Profit Day 12: Schedule Tweets in Advance Previous Post« 12 Days of Twitter Next PostTwitter Porn [...]
July 14th, 2009 at 6:17 am
[...] Do with Twitter Day 9: Mix it Up! Day 10: If You’re Not a TweetDeck, You Might Be a Seesmic Day 11: Twitter for Prizes and Profit Day 12: Schedule Tweets in Advance Previous Post« Look! Hayden Panettiere has a Kindle Next [...]
August 12th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
[...] Can Do with Twitter Day 9: Mix It Up! Day 10: If You’re Not a TweetDeck, You Might Be a Seesmic Day 11: Twitter for Prizes and Profit Day 12: Schedule Tweets in [...]