Hosting contests and sweepstakes through your Twitter profile can be an effective way to take your marketing to a whole new level. A level that increases your followers, which can produce a massive ROI. Whether you’re a creative individual, small business or large organization, chances are you have thought about running a Twitter contest.

Contests and giveaways on Twitter may offer prizes for Tweeting a specific update, for following a particular account, or for posting updates with a certain hashtag. It’s a fantastic idea that can end up being a worthy investment, but you’ll need to know all of the promotional guidelines and rules before you start the journey to giveaway paradise.

Guidelines for Promotions on Twitter Explained

There are important guidelines that you will want to follow and we have them all covered, and up to date, right here in this guide.

  • All acceptable ways to run and enter a Twitter contest or giveaway can be asking participants to Tweet, Retweet, follow a Twitter user, and post an update with a specific / relevant hashtag.
  • Be sure to discourage the creation of multiple accounts in your official rules. If the entrants create more than one account to enter multiple times, all of their accounts are liable to be suspended. Explain how doing this will result in ineligibility from the contest or sweepstakes.
  • Encourage users looking to enter the contest to mention you in their update so you can see everyone who is entering. This will help you keep an eye on things so you can have a smooth experience.
  • Just like anything on the internet, Twitter doesn’t like spam either. You should discourage the use of exact re-tweets or posting a similar post multiple times. It is seen as duplicate content and can damage the search results on Twitter.
  • When using hashtags, encourage topics relevant to the contest. It’s a great idea to have contestants use hashtags, just make sure they are relevant. The use of hashtags that aren’t related to the topic can violate the Twitter rules.

An in Depth Look at the Twitter Giveaway Guidelines

Twitter does a great job providing information on all the rules and best practices when running a contest or giveaway. To take full advantage of the opportunity, we have provided an in depth look at Twitter’s policies and best practices listed on their support site.

What are Twitter’s Rules?

For starters, visit the Twitter Rules page to understand exactly what you should and shouldn’t do. We will also give you an in depth look into the rules, and more specifically, what to keep an eye out for when running a Twitter giveaway.

At the end of the day, Twitter wants each user on their platform to be unique. Anything that seems out of the ordinary will be considered spam, which could result in your account or someone else’s account being banned. Some examples are; following and unfollowing an excessive amount of people, tweeting / sending an excessive amount of duplicate and unsolicited replies and mentions, and the creation, selling and purchasing of account interactions (otherwise known as social signals).

If anything seems suspicious on Twitter’s end, your account could be at risk for permanent shut down. So, be mindful of their rules and always use best practices.

Twitter Guidelines and Contest Rules

Now that you know the Twitter Rules, it’s time to understand the Twitter contest rules, or those rules specific to giveaways and sweepstakes.

What Exactly Can You Do?

Retweeting, tweeting, following someone and posting with a specific hashtag are all admissible ways to partake in a giveaway or contest. Twitter really wants you to limit your promotion participants to one tweet per day.

Things You Should Do

When your participants are sending out Tweets, it is best practices to have them include your @username. Next, think about having your participants use a #hashtag that’s relevant to your promotion. Having both of these will help you track and view the entrants, which you will need to do to make sure everyone is following the guidelines of your promotion.

How Often Should You Tweet About Your Contest on Twitter?

Anyone running a contest or sweepstakes on Twitter should promote it to attract more contestants. However, you should be mindful of how many times you actually tweet it out.

If you are running your first contest, start by tweeting out anywhere between 2-5 times per day.

The number of tweets all depends on your goals of the promotion. Remember that posting the same Tweet more than once can be considered duplicate content, so you’ll have to come up with some unique posts if you want to Tweet about your promotion more than one time per day.

Twitter Search Rules and Restrictions

If you check out Twitter’s search rules and restrictions page, you can get an idea of what happens behind the scenes when people do a search on Twitter. You can also read about the steps you can take to make sure that your content has the greatest opportunity to appear in the Twitter search results.

The majority of this page is dedicated to making sure you understand that posting duplicate and/or automated content is frowned upon. You are best served following Twitter’s rules and best practices in order to ensure your content is appearing in the search results.

These regulations apply to all Twitter users, not just the ones that are running a giveaway. That being said, if you are running a giveaway, it is important to be familiar with how Twitter approaches search so that you can best optimize your giveaway for success.

What Else Do You Need to Know About?

Once you fully understand Twitter’s rules, regulations and best practices for contests and sweepstakes, it’s probably time to consult with an attorney to make sure you are following all laws. It could save you in the long run.

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