Twitter Promos That Get Attention and Drive Sales

There are several approaches that companies try on social media to get people interested and talking about their products and offers. Companies can actually benefit much from these by getting more loyal customers and increasing their popularity and brand awareness among the target individuals. Businesses can come up with interactive strategies, polls, contests and other promotional events. Below are some of the most creative and fun activities that individual users and companies came up with -- and which proved effective in driving fans in and boosting sales.

1. The Tweet-off

The contest was created by Threadless.com in 2009. It encouraged users to submit a tweet they like to the competition. The tweet will then be voted on by the users on Threadless.com. The best tweets were printed on T-shirts and the winner received a cash prize of up to $360 plus Threadless gift certificates.

The contest was very successful because it got people involved and pushes online users to keep looking for more tweets and get in touch with more Twitter users. It was also a great way for the website to get recognized quickly.

2. The Creative Answer

KFC held a contest on Twitter in 2010 where online users were asked to share through a tweet why they deserve to win the $20,000 scholarship offered by the fast food chain. The answers had to be very creative and they should only use the 140-character limit on Twitter together with the hashtag #KFCScholar. It was an excellent idea since it shows personality on the part of the company and also gives the idea that KFC is driven towards helping people get quality education.

3. Photo Contest

Photo contests are among the most popular and effective social media activities that your company can use to drive more customers and boost popularity. La Tasca, a Spanish restaurant, used the approach and asked Twitter users to send a picture of themselves with their tapas. They have to provide a very creative and fun photo that the contest organizers will choose among the other entries. The winner got a voucher and consolation prizes are also given to those who joined.

4. Sweepstakes

The contest is done by drawing the lucky winner from among the thousands of other entries. Companies can use a variety of approaches to host the sweepstakes, such as asking users to retweet the post and the 100th or 1,000th user will be given a prize.

The National Lottery has conducted a similar contest and immediately gained recognition among social media users. Being retweeted is a great way to spread information and let others know about your social media presence.

5. Trivia contest

Some companies come up with a hashtag where they can start asking trivia questions for people to answer. The first or most accurate answer will be given a prize. The questions can revolve around a company?s new product. Users are also required to follow the account first to qualify for the prize.

This is a very effective way to bring in new followers and get people interested. You can also use some applications to host the activity successfully. Have the people guess a new product?s name and let the hashtag run for a few days. Read more about holding contests on Twitter.