Tracking your Twitter contest is an obvious step in running a successful Twitter contest, I’m always surprised by the number of people who don’t track their results.
Always track all of your marketing efforts and remember every marketing effort should be done for a reason.
Tools to Measure Your Twitter Contest
It’s important to use appropriate tools to measure your Twitter contest.
If the objectives of your Twitter contest are to increase followers, increase ReTweets, and generate leads, you need a tool that can measure these statistics.
You may have to use more than one tool to measure your results. You could use a tool like HootSuite or HubSpot, to measure the increase in the number of followers and ReTweets.
Measure the Leads Generated
To measure the leads generated by your contest, you could set up a new campaign in an email autoresponder program like AWeber, or Constant Contact to capture your new leads.
The key is to determine the appropriate measurement tool and test it before you launch your Twitter contest.
I like to use multiple tools to measure my contests, to make sure I’m accurately measuring the results.
Confirm the Winners
When your contest ends, it’s important to reach out to the winners on Twitter and via email, to let them know that they won as soon as possible.
Once they respond, I let the Twitterverse know who won.
It’s important to wait until they respond to you, to confirm that they are a real person and not a Twitterbot.
It would be very embarrassing if the winner of your contest was a Twitterbot and you announced it to the world.
Celebrate
Once you confirm the winner, it’s time to celebrate!
Announce the winner publicly on Twitter, on the contest’s web page, your blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and your other social communities.
The more publicity you generate, the more popular your future contests will be.
Review the Results
When your contest is complete, take time to review its results.
Did you meet your goals? What worked and what didn’t? What could you do better in your next contest?
It’s important to review your contest in detail so you can make your next one even better. It’s also very important, to follow up with your new leads in a timely manner.
I also like to welcome my new followers with a personal message if possible.
Your message should have the following elements:
- Your message should be less than 140 characters. to give people room to add their personal comments to the ReTweet.
- Begin with something other than @YourTwitterID so the ReTweet will be treated like a Reply instead of a Mention. If you begin the ReTweet with @YourTwitterId it will only be seen by your followers.
- Use your Twitter ID in the message so people will follow you
- Mention a brief summary of the prize
- Mention your sponsor or their Twitter ID in the message and make it clear they are providing the prize
- Add a trackable link that is shortened to the Tweet. You can use HootSuite or URL shorteners like Bitly or TinyURL.
- Add your contest hashtag to the ReTweet to help promote your contest..
