Twitter always brings me in lots of giveaway traffic which is why I utilize it to promote my giveaways. In fact, you can have your blog posts going directly to your Twitter. This is what I do so I don't have to remember to put the link on Twitter. Feedburner will do it for me! To get your blog posts to automatically post to your Twitter is straightforward to do.
- Go to your Feedburner account and click on the Publicize tab.
- Click on Socialize.
- Click Add a Twitter Account.
- You can add some text to the beginning (or end) of the tweet if you like. I have added "Blog Update:" to the beginning of each post so people know that my tweets are coming from my blog. You can leave it blank if you like.
Another way you can promote your giveaways on Twitter is have your readers do it for you! I have a bonus entry for people to follow me on Twitter and tweet the giveaway. I limit it to one tweet per day although I have seen blogs where you can tweet once per hour or unlimited. I like the one tweet per day personally.
You can let the readers write their own tweets or provide one already for them. If you provide one for them, it is a good idea to include the hashtag #giveaway or #contest. I like #giveaway so if someone does a search of this hashtag, my giveaway will come up.
If you are writing a tweet for your readers to use, you will need to use a shortened url. There's a few sites you can use to shorten urls including:
You will need to publish your giveaway first to get the link and then shorten it. Then you need to go back into your post and add the shortened url into the tweet.
Here's an example of a Tweet I use for my giveaways:
I include in the tweet:
- RT: To tell people to feel free to Retweet
- My Twitter name: I will be able to see the tweet sent out
- The Prize and the Sponsor
- A Hashtag
- End Date
- Shortened URL
I have also heard from people to also include if your giveaway is open to Canada or international because people will do a search for these kinds of giveaways. This way yours will come up.
Thanks to all my readers on Facebook for their great ideas on Twitter. I have put many of their suggestions into use on my own giveaways. Happy Tweeting!
This is awesome! Thanks :)
ReplyDeleteI did not realize about the feedburner thingy - will need to try that :-)
ReplyDeleteThis is a great time-saver! I'm having trouble though. When I click 'add a twitter account' it asks me to allow or deny. When I hit allow, it redirects back to FeedBurner and tells me I have to add a Twitter account to activate Socialize? What am I doing wrong?
ReplyDeleteHi Keri!
ReplyDeleteDo you already have a twitter account set up? Feedburner only allows you to update one twitter account per feed. I have mine set up and when I try to add another one, it does exactly what you said happened to you. Just to the left of the "Add Twitter Account" button, is there something showing in blue? If so, that's a twitter account that is already linked to your feed.