How to host a Twitter giveaway

I feel like the days of doing a cheeky ol' Rafflecopter on the blog and asking people to follow you on every single platform and put in all of their details are dying a little bit. Now, Twitter and Insta giveaways are taking over. You just have to click a couple of buttons and BOOM, no fuss, no fiddling, you've entered. I for one find them so much simpler and more tempting to get involved in.


I've done a few little Twitter giveaways now and I find that they give my following a really good boost. I mentioned in my post on using spreadsheets that I track my stats for each month; the months in which I've done a Twitter giveaway always have a much bigger spike in following than the months in which I don't do one. I always give my fellow bloggers an RT on their giveaways now that I've done some, as I know how frustrating it can be to get a low amount of them, and how useful one RT can be in spreading a chain of potential new followers.
When I did my first giveaway on Twitter I was a little bit lost, and anxious. I didn't know how I'd go through everything, and pick a winner, or what to include in the tweet, or how to go about it really. What if one hundred people got involved? I could hardly pick names out of a hat for that many!
First thing's first, you need a good quality photo of the giveaway prize. More people get attracted by a well-laid out photo than one that's dark, grainy and a bit plain. As people scroll past your tweet, they need to be drawn in by it, and be able to tell exactly what they'll be winning with a quick glance. 
Writing the tweet is something I always find a lil' hard with the 160 word limit. Make sure you include the date/time that the giveaway will be ending and whether it's an international giveaway or not. This way no one gets confused, or enters your giveaway when they might not have a change of winning. I usually try to tag the brand's handle in the tweet too. Remember to disqualify quoted tweets, as it makes it so much harder to pick a fair winner at the end.
Promoting your giveaway is something that I find useful to do once a day or every other day. You can RT your own tweets now, and still reply to them. This helps it pop back up onto other people's timelines. Similarly, if anyone comments on the giveaway, make sure you reply to them, as again it brings it back onto timelines.
Picking a winner is the part I was most lost about, but it's actually really damn simple. I use this website which lets you input a tweet URL and it'll pick a random person who retweeted it. If it picks a giveaway account or yourself then you can simply regenerate a new winner. 
Contact your winner within a day or two of the giveaway ending, and put out a tweet to let people know that the giveaway is over and who won it. Simply ask them for their address and send their prize over. I always ask the winner to tweet me when they've received their prize and let me know if they enjoy it!
I hope this was useful to you! I've also got a Twitter giveaway coming up in the next few days, so keep your eyes peeled.
Follow me on Bloglovin | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Youtube