Twitter Competitions Tips and Tricks from @LaurieBeat

The world of comping is far greater than I could have imagined when I first set out on my 'mission competition' journey. I began by simply entering instant win completions such as 'Spring to Win' on Dorset Cereals and 'Belvoir Bagatelle' on the Belvoir Fruit Farms website. Wins were few and far between so I knew I had to switch things up a bit. I then discovered Twitter as a comping base.

To say that I instantly started winning would be a lie, but now that I have ironed out the issues and gotten into a good routine, it really had opened up a whole new barrel of winning opportunities! Here I will reveal my tips and tricks and I welcome you to comment your own, as there is always more one can learn as a comper! 

1) Set up a new account

Everyone uses Twitter for different reasons, some to keep in contact with friends, some to stalk celebrities, some to comp and many all of the above. However, if you are not a comper, it can be very frustrating to see your newsfeed clogged up with retweet after retweet of competitions and giveaways. This could result in people unfollowing you or blocking your account. Therefore, I would recommend setting up a whole new account for comping so that you can retweet to your hearts desire! 

When setting up this account, be sure to set a picture and include a bio - you are very unlikely to win anything if you look like a fake account! Also, it's good to comment on other things in your life,  as again companies don't want to give prizes to people who only want to win! Be an interesting character and appreciative of the brands generosity for giving out prizes (but more on that later). 

2) Be Selective

I mean this in two ways. Firstly, only enter the comps that you actually want the prize. For example, what are you going to do with that Star Wars Single bed sheet when you hate Star Wars and have a double bed? Also, somewhere out there, there is a kid who adores Star Wars and would be over the moon if their mum or dad won a Star Wars bedsheet for their single bed. Do you want to take away that wee boys happiness? You'll enjoy winning so much more if you like the prize!

Secondly, be selective with your searches. Using hashtags in the search bar is a great way to find competitions to enter, but once you have exhausted #win #giveaway and #competition there are many others that may open you up to more obscure comps, and therefore may have less entrants! For example I like to use #win followed by the word UK or Glasgow (my hometown) so that only certain people are likely to enter, and if it is tickets, I'll actually be able to go if it's based in Glasgow! 

Along these same lines, many competitions that require just a little more effort will have less entrants and therefore more chance of winning, such as competitions that require a photo or a caption to a photo. To search for these I type in the generic hashtag such as #win followed by 'photo' or 'caption'. This should bring up more particular competitions ready for you to get your creative juices flowing for!

Another great hashtag to look out for is #WinitWednesday and also #FreebieFriday. These are competitions run on specific days - Wednesday and Friday funnily enough! On these days, there will be even more competitions available and these are easily found using the hashtags enough! It's like a weekly Mother's Day for compers!!

3) Be nice 

The companies who are running these giveaways want people who are likely to become new customers, and also people who are likely to encourage others to become new customers. Therefore, when retweeting to enter a comp, it's good to show your appreciate of the product or company in the comments below (and be sure to include any hashtags to make sure your comment is read). This also increases your chances of winning as some companies will choose from the comments section for a winner. Also, once to receive your prize, be sure to send a picture in to the company that provided it - I once won another tub of Peanut Hottie by showing the company how I had been inventive in using it! This will attract other customers so the brand are likely to retweet your thanks! 

However, there are other people on Twitter who I am very glad I was nice to! Many compers are lovely people (although some may unfollow you, as they see you as competition if you retweet their retweets) but on the whole I have had a really great experience with compers, and feel I have made some 'Twitter friends'. These fellow compers then tag me in certain competitions that require you to 'tag a friend' (search #win followed by tag) and twice I have won from either tagging a friend or them tagging me. This also means that, if you win a big hamper but don't want all the goodies, you can share the prizes with your new friends if you so wish! 

One of my new friends has her own blog, where she shows just how much you can win from Twitter comping! Check it out here:

https://unluckyhol.wordpress.com/

You can add these new comping friends to a list, which means you can see all the tweets that they have sent - another way to see competitions you might have missed! This feature can be found in the settings of your homepage. 

I've been using Twitter as a comping Hub for about 4 months now and it's fair to say the winnings are varied in frequency. Be prepared for weeks without anything and then winning two prizes in one day! Just keep going, when you're out and about just use the Twitter app to retweet a few tweets and keep your fingers crossed for a win! I've won some brilliant things, from cases of tea, tickets to shows and events and my favourite - a£200 voucher for an online clothes store which meant I could stock up on all my uni clothes before going back next semester! 

For more advice, feel free to follow me on Twitter at @LaurieBeat where I will be retweeting the best competitions and let me know if you're a fellow comper and we can help each other out and I can add you to my comping list! Good luck and see you on Twotter!

Luck and love, Laurie