Want To Win Social Media Contests? Increase Your Chances By Using Contest Alert

Contests are at the heart of a brand;s social media marketing campaigns. Social mediums and networks are the best places for brand related contests to be organized since they gaurantee reach and engagement. People spend significant amount of their time on Facebook and Twitter. A contest gives them an opportunity to get some freebies out of it if they are lucky.

An Indian twitter handle called @Contest_Alert has been around for awhile and it does exactly what the  handle says – it alerts users to brand contests. There are many brands embracing social media in India and that means that there are a lot of contests waiting to be won. If you follow Contest Alert, then you don’t have to keep track of all the contests that happen all over Twitter. Harshit Thakkar, an amateur stand-up comic and consultant is the person behind Contest Alert.

Harshit got the idea of Contest Alert when he participated in a few Twitter contests and won some decent prizes. He then started Contest_Alert and in his own words ‘has been helping people win contests’. Well, the Twitter account has been steadily adding followers since then and currently has around 600+ followers. Harshit believes that this can scale to more users and more social platforms.

Here are some examples of the tweets that Contest Alert sends.

MT @budweiserindia The contest starts Now! Here are the Terms and Conditions for #DontYouWorry Buds bit.ly/XHwkbg. All the best Buds!

— Contest Alert (@Contest_Alert) November 15, 2012

MT @accentureindia: What does your desk pin-up say about you? Tweet about your #favouritedeskpinups & win gift vouchers

— Contest Alert (@Contest_Alert) November 14, 2012

I got to converse with Harshit about Contest Alert. Read on to learn more.

1. How did the idea of capitalizing on Twitter contests come to you?

I personally won a couple of really sweet goodies (Samsung Galaxy Note & Samsung Galaxy Tab) off the twitter contests that were being conducted by brands that I follow on twitter. That’s when I realized that there would be other brands on twitter who also have to offer something similar. That was the idea to have such an account. An account which informs the “tweeple” about thecontests that are happening on Twitter either today or this week.

2. What is the kind of work that goes into operating Contests alert? Basically how do you manage tracking all contests?

The bigger picture I see is @Contest_Alert becoming a crowd sourced account. A lot of our followers are informing us about the various contests happening on twitter. So far we have succeeded in getting a few brands to tweet to us every time they are hosting a new contest. That helps a lot. That said currently we are monitoring twitter for contests. Much of our work has become easy thanks to tools like IFTTT etc.

3. This is a twitter only thing, right? Any plans for other social platforms?

Yes, currently @Contest_Alert is limited to twitter. We look forward to take this to Facebook and other platforms once we have the right people on board. It will also involve hiring talent and giving more time than we are doing today. We shall take things slow. Remember we are just 4 months young.

4. Do you have brands collaborating with you on this effort?

Yes and No. A few notable brands have been getting in touch to collaborate on their marketing effort, so we have been doing that (for free so far). We have also been talking to brands that are relatively new on twitter to allow us to promote and execute theircontest in entirety. If all goes well, we shall soon be hosting contests on behalf of other brands.

5. How do you see Contest Alert growing in the future?

For the immediate future, I am seeking corporate tie – ups for marketing and promoting a new brand on twitter. In the next 8 months my personal target is to be promoting at least 50 sponsored contests though @Contest_Alert. Within the year the plan is also to take the account on at least one other platform. In terms of followers, it would be great to hit the 2000 user mark by march 2013, which is quite a modest expectation given that we have been gaining followers at 5 per day.

6. I have to ask this – How are you monetizing or planning to monetize this?

“Karm kar, phal ki chinta mat kar” The money will start rolling in as soon as people realize we are doing a good job. We currently make enough from our day jobs to spend some time on twitter and work on the @Contest_Alert account. To a large extent I have stopped tweeting during the day in case I am manning the account. The greatest USP of this account is that it brings together people from all walks of life and hence the brand does get a better out reach in terms of the breadth of the demography.

All those of you would like to try your hand at brand contests should give Contest Alert a try.

Twitter | Contest Alert

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