If you are hosting a contest on Twitter, then getting it to Trend is as good as it gets. Our Social Media Marketing expert Chirag Kalwani gives you an in depth analysis of the tips and tricks that you can employ to get your Hashtag to Trend on Twitter.

1. Tips & Tricks To Trend On Twitter
By Chirag Kalwani

2. What is #Trending and why should I bother?

3. What is #Trending and why should I bother?
• What is #Trending – Trending topics are those
which feature on the left side of virtually every
page of your Twitter
• Why should I bother? – Imagine being on
virtually all the pages of one of the most popular
social networking sites. That kind of exposure for
your brand will surely grab your client’s attention

4. #Burst or #Sustained?

5. #Burst or #Sustained?
• If you want it to trend, devise the contest in such a way that it lasts for 90
minutes or 2 hours at max. Try to maximize your impact by limiting the use of
the hashtag in a very short but concentrated burst. The reason for doing this is
simple. A topic will trend only when Twitter senses high usage of a particular
term within a short period time
• In order to achieve this, try to get maximum number of mentions on the
minimum possible time

6. #Burst or #Sustained?
• Day long quizzes will only trend if your audience is exceptionally enthusiastic
or if your prize is very enticing
• Open ended questions which entices multiple responses from the audience are
better than a simple quiz .
• The reason being quite simply that for an open ended question, a fan will
submit multiple entries as opposed to a proper Q&A in which each question
will have a definite answer and hence will only entice a single Tweet

7. The #Hashtag

8. The #Hashtag
• Always Try to pick out a Hashtag with is more generic in nature
• In order to trend, you will generally need a lot more people to use the Hashtag
than your fan base. A contest based one might prove to be interesting for the
ones who are participating but not for a random person
• Pick a Hashtag which will compel a bystander to use it

10. Hashtag #Fail
• Before finalizing a Hashtag, make sure it cannot #Aurora – An unsuspecting brand
be used as a double-meaning one in any case
tried to piggyback using this hashtag
which talked about the Aurora shooting in
• Another technique which many brands employ is USA
piggybacking on already trending topics . This is
something you should be very careful about!
#susanalbumparty
#RIMjobs

11. #Suspense

12. #Suspense
• After finalizing on the date of your contest, leave
a very generic & cryptic tweet about the contest
• Don’t forget to ask for a RT from your followers.
This will definitely get more people excited about
the contest and most of them who read the tweet
will end up following your profile in anticipation

13. D-Day!

14. D-Day!
• Another tantalizing tweet telling your followers about the contest is a must for
few hours before the contest
• Whatever you do, DO NOT use the Hashtag before the contest starts. Many
over-excited users will start to Tweet with the Hashtag even before the contest
starts which will decrease your impact
• Avoid talking about prizes before the contest starts . Let your fans expect the
best. However if your prize is exceptionally good, you can talk about it

15. #Engage

16. #Engage
• Try to fit in the description of the contest in one Tweet with the Hashtag so
that even if it gets Re-tweeted, an unknown user will still know what you are
talking about
• One of the biggest factors which will help you to trend is to engage with the
initial users as much as humanely possible
• Small one liners like ‘Haha, that’s a funny one’ or ‘That’s a great one, keep
them coming’ go a long way in retaining the interest of the user

17. #Engage
• Use the Hashtag of your contest IN EVERY
TWEET even if they are short and simple replies
• If a user forgets to use the Hashtag, make it a
point to remind them that their entry is invalid
without the Hashtag

18. Beware of
the
#Overkill

19. Beware of the #Overkill
• While it is imperative to keep your audience engaged throughout the contest,
be very aware of the number of Tweets you post for your fans
• On an average, even if your account has 5000 followers, the number of people
engaging with you will be around 100 at most. Don’t alienate the 4900 who
are, in most probability, the higher quality of audience by tweeting excessively
• As a norm, keep at least 5 minutes between successive tweets

20. #Temptation

21. #Temptation
• About halfway through the
contest, drop the prize bomb
on your fans ( the better the
prize, the earlier you talk
about it)
• Try to get the most enticing
picture of your prize and
tweet it for your audience. It
will breathe a new life into
your contest

22. General #Pointers

23. General #Pointers
• Retweet few of your outstanding entries so that people know what they are up
against. While doing this, do not use the Retweet button. Compose a new
tweet with the ‘RT’ prefix so that the emphasis remains on your profile and not
the fan
• If a user asks you whether its quantity or quality, try to give out vague answers
like ‘A bit of both!’ so as to keep them hooked
• If your contest is region specific (winner has to be chosen from one place),
don’t reveal that your audience unless it is absolutely necessary. Try to
encourage as many people as you can to participate

24. The #HolyGrail

25. The #HolyGrail
• If it has to trend, it
will generally start
from a smaller city
and then move
nationwide or even
worldwide
• Once you get
going, don’t stop!

26. The #HolyGrail
• If you do it right, forget the nation, you can make it big – Worldwide!

27. Go #Fishing

28. Go #Fishing
• One of the best
screenshots
you
can give to your
client is how much
your
audience
loves your contest

29. Go #Fishing
• Fish for compliments
after the contest is
done. The users will
definitely give you
glowing praise in
hopes of getting into
your good books and
win the prize

30. The #Benefits of Trending

31. The #Benefits
• Most of the times, a client might be hesitant to spend on a giveaway. The
most rational way to approach this is by explaining the benefits of trending on
Twitter and comparing the cost of buying a promoted trend to the giveaway you
want
• The cost of a promoted trend for 2 days is in the region of Rs.6.5 Lakhs and
that too won’t is only Nationwide. Your Giveaway will always be a mere
fraction of this cost

32. The #Benefits
• A simple example which justifies a giveaway is the contest
that was conducted for the launch of HTC One. For the cost of
one HTC One, the name of the brand and the phone trended
worldwide and also remained on top spot in the nation’s trends
for more than 12 hours.
• The most surprising fact about this is that the contest only
lasted for 1 hour!
• In monetary terms, we were able to achieve exponentially
greater results at a fraction of the cost

33. Announcing the #Winners

34. Announcing the #Winners
• Announcing the winners can also be turned into a small activity to get Retweets and
interactions
• A simple ‘RT if you think you have won it’ can prove to be very successful
• Once the winners are announced, DM all of them asking for their contact information and
other such details

35. Why
#DM?

36. Why #DM?
• The sole reason for keeping all this private is Twitter is a very open platform. Most users
will not prefer to share their details publicly.
• Another advantage of doing this is to ensure if anything goes wrong, the brand name
does not get bashed publicly
• For such situations, you have to adhere to the philosophy –
Never Wash Your Dirty Laundry In Public

37. Why #DM?
• If you begin your communication through a DM, even when a disgruntled winner is
complaining, you can reply to them in a DM and shift your conversation there
• The ill effects of having an influential user bashing your brand over something as menial
as the delivery of a prize can be far reaching and in extreme cases, even disastrous

38. Thank You
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