Hello everyone! How was your weekend, any nice wins to report? Just a couple of small wins this week of a book by a local author from a local website competition and a £10 Amazon voucher from the J2O on-pack Blippar promotion. I love winning Amazon vouchers this time of year, as they all get put towards Christmas gifts. I think we have pretty much finished Christmas shopping for the girls already now, so anything else that I win for them is a lovely bonus. It feels very good to be so organised this year, and I can focus on enjoying all the fun things that we have planned for December, instead of rushing around panic-buying gifts!
My husband was fortunate enough to win a lovely prize last week of a bottle of rum from Appleton Estates worth about £30. He won this from a live Twitter party, so I thought this would be a good time to do a How To guide on how to join in with this fun way to win prizes
What is a twitter party?
- Twitter parties happen in real time online via Twitter.
- Everyone that is participating must follow the correct Twitter accounts and use the correct hashtag in all their conversations during a set period of time usually one to two hours in length.
- Twitter Parties are often hosted by toy companies, bloggers or parenting website and offer some great ways to win prizes, especially for the little ones.
- The host of the part will monitor all tweets using the correct hashtag and will use these tweets as a checklist of who has entered.
- Sometimes there is one large prize on offer at the end of a party and sometimes there are lots of smaller prizes.
- Sometimes prizes are awarded and announced as the party goes on and sometimes all winners are announced at the end or at a specific time afterwards.
Hints & Tips
- Make sure to follow UKMums.tv (@UKMumstv), Britmums (@Britmums) and Tots 100 (@tots100) as they often hold regular Twitter Parties and will announce their upcoming ones via their Twitter accounts.
- Once you know when the party is pop the date and time in your diary so you don’t forget it.
- Get to the party early and retweet a few appropriate tweets beforehand, using the correct hashtag every time to show you are looking forward to joining in.
- When the party starts make sure and say hi to the promoter and to any other participants that you recognise or follow.
- Be sure to use the correct allocated hashtag for all tweets, and retweet every tweet that the host makes.
- When there is a question or discussion topic make sure to comment as often as you can, using the hashtag to build engagement and ensure the host spots your name coming up in their feed numerous times.
- If prizes are announced as the party goes on be sure and congratulate the winners – no-one likes to see a poor loser.
- If you win a prize make sure to thank the promoter and host as it will stand you in good stead for any future Twitter parties, as well as being just good manners.
- Try to join in for the whole length of the party, but if you need to get away early be sure and tweet the promoter or host to let them know – you never know you may still win a prize for activates that you have already joined in with.
- Some people find it useful to use programmes such as Tweet Deck to help them keep up with the conversation, but if you concentrate your time on the Twitter party and not try to do too many other things at the same time you should be fine just following the hashtag from the promoter’s or host’s Twitter feed.
- Be sure and check your notifications box regularly during the party, as this will show you when the host has favourited or retweeted any of your posts, which is a good indication that they have taken note of your name. This is also where it will show up if you have won a prize, as the host will tweet your name and often send you a message too.
- At the end of the party be sure to thank the host and the promoter for the party and let them know how much fun you had – whether you won anything or not!
I love Twitter parties so make sure and follow me on Twitter too (@KirstyGreer) and I hope to see you at a fun party soon!
Happy comping everyone, and lots of Lucky dust to you all!
Kirsty x
