As many of you may have noticed from my Twitter account (@MilesofAbbie), I’m trying to win a trip to Machu Picchu through Karikuy (http://www.karikuy.org).
I’ve been trying to limit my tweets as to not overwhelm, but then I look at some of my competition and they have posted many, many tweets about Peru in a row. I’m all for healthy competition, but is there a line between wanting to win a competition and spamming your followers?
If someone that you followed regularly started focusing their tweets onto a particular subject to win a contest would you un-follow them? What’s the Twitter etiquette for contests (if there is one at all)?
*Update: After careful consideration – I’ve decided to quit the contest – good luck to the other contestants!
Photo Credit: Mykl Roventine
I’m probably not the best person in the world to ask this, as I mostly just use Twitter to post articles and find other articles for resources, but I think it is annoying as hell when people post about the same thing continuously (or just continuously in general). BUT, you kinda gotta stay above the pack, huh? I don’t think that many people would un-follow you because of it – everyone is caught up in their own “thing” on Twitter
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Comment by Christine Garvin — February 2, 2010 @ 9:30 am
Twitter’s an ideal advertising tool, especially for small companies with limited budgets or companies that want to expand exposure beyond their borders.
That being said, contests really create tweets bordering on spam. Last year’s Lonely Planet awards were a prime example. I did unfollow some people, but I did so after considering their general Twitter activity. Were they only self-serving most of the time? If yes, I cut them loose!
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Comment by Julie — February 2, 2010 @ 4:03 pm
It’s interesting to see what Christine and Julie said above. I definitely find it annoying when people tweet about a contest. I’ve done it before, but always felt kind of gross afterward. Like whoa – I totally just BECAME that company’s advertising…
One thing I liked about your Machu Picchu competition was that you were tweeting articles and facts. And I found that interesting. What I don’t like is tweets that say things like “I just entered this contest here! You can too.” Once in a while is fine…but if they’re contests that require you to do it a lot, that’s another story. But like I said, I actually like a contest that has put a ton of information out there on a specific topic. I learned a lot about Machu Picchu in those few days
.
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Comment by Carina — February 4, 2010 @ 9:40 am
Thanks for the input, ladies! I think I’ll keep away from the repeat tweeting contests for now
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Comment by Abbie — February 5, 2010 @ 7:44 pm
Only 2 more days and you’re in 7th place….go Abbie go! You can totally win this!
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Comment by Dona — February 17, 2010 @ 6:33 am
Thanks for the encouragement Dona, but I decided not to pursue the contest
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Comment by Abbie — February 17, 2010 @ 3:51 pm
I was wondering what happened after I saw your name in the rankings for a while.
Funny how personal involvement comes into play. While I was rooting for you to win, I know I’d have probably become irritated with an “unknown” continuously retweeting a contest entry. My Twitter timeline is packed enough to keep up with. So I understand your decision.
Like Carina said, however, I do like that Karikuy put out facts about Peru to inform people. And I’m still rooting for you to get to Peru soon.
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Comment by Cathey — February 17, 2010 @ 6:28 pm