The place this seems to happen most is Twitter. It's very hard to explain a competition lucidly in 140 characters, and often the phrasing of a tweet can make it look like a simple "Retweet to enter" competition when it isn't.
Have a look at these tweets:
#Win an adorable fine china #Santa #teapot and some darjeeling loose tea. RT, follow & enter at bit.ly/Q7V1f7
— Whittard of Chelsea(@whittarduk) November 21, 2012
Win a case of Champagne! RT, follow and enter at bit.ly/WF6kx6Ts&Cs apply. 18+ only. Ends midnight 4/12 #comp
— CooperativePhmy (@CooperativePhmy) November 23, 2012
#Competition: Follow @heatholdersocks and RT for a chance to #win winter hamper! Including Heat Holder socks. Enter now bit.ly/TimEig
— Heat Holders (@HeatHolderSocks) November 26, 2012
Love @little_mistress as much as we do? RT& Enter for your chance to #WIN a £1000#LittleMistress Shopping Spree bit.ly/WSgWsA x
— Very.co.uk (@verynetwork) November 26, 2012
RT @tefaluk RT & enter our #competition to #win some Jamie Oliver by Tefal cookware & bakeware from @penguinukbooks! bit.ly/OOn56tEvery one of them looks at first glance like a simple retweet competition doesn't it? And yet actually for each one of them, you need to follow the link in the tweet and enter on a website, sometimes giving an answer too. Just retweeting the competition doesn't get you into the draw, in fact despite the implication in the tweet, it isn't even a condition of entry! They just want those retweets to get the word out about the competition. But lots of compers are retweeting the messages over and over again and may never even have visited the site to make that single entry which is the only one that will count. Even some of the new sites that list retweet competitions have been caught out by some of these.
— TefalUK (@TefalUK) November 26, 2012
HOWEVER OFTEN YOU TWEET, YOU WON'T BE IN THE DRAW IF YOU DON'T ENTER ON THE WEBSITE!
There's no way we can tell whether individual promoters are being deliberately misleading in order to get extra exposure or simply hampered by the shortage of characters, but it's always worth checking out a link in a competition tweet, just in case that is the REAL way to enter, especially if the phrase "RT & enter" is used.
I'm submitting this to Ranty Friday over at Mummy Barrow.
That is outrageous!!!! And as i do most of my Tweeting on my phone I can't really open links. I would see the Tweet, RT it and then think I was in the draw. That is shocking.
ReplyDeleteThis is why I never enter these competitions. Like Mummy Barrow, I do my tweeting on my phone and can't be bothered with all the opening of links. It is very misleading though.
ReplyDeleteWow, I've done TONS of these type of retweet comps, I wonder how many of them have been totally pointless because of rubbish instructions? Thanks for the heads up, I'll be a lot more careful in future.
ReplyDelete*penny drops* ooooohhh... So that's why I never win anything! HA. It's very sneaky, just to get more RTs and exposure as you say... Very sneaky! *waggles finger at naughty promoters*
ReplyDelete