Run X Giveaway Campaigns with a Draw or Instant Win

The work in a campaign piles up after the deadline

A giveaway is easy up to the moment you publish the announcement. The heavy work comes after the deadline: count the entrants, check one by one whether each meets the conditions, pick winners fairly, notify each person and announce the winners. Once entries pass a few hundred, this work alone eats a whole day.

Vague checking also undermines fairness. How do you count someone who replied many times? Are brand-new accounts eligible? What about people who unfollowed? If you write the rules down first and have a machine pick according to them, you can give the same explanation later when someone asks.

SNS TOWN campaigns take on the work after the deadline. They are currently available for X accounts.

Choose between two modes

There are two modes, "Draw" and "Instant win", chosen on the settings screen. In both, entries are taken as replies to the announcement post.

Draw

After the period ends, the system picks winners by random number from the entrants who meet the conditions. Entries are treated as one per person, so replying many times doesn't make you more likely to win. Everyone has the same chance, and the same person can't win twice. The draw starts automatically 5 to 10 minutes after the deadline. If you don't want to wait, click "Draw now" on the details screen. A draw can't be redone.

Instant win

During the period, the system picks winners by random number from the entrants who meet the conditions and notifies them as it goes. Entrants get their result right away, which makes this mode good for keeping the conversation going during the period. The meaning of the term is explained on the glossary page, Instant Win.

Entry conditions and who is excluded

Replying is a fixed requirement. On top of that, you can add the following conditions with checkboxes.

• Keyword: only people whose reply includes this word count as entries.
• Follow: only people who follow the campaign's account can win.
• Repost: only people who reposted the announcement post can win (quote posts included).

You can also decide who is excluded from winning. There are two fields, "Exclude accounts younger than N days" and "Exclude accounts with fewer than N followers", and the starting values exclude accounts under 30 days old and with fewer than 1 follower. They are there to keep accounts created just for giveaways from winning again and again.

Likes can't be a condition. There is no way to check afterwards who liked a post and when. We avoid creating a situation where a condition is written but can't be verified.

The number of winners is set between 1 and 100. If a candidate turns out not to meet the conditions, the reason for excluding them is recorded and the next person is picked. Who was excluded and why can be exported as the "Draw record CSV".

Create in order: settings, review, announcement post

You fill in the settings screen, review the contents with "Review", then save. After saving you're asked "Create the campaign post?", and clicking "New post" opens a post screen with a template filled in. If the start time is in the future, the post is scheduled for that time.

When the announcement post actually goes out on X, the settings and the post are linked and entries start being accepted. A campaign whose announcement never went out and which passes its deadline stops automatically. You get a caution if the keyword isn't in the announcement text, but we don't stop you from posting, since some formats such as quizzes don't put the answer in the text.

Once entries have started, the settings can't be changed. Changing conditions midway would undermine fairness. You can stop a campaign at any time.

Detailed steps are in Create a Campaign and Pick the Winners.

Winner notifications and announcements

Notification to winners can be sent as a "reply" or a "DM". If you leave the text empty, no notification is sent. The notification text can include a URL, so you can point to a page explaining how to receive the prize. To notify by DM, the account needs the DM permission added. How to add it is explained on the auto DM page.

For announcing winners, you can choose from "Don't", "Reply in a chain under the campaign post" or "Post as a new post". After an intro, the winners' @ names are listed, and if they don't fit in the character limit, the list continues in further posts. The announcement is available only when there are 5 winners or fewer. Posts with many @ names can be blocked by X, so this is a cap to protect your account. URLs can't be included in the announcement.

Winners are shown in order on the details screen, and "Copy winners list" copies the @ names, one per line. When announcing 6 or more winners, we recommend using this list to put them in an image or a notice page.

About the law and X's rules

Prize amounts are governed in Japan by the Act against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations (Premiums and Representations Act), and the treatment changes depending on whether a purchase or a store visit is required. According to the Consumer Affairs Agency's explanation of premium regulations, "open prize campaigns", which don't require a purchase, currently have no upper limit. General prize campaigns that do require a purchase have a limit. How to tell which applies is explained in detail in Social Media Campaigns and Japan's Premiums Act: The Basics. SNS TOWN handles the entry and draw mechanism, but the organizer decides the prizes and the entry terms and must write them in the announcement.

About plans

Campaigns are an Enterprise plan feature. On other paid plans you can try it with credits. Counting entries and verifying the draw use X reads, so reads beyond the plan's allowance and trial use are taken from your credits. If you run out of credits, the draw stops there, and when you buy more it continues from where it left off. You can compare plans on the pricing page.

Frequently asked questions