If you’re using Twitter for your business, good for you! You’re probably wondering how to get more Twitter activity such as re-tweets and followers. Well, here’s a fun idea you might want to give a try. The basic concept is to give a promotional code with an amazing discount on your product or service – but only once you reach a predetermined number of re-tweets. The incentive will help you mobilize your current followers and email recipients, and get them tweeting and re-tweeting. Here’s how:

1. Create, Send and Post Your Email. Put your offer in an email solo and send it to your best customers (i.e., advocates, repeat purchasers, etc.). Your copy should state something like this:

For the next two days, we’re giving out something very special. A $50 promotional code [insert your discount here] on our product line [insert product line here]. Is there a catch? You bet! We need 200 [insert your own number here] re-tweets of this offer before we post the code. So be sure to RT this offer to your followers to get the code. We’ll tweet our progress to keep you up-to-date on the number of re-tweets before the final post.

2. Post a hosted version of this email online so you’ll have a page to send everyone to.

3. Include the Twitter icon in your emails so it’s easy for your recipients to post to their followers. You can do that in most email marketing programs including VerticalResponse.

4. Tweet the hosted version of the email to your own followers after you’ve sent your email.

5. Track in TweetDeck how many RTs you’re getting by setting up a new column. Include tweet copy or a few words from it so you can filter and count how many RTs you get.

6. Tweet every hour or two how many RTs you’re up to, or how many more you need to reach your goal.

7. When you reach your limit (or close to it) make a new copy of your email marketing campaign with the promotional code, send it to your list, and tweet the URL of the hosted version out to your followers.

Viola! Your efforts should get you plenty of Twitter activity such as tweets, re-tweets, and even some new followers. Give it a try and let me know how it goes!

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