I’m thiiiisss close to 3,000 followers on Twitter so, to make crossing that barrier that much more fun, I’m going to have a little contest.

If you are willing to recommend me to your Twitter followers, I’m going to reward you by buying you a Twitter FAIL Whale t-Shirt from Yiying
Lu’s (@yiyinglu on twitter) official store. You’re supporting me, I’m supporting the designer of something we all love, you get a cool free shirt. Everyone wins!

Well, not everyone. Obviously, I can’t buy a shirt for every single person who enters, I will go totally broke. So I’m going to pick one lucky person to buy the shirt for now and, depending on how well this goes, I may decide to pick additional winners after the fact. So entering now still puts you in the running for future contests. Your chances of winning are very good! 🙂

I’m going to try to make this as easy as possible but please feel free to ask any questions below.

Hillary’s Twitter Contest Official Details

Prize:
Unisex White Twitter Fail Whale T-shirt (pictured above)
Sizes Available:
Adult S, M, L or XL
(Winner can let me know the size they want when I notify them that they won.)

How to Enter:

Before September 1st, tweet the following message exactly (though you can add text after it, if you wish*).

You should follow @HillaryDePiano

*= I will be searching for that exact phrase when picking a winner (this means no “u” for “you” or other changes) but I would greatly appreciate if you were to customize the message by adding text after the required message. For instance:

You should follow @HillaryDePiano for e-commerce news

You should follow @HillaryDePiano because she’s nice

You should follow @HillaryDePiano so I can win a T-shirt

You should follow @HillaryDePiano because it’s #followfriday

You get the idea. As long as the beginning is intact, you can customize the message however you want. If there is a specific reason you’d recommend me to your followers, I’d appreciate your adding it on at the end to make it more personalized. But if you don’t want to customize, you don’t have to, the first bit is all that is really required.

The winner will be picked randomly by Tweetaways on September 1st, 2010 so there is no human element. I’m going to read every one but a computer will do the final selection. Since I’m not actually picking the winner, this means the contest is open to EVERYONE, family and friends included, so go nuts, guys.

Some tips and FAQs:

1. Can I enter from more than one account? If you have more than one Twitter account, enter from each one. The more accounts you enter from, the better your chances of winning.
2. Do retweets count? Traditional retweets definitely do. If someone else enters and you like what they say, just go ahead and retweet their message and that enters you as well.
3. Can I enter if my tweets are set to private? Sadly, no. Tweetaways can only pick a winner from public tweets.
4. I’m not a member of Twitter. I feel left out! *sob* I’m going to have contests for just blog readers and Facebook fans as well in the future, I promise.

In addition to the whole prize element, if anyone is willing to recommend me on Twitter on any given day, I am very, very appreciative.

Any questions?