X Giveaway Rules and Guidelines

When you're running a promotional campaign, it is so important that you not only follow the laws in your country or state, but that you also follow the platform specific guidelines

Luckily, X is clearer on what they allow and disallow, and the rules are more straightforward to follow than some of the other big social media platforms like TikTok, which has different rules for different types of giveaways.

Yes, absolutely!

So long as you run a giveaway which is free to enter, as opposed to a lottery which requires a payment to participate..

As for all giveaways, you need to make sure to follow all of the platform specific regulations. They can be a bit long and wordy to read, so this guide will provide you with a digestable way to get to know the rules.

Before starting any contest, it’s essential to familiarise yourself with the platform's promotional guidelines.

Here’s an overview:

• You can use contests to incentivise actions such as following you on X, retweeting one of your posts, or using a specified #hashtag. These are powerful actions worth encouraging.
• Encourage users to @mention you so you can easily track and collect entries.
• Encourage the use of topics and hashtags relevant to your contest. For example, if you ask users to use a certain #hashtag, encourage them to make their tweet relevant to your brand or giveaway.

• Discourage the creation of multiple accounts by adding a rule that will disqualify users who enter more than once (Gleam can automatically detect fraudulent, invalid, or duplicate entries for you).
• Avoid encouraging spam by steering clear of rules like “whoever comments the most wins.”
• Do not use hashtags unrelated to your giveaway or content to hijack engagement.
• Do not edit tweets to change their original purpose or context, as this can mislead participants.

• Follow the X Rules, search policies, and any other relevant local laws and regulations.
• Add a disclaimer stating that the giveaway is not associated with X. This makes sure participants contact you, not X, with any issues.
• Clearly state the duration of the giveaway, when the winner will be announced, and make sure prizes are awarded on time.

Below are the more general legal requirements and best practices for running a giveaway.

• Explain the eligibility criteria clearly (e.g., open to US residents only, 18+).
• Entry must be free, or an alternate method of entry must be provided (AMOE).
• If your giveaway is sponsored by another brand, focus on the giveaway itself to avoid it being perceived as an ad. Take a look at the rules about third-party advertising.

• Follow privacy rules and regulations. For example, when announcing the winner, make sure you don't publicly display any private information like phone numbers, emails, or addresses.
• Obtain consent to use any submitted information or content, like photos or user-generated content.

• Make sure to write and display clear and detailed terms and conditions for your giveaway. These help you stick to platform rules, allow you to disqualify entries if needed, and will protect you if any issues come up.
• You can use third party tools to automatically generate terms and conditions, fairly and randomly select the winner, and detect fraufulent entries. Check out our giveaway templates.

• Use clear instructions in your contest post. For example:
  1. Follow your X account.
  2. Retweet the contest post with the specified #hashtag.
  3. Mention your account (@YourHandle) in the tweet.
• Clearly state the entry deadline and the prize details.
• Use 3rd party tools that can create a dedicated landing page to make the entry process and campaign promotion easier.

By following these steps, you can run a successful, compliant giveaway while maximising engagement and ensuring transparency.

When you run a giveaway manually, you need to be more mindful to make sure you're following all of the guidelines.

Below are a few of the most popular examples:

A Comment-to-Win Giveaway is a tyype of promotional campaiugn run directly on X. For example, you might post a tweet like: "What colour hat should we release this summer? Comment below for a chance to win!"

You then randomly select a winner from the comments.

With this type of giveaway, you need to make sure you:

• Pick the winner fairly: Use an automated random selection tool to ensure transparency.
• Avoid encouraging spam: Do not require repetitive or identical comments to enter.
• Enforce single-account entries: Make it clear participants cannot use multiple accounts to increase their chances (this can be tricky to monitor manually, but tools like Gleam can manage this by tracking IPs).

A photo contest works by asking users to post a picture using your product or something related to your business, and you collect the entries to choose a winner.

If you run a photo contest directly on X without using a third-party tool like Gleam, you need to keep in mind the following rules:

• Obtain consent for photo use: Ensure participants explicitly agree to let you use their photos after the giveaway, especially for marketing purposes.
• Avoid encouraging excessive posting: Set clear entry limits to prevent spammy behavior on the platform.
• Collect entries fairly: Ensure you gather all valid entries to give everyone an equal chance. (Using a tool like Gleam simplifies this by automatically importing entries.)

A scavenger hunt giveaway works by hiding secret codes in your tweets, and users submit the answers for a chance to win. If you run this through Gleam, participants can submit the code for automatic verification.

If you run it manually, you need to ensure compliance with the following X-specific rules.

• Avoid spam-like behaviour: Don’t ask users to repeatedly post the same code or reply excessively to enter.
• Ensure single-account participation: Prohibit participants from entering with multiple accounts, as this violates X’s rules.
• Prevent irrelevant hashtags: If your scavenger hunt involves hashtags, ensure they are unique and relevant to the giveaway (e.g., avoid hijacking trending topics).

A 3rd party giveaway is a type of campaign that is run using an external platform which you promote and direct traffic to from X and other sources.

3rd party giveaway platforms like Gleam are the ideal way to run campaigns, as they allow you to get more value out of your promotion and make it easier than ever to run rule compliant giveaways.

3rd party giveaways have a few key benefits when compared to running a promotion directly on X.

• You can drive more valuable actions including email signups, referrals and website visits
• You host your giveaway on your own website or one of Gleam's hosted landing pages, allowing you to drive traffic from X as well as other sources like Facebook, Instagram and your own email list.
• Gleam will automatically track entries, filter out fraud and draw random winners for you, saving you hours of time!

When you promote this type of giveaway, you just have to make sure you're still following X's general rules. Gleam make sit easier than anyone to clearly display your campaign rules, with our comprehensive automatically geberated terms and conditions which are build right into your campaign.

Take a look at this template below to see what your giveaway could look like with Gleam.