Zappos Runs '12 Days of Twitter' for Holidays

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Zappos will give away free merchandise in exchange for Twitter buzz leading up to Christmas. In an effort dubbed "12 Days of Zappos Twitter", the brand's style expert Brooke Hyden will announce via Twitter that day's featured gift while encouraging followers to tweet "#12daysofzappos" in order to be entered into winning the item.

According to a Zappos rep, if enough consumers tweet, up to three people will be able to claim the prize each day. The gift items will be either women's or men's clothing or accessories.

The brand's secondary Twitter account, @ZapposStyle, is serving as the campaign hub. The Las Vegas company is also pushing the initiative on its Facebook page (204,000 fans/likes) and via a microsite.

What's relatively surprising is that the brand's @Zappos account - which has 1.9 million followers and is manned by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh - has not been used to promote the "12 Days" campaign. By comparison, the @ZapposStyle account has only 8,000 followers.

Considering the huge Twitter audience he's attracted, the low frequency of tweets by Hsieh is intriguing. In the last seven months, he's posted five times. None have been promotional.