ENGINEERED VIRALITY

FN America wanted to increase followers, and a product sweepstakes sounded great in theory—especially when your guns run $600–$5,000 each—but maximizing entries and awareness organically requires more than a landing page. You need to understand community psychology, algorithmic distribution, and have a good strategy. My strategy started with X.

The Strategy

Before launching the giveaway, I pitched the idea of posting a text-only tweet that said, “If this gets 10k retweets, we’ll start giving away free guns,” and received the greenlight.

My goal wasn't shock value... it was psychology:

• A clear challenge and reward

• A feeling of audience control

• An achievable but ambitious engagement target

• A native feature to increase brand awareness

And yes, I had a backup plan in case it didn’t hit 10k. But I didn't need it.

The Viral Moment

Within 48 hours, the tweet exploded.

• 1M+ organic impressions

• 3,100 new followers on X

This single post created three weeks of nonstop conversation. People debated which products might be given away, speculated on when, tagged friends, and—crucially—followed my recommendation to turn on post notifications so they wouldn’t miss any announcements. This led to an increase in performance across all our posts.

The Finale

A little over three weeks later, we launched the first sweepstakes: an FN 510. Because of the momentum we built, the giveaway post surged:

• 125,000+ organic impressions

• 12,000+ sweepstakes entries

• 5,400+ new followers across all X, Facebook, and Instagram

Meta Performance

Meta does not allow giveaways or gifting restricted items, such as firearms, on their platforms. However, I executed the sweepstakes on their platform in a way that does not violate their rules and gets passed algorithmic censorship. I won't spill the beans here but ask me the story in person!