VQC is holding a contest to give all our Tweeps out there a chance to win some cool tech gear. We'll be offering a netbook to one lucky twitter user who follows @VQCdesigns, Re-Tweets the questions we ask and then sends us correct answers through direct message.

Correct answers to our questions will grant you an entry for the drawing. We will begin asking questions on Oct. 22nd and will be asking one each day until December. Each correct answer counts for one entry, therefore, the more questions you answer correctly, the greater chance you will have to win the NETBOOK.

Below is a short run down of how the contest will be run and all the rules to keep things fair and fun! Get started by signing up for twitter and following @vqcdesigns!

Tis the season for expo events and VQC will be exhibiting at the Lancaster Chamber Biz Buzz expo and the Harrisburg Chamber Expo. For the Harrisburg Chamber Expo we will be hosting a “Twitter Hunt” to give away a netbook to one lucky Tweep. While at the expo we will have the netbook on display to have people sign up for twitter and follow us.

This tutorial is for the first time users who have never tweeted before and also for those users who are already tweeps but perhaps want a little more info about the service.

To start off some definitions:

Tweep: one who is signed up for twitter and sends tweets into the twitter-verse.

Tweet: a message constrained to 140 characters to be sent out to your followers in the twitter verse.

Twitter-verse: The whole of all the people or tweeps signed up for twitter aka the twitter network.

Follow: Electing to follow someone is twitter is like subscribing to someones blog or newsletter. Each tweet they send will be sent to your twitter page for you to read. This is why you must follow VQC for the contest, to receive updates on the event.

Hash-Tag: The hash-tag is going play an integral role in VQC’s Twitter Hunt. Adding a hash-tag to your tweet will categorize that tweet with the corresponding hash-tag. Hash-tags can be searched through http://www.hashtags.org and this is how VQC will be keeping track of who answers what correctly. Therefore you need to include the correct hash-tag in all of your correspondence for the Twitter Hunt. VQC will be using the hash-tag “#VQC” for the Twitter Hunt. Therefore, ever question we post will have the hash-tag “#VQC” on it. When you reply to our questions or discuss the contest be sure to include the hash-tag “#VQC”. This way, all the tweets pertaining to the contest will be easily searched and reviewed when we are deciding who answered correctly.

Direct Message: The direct message is a private way to communicate with other Twitter users. All of your answers to our questions will be need to be direct messages to @vcqdesigns. In order to send a direct message simply place the letter “d” at the beginning of your message followed by the user name followed by your message. D + username + message

Re-Tweet: Copying someone’s tweet directly and re-posting it. Usually preceded with the letters “RT” or the word “Re-Tweet.” This serves as a way to share tweets with your followers and provide credit to the original tweeter.

Step 1

If you are not signed up for twitter, sign up at http://www.twitter.com.

Step 2

Once you are signed up, head over to http://www.twitter.com/vqcdesigns and follow us so you’ll start receiving our TWEETS!

Step 3

Keep an eye for the tweets with this hash tag: #VQC. All of our contest tweets will contain that hash-tag. . Using the hash-tag will keep our questions organized and easier for you to find. If you are thinking to yourself, “What the heck is a hash-tag?” you can view our twitter tutorial above.

Step 4

Starting on Oct. 22nd we will begin posting the contest questions. The tweets will look something like this “#VQC Get ready for our Twitter-Hunt Contest”

Step 5

Once you notice the question tweet, be sure to ReTweet (RT) the question and begin your search for the answer. We will not count your answer unless you RT the question which was asked. You must RT each new question that is asked.

Step 6

Direct message your answer to @vqcdesigns. Don’t know how to direct message? Visit our twitter tutorial above.

Step 7

Sit back, relax and keep an eye on the twitter feed for the next question.

At the contest’s end we will take all the users with correct answers and put their name into a fishbowl. Each correct answer a user provides will count as another entry for that user. So if @johnsmith answers 5 questions correctly then @johnsmith will be entered into the fishbowl 5 times. So it pays to answer correctly and to answer as most questions as possible. Once we have all the names in the fishbowl we will have one of our lovely assistants draw the winner.

Once we have a winner we will send them a tweet to claim their prize. They must send a direct message within 24 hours to claim the prize. If winner does not respond within 24 hours, we will draw a new winner.

We reserve the right to disqualify and/or ban any contestant, especially if that contestant engages in any of the following:

• Use of Multiple Twitter accounts to enter the same contest.
• Attempts to block other players from answering.
• Publicly sharing answers. We want you to have to do some work for this, it is a scavenger hunt and you’re working for yourself. So please be sure to direct message us the answer and not just post it to your profile.

In the event that someone does publicly tweet an answer, we will note the time stamp of the tweet and all answers received prior to the violation will be counted. We will then post a new question to be answered.

If you want to win this netbook you must fulfill all these categories:

1. You must be physically located in the United States during the contest and have a U.S. shipping address.
2. Be at least 18 years of age
3. Have an account Twitter.com
4. Be following @vqcdesigns on Twitter
5. Answers must direct messaged to @vqcdesigns to be counted in our contest.

This is dependent upon the number of people who actually enter the contest and how many questions they answer correctly. If N is the number of people in the contest, your odds are 1 out of N. You can track your odds by paying attention to the number of retweets and replies with the hash-tag #VQC.