Brilliant Use of Twitter by Phil Wickham

Today I saw a great use of Twitter, exhibited by musician Phil Wickham (@philwickham). He tweeted this around 1:30pm:

"I just found out that the Houston show is sold out tonite, but I'll put two tickets under the name Forest Gump by 6:30. 1st come 1st serve!"

How brilliant! I love it! In less than 140 characters, Phil has done the following:

1. Rewarded his followers with [a chance at] free tickets to a sold-out show.


2. Endeared those followers to himself ("Aw, how nice! Phil saw that the show was sold out, and put two more tickets out there for free to anyone who wants them!")


3. Gotten more followers to come to the venue for a shot at the free tickets. Even if a follower isn't the first to show up as Forrest Gump, maybe she will find people outside the gates who are willing to sell their tickets. Or maybe she will buy merchandise as a consolation prize.


4. Convinced a few more followers to attend the concert when they otherwise would not have come; now they will come because they might be able to get an invaluable item (tickets to a sold-out Phil Wickham concert) for free.


5. Kept his Twitter feed fresh with new and intriguing content, thereby encouraging his followers to keep following.


6. Possibly attracted new followers thanks to current followers who tell their friends, "You won't believe what Phil Wickham just tweeted today!"

How can you reward and gain followers (and customers) through your Twitter account? More basically, how can you add value to people through your Twitter account? Do your Tweets actually provide something worthwhile (i.e. inside information, humanization, interesting tidbits, wisdom, humor, the occasional giveaway), or are you wasting time and bytes?