In an effort to support the “little guys” this holiday season — particularly this Saturday — Twitter is offering small businesses $1 million in advertising credits.

Created by American Express in 2011, Small Business Saturday, which falls two days after Thanksgiving, is an attempt to encourage consumers to do their holiday shopping at small businesses and local merchants.

In support of the initiative, Twitter is giving away $100 in free advertising credits that can be used for Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts to the first 10,000 eligible small businesses. In order to qualify, your business must be based in the U.S.

Other eligibility requirements include that you tweet regularly, have a fully filled out bio and profile picture, have 20 or more followers, and, here’s the kicker, you must be a new advertiser. This means if you’ve run previous ad campaigns on Twitter that you will not be able to receive the free credits.

According to the company, thousands of U.S. small businesses have used Twitter Ads to gain new followers, reach new customers, and drive more traffic since the program’s launch in February. While you can start promoting deals in time for Saturday, the Shop Small initiative will run through the holiday season.

To find out if you’re eligible, register before December 14th.

[Via: AllTwitter, Image credit: Alicia Pimental]