Giveaways have become an increasingly popular marketing tactic on social media platforms like LinkedIn. Brands and businesses are leveraging giveaways and contests to generate leads, increase brand awareness, and drive engagement. But do giveaways actually work on LinkedIn specifically? Let’s take a closer look at how giveaways are being used on LinkedIn and whether they are an effective strategy.
What are LinkedIn Giveaways?
A LinkedIn giveaway is a contest or promotion run by a brand, business, or influencer on the LinkedIn platform where participants have a chance to win a prize by completing a specific action. Some common types of LinkedIn giveaways include:
- Photo contests – Users submit a photo for a chance to win
- Caption contests – Users submit a caption for a branded image
- Content sharing contests – Users share or engage with certain content
- Lead generation contests – Users fill out a form to enter
- Loop giveaways – Users tag friends to spread awareness of the giveaway
The prizes offered can range from the brand’s products or services to gift cards, swag, or cash prizes. Giveaways may target LinkedIn users broadly or be targeted to a specific niche audience.
Why Do Brands Use LinkedIn Giveaways?
There are a few key reasons brands are leveraging LinkedIn giveaways as part of their marketing strategy:
- Lead generation – Giveaways that require participants to provide their contact information are an excellent source of lead generation.
- Brand awareness – With the social sharing and viral elements of many contests, giveaways can rapidly spread brand awareness.
- Engagement – Giveaways incentivize participants to like, comment, share, and interact with branded content.
- Targeting – Giveaways allow brands to target specific audiences like industry professionals.
- Reviews and testimonials – Prize winners may provide product reviews, testimonials, or branded content after the fact.
Essentially, giveaways allow brands to leverage LinkedIn users’ competitiveness and desire to win in order to meet marketing objectives.
Are LinkedIn Giveaways Effective?
While giveaways may seem attractive for their perceived viral nature and ability to generate leads, are they actually effective on LinkedIn specifically? Here are some key considerations:
- LinkedIn’s algorithm and feed prioritize engaging content that sparks discussion. Giveaways may be ignored or seen as spammy.
- The professional audience is less compelled by contests and prizes compared to platforms like Facebook.
- Short-term spikes in visibility, followers, and leads may not be sustained long-term.
- Without a budget for sponsored posts/ads, giveaway posts have limited organic reach.
- Winners may not actually become customers or provide worthwhile reviews.
- Excessive giveaways may damage a brand’s premium positioning.
However, certain best practices may increase the effectiveness of LinkedIn giveaways:
- Targeting niche, engaged audiences instead of broad contests.
- Offering prizes tailored to the target audience like free consultations, professional development courses, etc.
- Focusing on simple lead gen giveaways rather than big viral contests.
- Promoting the giveaway through multiple channels, not just LinkedIn.
- Following up with winners to convert them into customers.
Best Practices for LinkedIn Giveaways
Here are some top tips to run an effective LinkedIn giveaway and contest:
- Make the giveaway goal and target audience clear – focus your giveaway to align with a specific goal and niche.
- Keep the entry method simple – requiring too many complex steps will limit entries.
- Make sharing and social engagement optional – forcing sharing may be perceived as spammy.
- Utilize images, videos, and multimedia – interactive media stands out in the LinkedIn feed.
- Promote the giveaway through multiple channels – don’t rely solely on LinkedIn to drive awareness.
- Follow up with entrants through email or ads – LinkedIn’s algorithm may limit organic visibility.
- Analyze and optimize based on key metrics – focus on goals like leads generated vs vanity metrics like reach.
- Ensure legal compliance – properly disclose rules, eligibility, terms to avoid liability risks.
- Add value for non-winners – provide coupons, content downloads so non-winners still gain something.
- Follow up with winners for reviews, testimonials, and user-generated content.
Successful Examples of LinkedIn Giveaways
Some brands have leveraged giveaways effectively on LinkedIn to achieve key marketing objectives:
Product Launch Giveaway
When launching a new VPN service, NordVPN gave away free 1-year subscriptions to generate leads and increase product launch awareness among their professional target audience. By requiring an email signup to enter, they rapidly grew their subscriber list.
Gated Content Promotion
Business and marketing blogger Neil Patel gave away free access to one of his popular webinars, normally only available to paid subscribers. This helped promote his paid content offerings while capturing new subscriber leads.
Recruitment Giveaway
Technology company Visiton ran a LinkedIn giveaway offering a recruitment bonus referral program to incentivize employees to refer new candidates. They successfully increased applicant volume by 66%.
Audience Research Giveaway
When conducting market research around pain points for financial advisors, software company Twenty Over Ten offered a gift card giveaway in exchange for survey participation. The gift card incentive increased survey participation by over 40%.
The Risks and Downsides of LinkedIn Giveaways
However, LinkedIn giveaways do come with some risks and downsides to consider as well:
- May be perceived as spammy or promotional by the target audience
- Short term spike in engagement but not sustainable long term
- Low organic visibility without sponsored ads/posts
- Winners may not convert to customers or provide reviews
- Legal and compliance risks if not properly executed
- May damage premium brand positioning if overdone
- Requires ongoing moderation and community management
- Success highly dependent on the prize appeal and relevance
Key Takeaways on LinkedIn Giveaways
Here are some of the key takeaways on running giveaways successfully on LinkedIn:
- Target niche audiences vs mass awareness contests
- Focus on lead gen giveaways with simple opt-in methods
- Promote through multiple channels, not just LinkedIn
- Align prizes with the target audience interests
- Analyze results based on marketing goals, not vanity metrics
- Follow up with giveaway participants through email and ads
- Ensure proper legal disclosures and compliance
Frequently Asked Questions
What are some best practices for LinkedIn giveaway posts?
Some best practices for LinkedIn giveaway posts include:
- Using eye-catching images and videos
- Tagging relevant brands, influencers, or partners
- Including a clear call-to-action
- Driving traffic to a landing page with giveaway details
- Highlighting the key benefits of entering
- Crafting compelling messaging around the prize(s)
- Using hashtags to improve visibility in LinkedIn’s feed
- Testing different post copy and creative
- Retargeting entrants through ads and email campaigns
What prizes work best for LinkedIn giveaways?
Some prize ideas tailored to a professional audience on LinkedIn include:
- Free access to gated content like whitepapers or webinars
- Product trials or free subscriptions
- Discounts or gift cards for professional services
- Access to exclusive networking events
- Donations to professional associations or nonprofits
- Career coaching, resume reviews
- Books or e-learning courses
- Conference or event passes
How can I measure the success of a LinkedIn giveaway?
Key metrics to measure LinkedIn giveaway success include:
- Entries generated
- Entrant contact information captured
- Entrant demographics and attributes
- Post engagement rate
- Reach and impressions
- Conversions of entrants to customers
- Website traffic driven from giveaway page
- Social shares generated
- Quality of testimonials or content from winners
However, the most important KPI is whether your key marketing goal for the promotion was achieved.
What legal disclosure should I include?
To legally comply, your giveaway post and official rules should disclose:
- No purchase necessary to enter
- Open to certain geographic locations only
- Age and eligibility restrictions
- Start/end date and entry deadline
- Prize details including value
- How winner(s) will be selected
- How winner(s) will be notified
- How to obtain full official rules
- Sponsor company name
Consult an attorney to ensure your rules comply with all local laws and regulations.
Conclusion
Giveaways and contests can be an impactful marketing tactic on LinkedIn when executed strategically. However, success is not guaranteed. Brands should ensure the giveaway prize and targeting aligns with their goals, audience, and platform. With proper legal compliance and promotion through multiple channels, giveaways can deliver great value on LinkedIn. But they require thoughtful planning versus an assumption of automatic virality. Measure results against marketing objectives vs vanity metrics alone. Overall, test and optimize to determine if giveaways should be part of your LinkedIn marketing mix.
