By Eleanor Pierce
LinkedIn doesn’t have a great reputation.
It’s kind of the milquetoast of social networks (unless, that is, you’re one of those creepers who likes to try to find dates on LinkedIn).
But you probably won’t be surprised to hear me say this: You shouldn’t overlook LinkedIn for marketing.
We use it, we recommend it to our clients, and we find plenty of benefits in being active on the network.
Even though its share of traffic is down this year, LinkedIn is still a pretty powerful tool—after all, we are talking about a social network with more than 300 million users.
New Mercedes Campaign: Who Would You Nominate?
If you find yourself doubting LinkedIn for marketing, take a look at this interesting new campaign from Mercedes-Benz.
The auto dealer is using a LinkedIn contest to give away a two-year lease on a 2015 C-Class.
But unlike most social media contests we’re all familiar with, this campaign requires you to do as you do on LinkedIn.
You don’t enter yourself in the contest, you recommend someone in your network (and by the way, if any of y’all would like to recommend me, you can do so here).
(Uh, this is Gini. You can also feel free to nominate me. #kthxbai.)
Why LinkedIn?
According to The New York Times’ article on the campaign, the C-Class is aimed not at chief executives. It’s the entry-level Mercedes, priced at a more reasonable (or should I put in air-quotes here and say “reasonable”) base price of $29,000 or so.
This is a vehicle for up-and-comers, who are more likely to be active on LinkedIn than their CEO counterparts, who we assume are already driving the E-Class, which begins around $52,000.
Go Where the Money is
Another key consideration?
To quote the Times article:
Although not the most popular, it may be the best-off major social network. LinkedIn users in the United States spend 2.51 times as much on online purchases monthly as the average Internet user, higher than users of Pinterest (1.85 times), Twitter (1.6 times) and Facebook (1.28 times), according to 2013 data from comScore.
Ka-ching.
These are folks who know their target demographic and spent time figuring out where they hang out. And they’re surely using the fairly robust targeting options in LinkedIn ads to promote the contest.
Get People Talking
I like the campaign. It’s an interesting use of LinkedIn for marketing that capitalizes on the competitive spirit that’s already inherent in the world’s largest professional network.
It’s something different, so it’ll get social media nerds like me (as well as, I’m sure, luxury car nerds) talking.
And it’s already getting the little hamster wheels in my head spinning about fun new ideas for social media contests …
What about you? Have you seen any interesting new social media campaigns lately that you liked?