2 Million People...Genius Marketing or Suckers

By now everyone either received or at least saw the posts and emails about you being in the top 1, 5 or 10 percent of Linkedin profile views in 2012. If not, here is mine as an example.

Keep in mind you are either one of 2, 10 or 20 million people, respectively, who could have received these emails.

There were even others that went to other countries if you were part of the first number of people who logged in to Linkedin.

Did Linkedin just go after all the ASW's out there? No they went after everyone and probably got more than they thought they would from this stunt. Sure I am adding to it, but there is some genius here to be reviewed.

1) Size matters, but not really
Without a huge customer base, this may not have worked so well, then again, you can come up with any number or percentage of your customers or readers or followers to produce a similar marketing campaign around your brand.

Imagine if IBM did this based on people who tweet about IBM or have attended the most seminars or in a more entertaining light, who has the most IBM giveaways. But would it provide reason for people to look up  IBM or call their sales rep? I am sure IBM has some great metrics to pull this off.

2) Let the people do your work for you
When your followers and readers extol your virtues, that is worth it's weight in gold. This is where size does matter a little bit, but really it is the quality of who follows you, and their followers. Influence, and not the type found in Kred or Klout exactly, helps in this. But even more important is the belief and strength of your brand and company to work with everyone, the lovers and haters, of your brand. And your marketing costs are lower because of the word of mouth.

3) Keep Moving Forward
No doubt out of 200 Million members, Linkedin has enough paying them that cash flow is not an issue, well I hope not. But is that enough? No, they have shut down their Q and A section, which I will miss, and have seemed like a little Facebook and a little Google with their various changes and not quite there changes. But without trying to move forward, you don't stay still, you really fall backwards as others progress beyond you. So this was yet another move forward for them.

Make fun of it all and everyone's gullibility but the bottom line is Linkedin scored a major coup, this time. The one drawback is next time will people care what the email says in the same way? Time will tell.