Social Media Campaign Review: LinkedIn's 200 Million Member Milestone

LinkedIn launched a digital campaign to announce their ‘200 Million Members Milestone’ in the last couple of days. They have sent an email to active (or perhaps all) members informing them on their community ranking in terms of total profile visits in 2012.

This stat is pulled and collated by LinkedIn analytics. A fantastic way to involve high profile members and senior executives from all functional areas across industry sectors; a good database marketing example to spread the key message and a positive word of mouth!

Campaign Idea

It’s a direct mailing campaign that uses LinkedIn member database. A powerful stat that is personalized for each member is provided as Email Heading; the sub-heading promotes LinkedIn Key Message, 200 Million Members Milestone. Call to Action is a link to ‘Read More’.

Users navigate to a hosted page where a personalized letter from LinkedIn Senior Vice President, Products & User Experience has been uploaded. The letter is more direct, it talks about total members on the site, member infographics and LinkedIn mission.

A social sharing widget has been integrated. While some lauded the idea, some didn't find it that interesting. But LinkedIn has been abuzz on social media since then.

Campaign Execution

In terms of execution, LinkedIn has finely woven member recognition and key announcement in to a single message. The teaser provides a reason to read more and actual communication provides a reason to socially engage.

Campaign Teaser: The email that members received is focused on member recognition and motivates members to read more. The message that provides statistical information on a member profile is well crafted and is very inspiring for all - active, moderately active and perhaps passive (it’s an assumption) members. The inference is drawn from a few posts that I have observed:

• You have one of the top 1% (or 5% or 10% or 25%) most viewed LinkedIn profiles for 2012 (global ranking).
• You have one of the first 1M most viewed LinkedIn profiles in United Kingdom for 2012 (geographic ranking).

The key message has also been incorporated in the teaser email.

Main Communication: The actual communication follows a direct communication style. It talks about total members on the site, member infographics and LinkedIn mission. A social sharing widget has been integrated. The call to action is to congratulate LinkedIn and / or announce personal ranking. A private message block is also provided to further create qualitative testimonial and / or stories.

To Sum it Up

In the first few hours of campaign launch, this has successfully managed to create excitement. Now we are here to follow the final campaign results. What could be the second phase of the campaign? You are connected to XX percent of most influential people on LinkedIn!