At first, when I noticed that LinkedIn had added games, I was confused. Even as a daily Wordle player, I just couldn’t see many people wanting to open their networking app to play games.
Even LinkedIn seemed to think it was a little bit weird, with a prominent link to “Why we have games” at the top of every game page. It mentioned that “…one of the best ways to deepen and reignite relationships at work is simply by having fun together” and that you can “…compete with your connections, spark conversations, and break the ice” with people in your network.”
Regardless, I tried out Queens, Crossclimb, and Pinpoint and thought they were pretty good.
So I downloaded the LinkedIn app so they would be easier to play. Even though I use LinkedIn all the time, I never bothered installing the app.
The next day, I told my wife about the games and she downloaded the app so we could add them to the list of games we play over coffee every morning. She too downloaded the app and casually mentioned that she hadn’t logged into LinkedIn in years.
That’s when it hit me.
LinkedIn games aren’t a way to build camaraderie or reignite relationships, they are a way to drive app downloads and get people looking at LinkedIn every day.
And it’s working.
According to an article at Techcrunch, “…since the start of July, new player engagement has grown about 20% week over week. LinkedIn has also noticed strong traction in users starting conversations after playing games.”
Anecdotally, I’ve noticed it as well. The easiest way to get to your daily game is to look under your notifications in the LinkedIn apps. There have been quite a few times that I found myself looking at posts from friends and colleagues before opening up Crossclimb or Pinpoint for the day.
All of that aside though, I have to imagine that LinkedIn has been crushing their app engagement and download metrics over the past few months, which is where we can take our marketing inspiration from.
You probably don’t have the budget to develop your own games for your website (although if you do, now is the time to give that a shot.)
But you probably do have other things that you can use to pull people to your website. You’ve probably even thought about what they are in the past, but didn’t make it a priority.
So now is the time to finish that white paper, put it behind an email gate, and to start a small paid social media campaign with a subversive ad behind it. But make it clever and bright and interesting, not a boring 40-page PDF.
Start that podcast where you interview your most amazing employees or customers. Don’t make it about your business. Don’t have your CEO be the host. Find someone who works for you with a great voice or a great sense of humor and make it entertaining first and a marketing vehicle second.
Or take a page from radio and highlight customers – or customer creations – “on-air”. You might not be able to take the 15th caller, but you probably have a Facebook account for your business. If you find the right people, they will love being featured and will drive other people to your socials for you.
It’s easy to fall into marketing ruts. The same social media posts, the same blog posts, the same Google Ads. Instead, take the opportunity to pull a LinkedIn and do something so unexpected that you need to add a link telling your audience why you are doing it. And if you need a bit of help getting it done, contact us.