LinkedIn’s clever marketing: You’re special like 10 million others

Did LinkedIn send you an email saying you had one of the top most viewed profiles of 2012? Congratulations!

But wait, LinkedIn also sent that to 10 million other users.

The business-centric social network came up with some clever marketing recently to get users to talk about LinkedIn on Facebook and Twitter.

Over the last few days, the company has been sending out emails to users congratulating them for having one of the top 1% or 5% most viewed user profiles out of their 200 million members.

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The congratulatory email contains a link to an even more celebratory page, complete with a ribbon, a stamp and a “personal” letter from the social network’s senior vice president of products and user experience. It also encourages users to share their accomplishment with their friends with a text field that will export a message to their LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter accounts.

“Hurray! I have one of the top 5% most viewed @LinkedIn profiles for 2012,” the pre-typed message says.

And so far, the marketing tactic has worked. Many have taken to Twitter to share the news with their friends and seem genuinely happy to receive the distinction.

But others have mocked the strategy by either pointing out how many people have received the email or how they never use the social network.

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