Do Short Term Incentives Lead to Long Term Engagement?

According to a recent Poynter article, A TV news team in Connecticut is running a contest this month on its Facebook page, where visitors who click the page’s “like” button can enter a drawing to win a new Nissan Maxima. This is becoming common practice for bigger brands, they explain. 

But does this kind of like-gating gimmick actually work?

“Running promotions that bought ‘likes’ through incentivized campaigns offered short-lived gains,” said Noah Echols of the Kennesaw State University Center for Sustainable Journalism.

 “It may have increased our page’s fan base, but a month after the contest, engagement levels were down again. And that is what matters – the active users, not just the fan count.”

Moral of the story – listen, engage, and communicate.

 “A thousand highly engaged people online can accomplish much more for a brand than a million loose ties that were bought with an iPad giveaway.”