Blog Giveaway Media Overload

image via flickr, copyright JonDissed

I’m hoping predicting that 2010 will be the year that changes blog giveaways.  A couple of years ago, blog giveaways started to pop up.  They were few and far between but they had amazing results for the products involved.  Let’s face it…companies want exposure and blog readers love to be “in the know” on all the hot, new products.  Running a successful blog giveaway isn’t difficult but in the past few months, it has been getting out of hand.  I call it:  Blog Giveaway Media Overload.

I’m sure you have seen it.  A blog is giving away a toaster.  It’s a toaster that is really cool and everyone is excited to hear about it.  To enter the giveaway you have to comment on the blog post.  You have to get your friends to comment to win and they should mention your name because you sent them there.  You have to tweet a special tweet about the toaster.  You have to follow the blogger on twitter.  You have to become a facebook fan of the toaster***.  You have to become a facebook fan of the blogger.  You have to write a blog post about the toaster.  You have to use a Mr. Linky to say you want the toaster.  You have to do all of this every day for 10 days because the giveaway lasts that long.

As a marketer, I understand the allure.  You want as many people to hear about the toaster as possible.  You also want as many people as possible becoming a facebook fan so you can build up a community around your toaster.  But is it too much?

As a consumer?  Yes.  I don’t mind reading blog posts about products.  I don’t mind giveaways.  In fact, I love entering giveaways.  But I’ve found I’m more selective now.  I don’t just enter for the sake of entering.  I do it because I believe the product is something I could truly use and enjoy (or know someone else that could).

I have some suggestions.

1. Make it easy to enter.  Choose one way…two tops.

2. Make it easy to find more information about the product.  Go ahead and link to all sorts of fan pages, twitter streams, etc…  If it is something I’m truly interested in, I’ll bite.  This gives the marketers quality over quantity.

3. Choose reliable bloggers to run the giveaways.  Make sure they stick to a schedule and are ethical in their methods.

4.  Have a product that is “worth it”.  You want to make sure the giveaway is worth the extra effort of the blogger and his/her readers.

5. Follow through on the promise.  I’ve won many giveaways and have yet to see the prize.  If the companies are going to take the time to run blog giveaways and promotions, they should take the time to make sure the products get to the winners.

Do you have something  you would add to the list?  Think I’m being too harsh?  Tell us about it.

***We know this isn’t allowed per Facebook guidelines.  However, I haven’t seen any drop off on this kind of behavior since the guidelines have been in place.