Over the last few weeks, I’ve received notice from both LinkedIn and Kred (it’s kind of like Klout)  that I am part of the top 1 percent of their users.  My LinkedIn profile was among the top 1 percent viewed.  I am a top 1 percent influencer on Kred.  Yeah me…

I’ll bet a lot of you received the same notices. In fact, I know you did because many of you told me, especially the LinkedIn recognition.  I saw top 10 percenters, top 5 percenters and top 1 percenters.  You all posted your status on your LinkedIn profiles, Tweeted about it and Liked it on Facebook, helping to spread the word that LinkedIn now has 200 million users and you are among them.  That’s right.  LinkedIn appealed to our vanity to help spread its own marketing message.

(At first glance, the math is easy.  200 million users, top 1 percent, I am among the top 2 million — everybody knows me!  But before you get excited, the words “among the top 1 percent most viewed” doesn’t mean necessarily that your profile was viewed by different people.  It could possibly mean that you have a special friend who visits your page repeatedly.  The phrase is most viewed, not most widely viewed.)

Stalkers aside, we design our LinkedIn profiles to represent us well, to incorporate the right keywords so we are found in searches and we associate ourselves with LinkedIn groups that contain the “right” people we want to connect with.  We work with several companies who see their LinkedIn profiles as playing an important role in their business development efforts.  They are designed to attract and the “most viewed” designation is a nice pat on the back.  So, of course we want to spread the word, nothing wrong with that.

The LinkedIn effort is a great reminder of the power of win-win marketing.  What can you do to simultaneously reward and recognize your customers and get them to help spread the word about you?