Run Recognition and Leaderboard Campaigns

Adoption is not driven by training, it is driven by recognition and a reason to come back. This article covers how to structure a campaign, how to set point values that reward the behavior you actually want, and why visibility beats prizes.

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Lead with recognition, not prizes

Experienced program managers consistently report that recognition outperforms tangible rewards. Prizes start behavior and recognition sustains it, which is the opposite of how most programs budget.

The practical version: use budget to kickstart a campaign, and use visibility to keep it going. Being named in front of colleagues, having a post featured, or being noticed by a leader all outlast a gift card.

When you recognize someone, say what they did and why it mattered. "Sarah in Marketing reached 2,400 people with three posts on our supply chain work" lands very differently from "Sarah won the leaderboard."

Choose between rolling and campaign leaderboards

More leaderboards do not mean more engagement. Pick the model that matches your intent.

A rolling 30-day leaderboard is always on, needs no start or end date, and drops each day's points off after 30 days. This is the right default: it resets itself, which is the single best defense against the same people winning forever.
A campaign leaderboard has a defined start and end, one clear objective and an incentive plan. Use it for a product launch, a recruiting push, a conference, or the first 30 days of a program.

See Create and Customize Leaderboards for the mechanics and How Leaderboards Work for what advocates see.

Run campaign leaderboards four to six times a year, not monthly. More often than quarterly exhausts the people you are trying to motivate and devalues the reward. Less often than quarterly and engagement drifts with nothing to aim at.

And the test worth applying before you set one up: if a campaign leaderboard does not have a real business initiative behind it, do not run it. Use the rolling leaderboard instead. A competition invented to fill a gap in the calendar is the kind of thing people notice and stop entering.

Set point values that reward what you want

Points are configurable, and the defaults are a starting point rather than an answer. Weight the actions that actually build the program.

Weight referrals highest. A colleague accepting an invitation is the highest-leverage action anybody can take, because it compounds.
Reward setup once. Adding a profile photo and connecting a network are worth points the first time and never again.
Reward creating content, not just sharing it. Contributors who submit their own material are rarer and more valuable than people who share what is put in front of them.
Zero out anything irrelevant. Every action left at a non-zero value is a behavior you are asking for.

The double-dipping trap: engagement already includes reactions and comments. If you award points for engagement and for likes and comments separately, users earn twice for the same action and the leaderboard stops meaning anything. Set one or the other to zero.

Understanding Leaderboard Point Values covers each action, and Why is my Leaderboard Losing Points? explains why totals move.

Segment so the competition is fair

A single company-wide leaderboard usually rewards whoever has the largest personal network, which is not the behavior you are trying to encourage. Segmenting levels it.

By department, so Sales competes with Sales.
By location or region, which also handles time zone and audience differences.
By content group, for cross-functional campaigns.

See Create a Segment and Manage Segments.

Run the campaign in six steps

Define one objective. One behavior, stated simply.
Define the scope. Who is eligible, how long it runs, what is tracked.
Set the rules, including dates and how ties break.
Announce it properly, with the objective, the timeline, the incentive, and a leader's endorsement.
Maintain momentum. Weekly standings and shoutouts. A campaign nobody hears about mid-flight is a campaign nobody finishes.
Close and celebrate publicly. Winners named where colleagues can see it, plus the program-level numbers.

A launch campaign as simple as "share three posts this month to be entered" works as well as anything more elaborate.

Say clearly what the leaderboard counts

The leaderboard is visible in the platform, so your communications carry the explanation. State it at launch, because the alternative is a stream of questions and some quiet resentment.

It counts content shared through EveryoneSocial, engagement on those shares, and internal actions like completing a profile or inviting a colleague. It does not count posts written directly on a social network outside the platform, or general social activity.

Sustain it without a budget

The strongest long-run incentives cost nothing.

Recognition. Company-wide shoutouts, featured posts, a leader noticing.
Access. A roundtable with an executive, early sight of campaigns, a seat in a planning conversation.
Development. Coaching on personal brand, a recommendation, a mentoring pairing. This is the most durable of the four because it is something people want for themselves.
Community. A channel for advocates, regional cohorts, collective milestones.

Never replace an existing benefit with a gamified reward. Recognition should feel like an addition.

Avoid the common pitfalls

Changing point values mid-campaign, which does not apply retroactively and looks arbitrary.
Creating leaderboards you never close, until the console is unreadable.
Rewarding volume so heavily that people share things they have not read.
Announcing winners privately, which wastes the entire recognition effect.

FAQ

How many leaderboards should we run?

One rolling leaderboard as your default, plus one campaign at a time when you have a specific objective. More than that dilutes attention.

What is a good prize?

Gift cards are simplest globally. Experiences and access tend to be remembered longer. The most effective reward is usually public recognition from someone senior, which costs nothing.

Why do some users' points go down?

A rolling leaderboard drops points as they age out of the window. See Why is my Leaderboard Losing Points?.

The same people always win. What do we do?

Segment the competition, reset with a rolling window, and recognize categories other than the top total: first-time sharers, most improved, longest streak.

Does the leaderboard count posts made directly on LinkedIn?

No. Only activity through EveryoneSocial is tracked, which is worth saying explicitly when you announce a campaign.