First, let me say that this post does not feature a giveaway. I love hosting and entering giveaways, but lately, I've noticed that giveaways are becoming a liability and are no longer the asset they once were. Instead of rewarding loyal followers and creating goodwill between readers and a brand, giveaways increasingly create frustration, anger, and disappointment. As I posted earlier this year, sometimes the
prize does not live up to expectations. Hosting giveaways on The Fashion Planner is my way of thanking readers as well as working to attract new followers, so it is frustrating when a prize I give away is a disappointment to the winner.
Giveaways can, also, be misleading. Companies hosting giveaways on facebook are a prime example of building hype only to incite anger when they cannot deliver the goods to their 20,000 new fans. I have seen several companies promise a "surprise" or a giveaway that gets followers in a frenzy only to fail to meet the demand or to offer a shamefully small discount. The sheer hatred that this creates between consumers and brands is astounding. While disappointed consumers may be suffering from disproportionate rage, companies do themselves no favors by enraging consumers and doing nothing to pacify the people they were trying to court.
Finally, I must confess my own giveaway disappointment. Yesterday, I checked my email to see that I had won a bag from a fashion site I liked. Needless to say, I was excited until I saw that I had been sent another message saying that if I did not respond in an hour they would be picking a new winner. Since I checked my email two or three hours after the last message was sent, I lost the bag. I have never heard of a winner being given three hours to respond to a message, and the distaste I felt for the fashion site was extreme, especially since I recently mentioned this site as a favorite. While one can argue that it is the site's right to run giveaways the way they choose, I have to wonder about the rational behind a system built to disappoint their giveaway winners. After all, how many winners were contacted before me and were just as unlucky to have not checked their email in that narrow time frame?
While I am still planning on hosting a few more giveaways this year, I am wondering about your thoughts on giveaways:
Do you like entering giveaways?
Do giveaways distract from the content of a blog?
What are your experiences (good or bad) with giveaways?
