3 Tips for Gamifying LinkedIn Content: A Guide for Business Influencers

Why Gamify?

Gamification is a powerful strategy to boost engagement, encourage participation, and make your content stand out.  In this article, you'll find 3 actionable tips to help you gamify your content and drive deeper audience interaction.

By incorporating elements like challenges, rewards, and mystery elements, you can increase audience retention and deepen connections with your followers. Take Justin Welsh as an example. Justin frequently uses structured challenges to engage his audience, his 7-Day Content Challenge boosted engagement and community building by encouraging followers to post daily with specific themes. As the platform became flooded with posts from participants referencing the challenge, Justin’s name and brand were repeatedly mentioned and tagged, creating a viral loop of organic promotion. This helped position him as a thought leader, attracted new followers, and reinforced his influence across the platform.

Strategies to Gamify LinkedIn Content

🟣 1. Challenge-Based Engagement

Format of Challenge: Time-bound challenges with daily or weekly prompts that encourage audience members to post original content around a specific theme or topic.

Real World Examples:

Justin Welsh – 7-Day Content Challenge with themed daily prompts.

Dan Koe – Weekly writing challenges for creative thinking.

Katelyn Bourgoin – Customer research challenge prompting followers to share real business insights.

How to Run:

• Choose a clear theme tied to your niche (e.g. “Share your best growth story”).

• Create a branded hashtag to track participation.

• Post daily reminders or prompts.

• Engage with participants by commenting, liking, and sharing their posts.

• Wrap up with a highlight reel or recap post.

Benefit: Boosts your visibility through mass tagging and shared content, establishes authority in your niche, and strengthens community bonds through shared participation.

🟣 2. Reward Engagement with Exclusive Benefits

Format of Challenge:

Reward the most active, thoughtful, or creative followers with shoutouts, access to resources, or exclusive perks.

Real World Examples:

• Alex Lieberman – Shoutouts in newsletters for valuable contributions.
• Rosie Sherry – Early access to tools for community members who engage most.
• Shaan Puri – Podcast mentions for audience contributions.

How to Run:

• Announce how you’ll reward engagement (e.g. top 3 commenters this week).

• Track participation manually or through post analytics.

• Announce winners publicly and deliver promised value (resource, access, or spotlight).

• Rotate reward types to keep things fresh.

Benefit: Incentivises consistent engagement, builds loyalty, and makes your audience feel valued—turning casual viewers into superfans and contributors.

🟣 3. Mystery & Surprise Elements

Format of Challenge: Create intrigue through unexpected games, hidden clues, or spontaneous rewards tied to specific actions or content.

Real World Examples:

• Amanda Natividad – “Guess the headline” games.
• Jay Clouse – Hidden Easter eggs in posts to drive interaction.
• Steph Smith – Data-driven guessing games tied to industry trends.

How to Run:

• Post a question or clue (e.g. “Guess the growth % of this startup”) and prompt audience replies.

• Randomly reward an active follower with a freebie or shoutout.

• Hide secret messages or challenges in your posts and see who catches on.

• Mix in memes or visual hints to keep things playful.

Benefit: Drives curiosity-fuelled interaction, encourages comments and repeat views, and adds a fun, human element to your content—breaking through algorithm fatigue.

Final Tips for Gamifying LinkedIn Content

• Keep it simple. Overcomplicating the process may deter engagement.

• Engage in the comments. Respond actively to create an interactive experience.

• Make it fun! The more engaging and lighthearted, the more people will participate.

By implementing these strategies, business influencers can boost engagement, build stronger relationships, and stand out on LinkedIn in a way that feels dynamic and valuable. Time to play the LinkedIn engagement game!