Marriott is offering a new promotion where you can earn up to 45,000 Marriott points by connecting your social media accounts. The promotion is called #RewardsPoints. Utilizing social media for promotions is nothing new for Marriott as they’ve offered several promotions in the past for linking up your social media accounts.
Right now you can earn 250 points by connecting your Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook accounts via Chirpify and earn an additional 125 points by following them on Instagram and Twitter.
Each month, Marriott will release a hand full of different campaigns where you can earn additional points by engaging in some form through your social medial platforms. I’m guessing that the campaigns will be around a few hundred points each but I have no idea what they will require. It could be requests to follow, retweet, comment, hashtag, share, etc.
All of these things could be a PIA depending on how you value your time and how savvy you are with social media. Personally, I don’t mind taking a few seconds to retweet, follow, or comment something so I think this promotion would be worth it, but I do have come concerns over the access being granted to a third party.
A lot of people feel weird or reluctant about linking up their social media accounts to third parties. If you attempt to link your Instagram and Twitter accounts, you’ll get the following messages:
I don’t like the fact that I’m giving permission to a third party to comment on photos, follow accounts, update my profile and post tweets. Admittedly, I don’t know anything about Chirpify and I wouldn’t doubt that they are legitimate but I’ll have to do a little bit of research into them before I agree to allowing them to have so much access to my account.
I’ve linked up my social media accounts with third parties before but I don’t recall seeing requests for so much access. I mean, why do they need permission to post on my behalf? Is that how this works? I just let a bot start spitting out tweets and comments from my account? Doesn’t sound too appealing even though I love Marriott and love free points.
If these things don’t bother you in the slightest, however, you might as well sign-up for some free Marriott points, as 45,000 Marriott points is a lot of points and could get you a free night even at a category 9 hotel.
Daniel Gillaspia is the Founder of UponArriving.com and the credit card app, WalletFlo. He is a former attorney turned travel expert covering destinations along with TSA, airline, and hotel policies. Since 2014, his content has been featured in publications such as National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, and CNBC. Read my bio.
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