#VenmoMe. We have all seen giveaways from brands; you might wonder why brands do this or how they can afford it. The truth is brands can do this because it is tax-deductible, meaning they get their money back when tax season rolls around. Brands also do this because it is excellent advertising; I mean, who doesn’t like free stuff? This brings us to our topic: #VenmoMe.

Venmo, a mobile payment service owned by PayPal, recently announced that they would be giving away $20,000 in increments of $250 to 80 people chosen at random. All you have to do to get a chance at winning is retweet the tweet above with the hashtag #VenmoMe and be following Venmo. But, of course, there are other rules.

Now, this campaign is accounted for as a promotional and advertising expense, and again, yes, it is tax-deductible! So naturally, #VenmoMe is trending, and I will be sharing some of the best tweets associated with #VenmoMe in this social media round-up. Let’s begin!

Diego is giving it the old college try. Would you retweet and share your Venmo with the world?

Other people have more realistic goals, you know, like taco bell.

I wonder how many people created a Venmo account just for this promotional giveaway, now that I call great marketing.

I do think their messaging is a bit misleading because they say, “giving away $20,000.” In this day and age, where our attention spans are likened to that of Goldfish, I think it is bold to assume people will read the entire sentence.

If you wonder how PayPal, Venmo’s owner, can afford to do giveaways of this caliber, their net worth is $45 billion, so $20K is pennies to them. Anyway, that is it for this week’s social media round-up; let me know what you think over on social and if you have any questions for Bette about how to do a giveaway and have it deducted from your taxes; set up a meeting with her. As always, stay safe.