Social media can make you money - just not in ways you might expect

News Article Written By: iQuantum

The number one rule of social media is that it is all about CONNECTION and not about SALES. It's not even about sales disguised as connection. The online crowd - particularly those who have embraced social media - are savvy and smart. If they sniff a thinly veiled sales campaign (that offers nothing of genuine interest or value to them) interrupting their social media time they will be dismissive and ruthless.

Many business owners new to the world of online social media (by which we mean phenomena such as Facebook and Twitter) assume that the applications are best used as a platform to tell potential prospects about what they do. This assumption is wrong. Your website is the platform for that kind of information (and even then, a good website should be much more focused on the customer than the business, but that's a topic for another day!).

Social media is a platform for connecting, sharing, enlightening, helping and trend setting. Used in the right spirit it is an enormously powerful marketing tool. Not because it will get people to buy your product, but because it will help you develop a vast and vital new network of relationships. From that point, the more traditional marketing and sales opportunities will open up.

It doesn't hurt to do some good old fashioned research into the world of Web 2.0 (the overarching term that encompasses the ever more interactive space that the internet is becoming). Do you know why bands and comedians love MySpace? Have you read about why Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook? Are you aware the the Los Angeles Fire Department used Twitter as a primary warning and information tool during the 2007 fires? How extensive is the list of social bookmarking sites on your computer? Do you prefer Delicious, Digg or StumbleUpon? Or have you discovered that different sites are better for different subjects?

As you might be gathering, the main 'rules' of social media are not set by businesses, by Google or even by the sites themselves: they are created, adapted and re-invented by users. The rules are constantly changing and users of social media love nothing more than creative people who come along to offer new, inventive and fun ways to interact. It is an open and creative space - which gives you enormous license. If you can tap into a way of connecting that appeals to social media users you will have an immediate (and very large!) fan club. What better way to get people talking about you, your company and (eventually) your products?

Social media users love an activity. Tweeting, poking, blogging, posting. US movie ticket seller Fandango created an application for Facebook that allowed people to challenge friends to identify quotes from famous movies. Fandango didn't jump onto Facebook and start trying to sell tickets. They created a game that is now synonymous with their name, thus creating a massive (the application has been downloaded over 4,000 times), but very subtle marketing campaign.

This doesn't mean you have to get your IT department to start creating Facebook applications but it does mean you should spend some time thinking about how your customers might like to interact with you and each other. And what your company can offer to the world of social media that is unique. Competitions, games, surveys, Q&A. What are the principals of social media that you can adapt so that your business becomes more interactive and user friendly?

There is a 'serious' side to social media as well. Engaging with it well can save you serious time, expense and resources. You may have heard or read about "The Best Job in the World" - a recruitment campaign run by Tourism Queensland. Candidates are asked to submit a 60 second video pitch as to why they should be interviewed. The reach was wider than any traditional recruitment drive could have spread and no doubt Tourism Queensland have attracted the most creative and dynamic candidates from a world wide pool.

Similarly, many companies are now very active on Twitter, especially when it comes to recruitment. Businesses who are engaging with this powerful social media tool recommend creating a branded company Twitter profile. You should Tweet on a range of subjects (not just job vacancies) so that you increase your reach and following. It is also a good idea to create a protocol for job Tweets (such as increasing searchability by placing hash marks around your keyword) and download applications such as TweetBeep that alert you to when tweets relevant to your job opening, company or search are posted.

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