Social Networking. Are you a Business Butterfly?
You hear it, see it, and probably have been annoyed by it at some point in time. Social networking. Nowadays it’s a necessity in web marketing strategies. Social networking serves different purposes for different people. By nature, we as humans are curious, nosey and sometimes exhibitionist. We want to see what people are doing, and we also want to show off a little ourselves. A lot of social networking sites have come and gone. This is where you need to be wary of trends and fads and know which are a legitimate stable site to focus your marketing efforts on, or just let the fad die off.
It really is a gamble. Usually when something hits the point of mass saturation (becomes a household word) like tweeting, it becomes the make or break it moment. At that point, the faithful users will either look for something new to regain that “coolness” factor, or simply continue using it because it has become engrained in their everyday life so much.
Once a site has reached that much of a widespread appeal, there can be serious money involved with advertising and marketing. This brings me back to the gamble part. Jumping on the bandwagon sooner than later can be extremely beneficial in this regard. You can easily setup a mutual relationship early in the game when a site is small enough to not warrant big bucks yet. Sticking it out with a small startup site can work to your advantage in the long run if you win that game of lotto.
From an advertising perspective it’s a good ear to the streets sort of connection with people who may use your service or product. Feedback and word of mouth is paramount to web buzz. If you’re a hit with a certain group or demographic online then your street cred factor goes up and you’ll start selling more.
So how are people making money with Social Networking sites? Plenty of different ways. Creating applications, games and rich content is a great way to promote. Drawing users through these channels is a great way of providing a free service in return for traffic to your site. This can work positively to make money from the ads on your site or the product or service you offer. In the end, it’s all about gaining trust and getting customers to your site and social networking is the latest and greatest way to do that.
