subtitle: Monetizing Social Media
Why is social media and social networking essential to you and your business? (because it will drive sales, but there’s very few analytics for ROI on social networking and social media)
Relying on advertising is no longer working for print newspapers and television. So why do we think it will work on internet media?
Blogging — you must post 2-4 quality blog posts every week to maintain readership. This takes a lot of work! Content is king.
No matter how cool the technology/product/service is, people still buy more often and more easily from people they know and trust.
Social media is a way to show people that you are an industry expert, and that is how you should use them (not to spam and only say “buy my product”).
If you do not love your job and try to sell it (say, on social networking), you are going to fail, because you are not passionate about it.
Start small, do not promise a lot, it is better to have more to say than to have dead air time (radio analogy).
Social media is all about building good relationships by having good content that people trust.
Lots of people spend a lot of money on their website, but the website is just a vector to show people your content, and the content is the most important thing.
Cross-pollination – I think he means forward on information you learn (like, say, liveblogging!)
Get expert guest bloggers — he did not explain that you can leverage the relationships you form by asking them to blog. We do this with the Log Buffers….
How to make money:
sponsorships
white paper composition
paid articles
consulting
adjunct tie-ins to other related venues
branded blogs
I am personally disappointed because I wanted to learn more, and I feel as though Pythian already uses the knowledge presented — we have great exposure through our blog, and have started really using Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites, etc.
Hansen’s information was good, and absolutely 100% correct, but I felt that for me it was very basic. I would like to know some more advanced topics, like:
– How do you know when you have reached the tipping point?
– How do you convert anonymous readers/followers to people you know, without turning them away because they feel they’re being watched, spammed or don’t want to give out their info to you?
– When does copy/paste to send out your information start to bother people, how do you know how not to do too much?
– How do you convert readers/followers (anon or not) to paid customers without making them feel like you’re all about $$, what about if you have some free content and some paid content, how do you know how much to have?