Why You Won’t Make any Money With Social Media
Posted: December 1, 2008 • Filed under: Social Media MarketingIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed to get the latest posts, Thanks for visiting! If you want to link to me or this post please read how to link to me
There is always a lot of talk going on around the web about how companies and individuals can make money through social media, I’m telling you they can’t. You don’t make money with social media, it’s that simple. If you sign up on twitter nobody is going to hand you a check for $50, if you create a facebook account you won’t receive a $100 gift certificate to the store of your choice, and if you sign up for linkedin you won’t automatically get a wire transfer (or an automatic job for that matter) to your bank account. What you do make through social media are valuable connections and relationships that you can then use to create revenue or business for yourself.
It’s not the platforms that you use that matters, it’s how you leverage the relationships you make while interacting on those various platforms that matters. The value you derive from social media depends on you. It depends on how you reach out to your contacts and connections. It depends on whether or not you work on establishing yourself as an authority in your respective field. It also depends on how clearly you communicate to your contacts and connections what you are looking for. Remember, social media is the most effective communication and relationship building tool, not REVENUE tool. If you start to focus on how you can monetize social media then you are going to miss great opportunities.
If you have 10 followers on twitter you potentially have access to a network of thousands of people. Tell your 10 twitter followers that you are an expert in your field and prove it to them, ask those 10 followers to reach out to their contacts to see if someone is looking for a position that may fit you. If you have 100 connections on linkedin introduce yourself to them and think of ways you can help each other. Sitting on connections is useless (both physically and metaphorically), you have to act! A few weeks ago I sent the CMO of Best Buy a message asking if they were looking for SEO help, now we are in the discussion phase. A few days ago I received a possible opportunity to speak in Norway via a facebook friend. The designer who is re-designing my blog is a reader of mine who offered to help me with my new site design.
The relationships and connections you build through social media are priceless. You will be very surprised by the size of your network and the quality of the people you are connected with once you start to reach out to them. The value isn’t in advertising on your twitter page or on your blog, the value comes from the people you know and the relationships you build. Most of my business comes from word of mouth; through people that refer me to other people or through people that read my blog or have come across one of my posts.
If you could choose between $10,000 or 10,000 relationships/connections which would you choose? I would pick the relationships hands down because that is where the real value is.
You will never make a single penny with social media but you can do quite well for yourself with the relationships and connections you create and grow.
Thanks for reading
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