Can Social Networking Make You Money?

Social networking has always been such a tease. You look at the limitless prospect base having millions of conversations about millions of things everyday. You think you’ll just put yourself in the middle of all those talkers and start doing business.

But after a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and man-hours, you realize those talkers don’t do anything but talk and ignore you when you want them to buy.

Not too long ago, my friend Charles Heflin puzzled over how businesses could routinely get positive cash flow from social networking. Charles had gotten measurable ROI using social media for years. He wanted to create a formula so the process could be effectively taught to others.

So he focused on spotting the elements of online social media that don’t change, then developing an effective action plan from those elements.

Through rigorous testing, observing and implementing over the past two years, Charles reached some conclusions:

1. Your level of success in social media (measured by ROI) is directly proportional to
a.    The speed at which you gain trust from visitors
b.    The social nature of your products or services
c.    The nature of your social network traffic conversion funnel (sales funnel – different from traditional internet marketing tactics)

2. Focusing on social network systems for incoming links to increase SE rankings is a short-lived strategy. We have evidence that Google values the level of “community”, “friendship” & “voting” within accounts that list your website link. They can easily spot footprints of social media black/grey hat tactics. Using social networks to build links will destroy your social media presence and your search engine visibility.

3. Social media networks (forums, blogs, micro-blogs, social networks, etc.) exist fpr two-way communication. They’d die without it. You must engage people within each network or you’ll get no value. Social bookmarking to increase awareness is not enough. You must also increase awareness of yourself (your brand) within your bookmarking, content, & other communities.

4. All content you post or promote must be educational, enlightening and/or entertaining. If not, your goose is cooked.

5. If you are an Internet marketer, you must unlearn everything you have learned. Success in social media is determined by your ability to educate, enlighten or entertain your target audience, not by how great a sales page you can write..

6. Sales resulting from social media interaction are proportional to the level of trust you get from visitors. Promotion doesn’t work. Branding yourself and building high search engine visibility put you in position to create trust. Visitors will find your “buy now” button without you shoving it in their face.

7. Strong social media communities change the focus from traditional SEO to community driven content delivery. SEO is automated through crowdsourcing. The focus on traditional (technical) SEO is melding with social rankings or “The New SEO”. Community trust leads to crowdsourcing and a dramatic increase in visibility across all major search engines.

8. Two social media elements lead to branding and ROI:
a. The ability to gain trust (by educating, enlightening or entertaining) and lead people off network to your blog or website. Your blog (or website) must continue the trend (educate, enlighten, entertain).
b. The ability of your blog (or website) to call visitors to action. Include an opt-in form offering a white paper, free report, MP3, video, etc., of high interest to your target audience. Maintain high trust and educate, enlighten, and/or entertain your audience throughout.

9. Listen to your target audience. Spot and understand their wants & needs before engaging them. Otherwise, you’re flying blind.

This is a good start with social media. There’s a lot more to come.

Richard Dennis