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Marketing via social networks -- is it worth the hassle?

by deskmonkey
7 replies
Lately, I've seen more and more companies use social networks -- eg. Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc. -- as a medium for marketing, particularly for preselling. It seems to work for them as they continue to do it, but those are the kind of companies that can afford to have someone dedicated to doing just that. How viable is it a tactic for a lone-wolf entrepreneur without a lot of time on his or her hands? I mean, it seems like it's a lot of effort and in order to get the kind of exposure necessary, you'd have to really work it. But if you're all by your lonesome, you usually don't have a lot of time in the day to spend updating your accounts on all those social networks, especially if you have a day job.

So, is it a worthwhile strategy to attempt, or should one simply stick to the traditional, tried-and-true marketing strategies (eg. advertising, mailing lists, etc.)?
#hassle #marketing #networks #presell #social #social networks #worth
  • Profile picture of the author Tyrus Antas
    It depends on what strategy you use:

    - automated methods can get you a sizable presence but are probably not going to work in the long term. You can have an auto-adder doing all the work and a kind of twitter auto-responder posting stuff every once in a while. You can do this investing 10 minutes of your time everyday.

    - to get real long term value from social networks you'll have to invest a little bit more. You'll be constructing real relationships, making new partnerships, making friends and obviously finding new clients. It takes time... it works particularly well if you're trying to establish your own brand.

    If you're looking for quick profit and want to promote multiple sites I'd use the first strategy. For everything else, use the second.

    Tyrus
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    • Profile picture of the author plester
      Hey Tyrus,

      I've seen probably hundreds of different ebooks,etc. on this exact subject,and i was wondering if you know of any of them that are actually worth getting.

      Thanks,

      Paul
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    • Profile picture of the author deskmonkey
      Well, it definitely sounds like a lot of work when you put it that way, Tyrus. Also, since I'm selling a service, not a product, option two seems like the way to go (I want my clients to stay, after all), but that's even more work than the first option. Still, I do see how it could pay off in the long run.

      My concern is the amount of time it will take to build those relationships, time which I'm increasingly finding that I don't have. It's sort of like a catch-22 -- I'd like to eventually quit my day job and live solely on my Internet ventures, but putting the amount of effort required could potentially harm the day job that I still need (since my online revenues aren't enough yet to be self-supporting). I guess I'll have to take baby steps first.

      By the way, there's a service I found that allows you pre-schedule Twitter posts, which means that I could prepare said posts during my free time and have them appear regularly on Twitter without me having to worry about doing it manually. I don't suppose there's a similar service for Facebook? I'm not really a social network kind of guy, though -- I avoid Facebook and MySpace like the plague -- but this kind of potential mass-marketing tool is really quite tempting.
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Ellis
    You have to make it part of your business. Any half-assed attempt to bookmark obvious marketing links (even if they are in the form of articles) will only generate some traffic, which will quickly fade away. You need to create a source for links that people in your niche want to read - not all of them will be marketing links - 90% shouldn't be. It comes down to the basic idea of giving your market something they want, and no, they don't want to read a bunch of bookmarks of sales pages/articles.

    So, social bookmarking does work, it just takes some effort and planning, like everything else.
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  • Profile picture of the author dndoseller
    I decided a while back that everything I do on myspace, facebook, etc. is adding assets and promotion to a site that I do not own. I focus on promoting and adding content to my own site.

    I focus on SEO, blogging and my own email list - all on my own domain. To me 1 email list subscriber who took the time to sign up and opt in, is worth 100 "friends".
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  • Profile picture of the author bizgroup
    A good friend that has much more marketing experience than I do makes sales everyday off of social networking sites. He says the key is "attraction marketing" not promotion. Establish a presence in the niche and your sales will come. What the heck, he's successful at it and I'm giving it a try now. He also went so far as to recommend me to his "friends" list. If he treats everyone that's his friend with the desire for them to be successful, it's no wonder why he's so successful. I feel it's worth a try. But, yes, it is taking time.
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  • Profile picture of the author InternetMarketingIQ
    I'm sure there are a lot of ways to use it. For me.. it's BRANDING. I create my page... making it look as good as possible. The I create my BRAND message, but I don't try to sell anything directly from the social site.

    Then I solicit my "friends". Seems to work fine for what I'm doing. When people come to my social sites they see my brand, and yes they are Niche Sites.

    I recruit my friends by doing searches for keywords related to my brand.

    Lets say you have a brandable site for Baseball card collecting. Then you create your social sites... then you find people with an interest in baseball cards. Then you invite them to become "friends" with you.

    Do it right and they will go and look at your site because it interests them. This also avoids violating site rule.

    Social sites want you to deliver your message and form communities. They can then display targeted ads. So both of you win.
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