Twitter; MySpace; FaceBook

by CDaeda
21 replies
I am looking for site promotion techniques used by Twitter, myspace, facebook to get their membership lists. Facebook accumulated 500 million members in six years. What is their secret to drive traffic to their site? Any ideas? Please share?
#facebook #myspace #twitter
  • Profile picture of the author WillR
    Are you kidding? You want 500 million users for your website? Who doesn't.

    It's called viral marketing. It's the same way Hotmail became the biggest free email service all those years ago. At the end of every email you sent it said 'This email was sent by Hotmail. To get you free Hotmail account, click here'. Word spreads very quickly when you are providing a good service and you have a clever viral marketing component built into your product/service.
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  • Profile picture of the author KeenIMer
    WillR is right. They exploded so quickly because they reached a critical mass and became a part of the culture and a part of people's lives.

    Whether you call it viral marketing or word of mouth, they created a product that was so exciting to their users that the users did the marketing for them.
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    • Profile picture of the author WillR
      Originally Posted by KeenIMer View Post

      Whether you call it viral marketing or word of mouth, they created a product that was so exciting to their users that the users did the marketing for them.
      Facebook is a whole different kettle of fish in that it relies on your friends to make it worth using. If you have no friends on Facebook then it won't be of much use to you. Therefore it spread very quickly as people wanted to be able to communicate with all their friends in one place.

      They also made it very easy to share. I remember when I first signed up with my Hotmail email address, it automatically brought up all my contacts from my Hotmail account and asked me if I wanted to send them an invite.

      Viral marketing in it's simplest form - and it worked.
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  • Profile picture of the author Bane
    They got that large because they broke 17% conversion ratio... that's all there is to it
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  • Profile picture of the author Andrey
    Viral marketing is key here. Also they were in right place in the right time with the right brains.

    What about 500 million users: There are no 500M real Users in Facebook. I mean active users.

    Russian clone of facebook(vkontakte.ru) made the one very smart step on increasing number of users - They got somehow databases of emails and registered all of them inside their portal. Later they sent messages to all of email owners that they are welcome in their system and so on. And believe me or not it worked very well. Now facebooks main competitor in Russia is Vkontakte. they even have design like Facebook.

    Conclusion: Use creativity and proven techniques.
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    • Profile picture of the author CDaeda
      How in the world do they get their hands on databases of emails? Optin not much good.
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  • Profile picture of the author rain21
    facebook is like a new style, so they got lot of members.. but i dont think that facebook has 500M active users..
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  • Profile picture of the author scortillion
    they claim they have 500m users but I doubt all those are active. Even thought it's aginst their terms of service I know people that have 2 or more Facebook accounts. So right there it's not correct.
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    • Profile picture of the author CDaeda
      Maybe a 100 million members would be a more accurate figure. Still much more than I have at the moment. Can anyone top 100 mill members? If so, please share your methods. :rolleyes:
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      • Profile picture of the author Devid Farah
        Viral marketing is the biggest factor, but it was also the fact that Facebook was unique. It provided a unique, free, interesting service which appealed to its target audience. Same with MySpace and Twitter: they provided new ways to connect with friends, share your thoughts, and design your profile to represent yourself, all things that the target audiences (College students, etc) were interested in doing.
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      • Profile picture of the author WillR
        Originally Posted by CDaeda View Post

        Maybe a 100 million members would be a more accurate figure. Still much more than I have at the moment. Can anyone top 100 mill members? If so, please share your methods. :rolleyes:
        What are you asking here? We have answered your question. It's called viral marketing. Can you build an email list of 100 million members or anything close to that? I highly doubt it.

        So what's the point of this thread?
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        • Profile picture of the author CDaeda
          Elaborate on viral marketing techniques for those less informed.
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          • Profile picture of the author paulie888
            Originally Posted by CDaeda View Post

            Elaborate on viral marketing techniques for those less informed.
            Ok, in case you're not aware of how viral marketing works, it is basically just plain old-fashioned "word of mouth" marketing, where people tell others about your product or service. People will usually do that on their own without you having to say anything IF you have something good and unique on your hands, and one way you can accelerate the process is if you incentivize people by offering them special privileges and perks for doing so.

            Facebook grew very quickly because they made it very easy for you to connect with your contacts elsewhere (and they made inviting someone who wasn't on facebook easy and convenient), and in addition to that the somewhat addictive games made people tell others about them, and this incentivized the non-Facebook members to join just to play those games. In addition to that, the social aspect of networking made it irresistible for many people because they could be constantly connected with their friends and get updates about what they were doing.
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      • Profile picture of the author scortillion
        Originally Posted by CDaeda View Post

        Maybe a 100 million members would be a more accurate figure. Still much more than I have at the moment. Can anyone top 100 mill members? If so, please share your methods. :rolleyes:
        OK... you got me on that count....lol
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  • Profile picture of the author JonAlfredsson
    Viral marketing is where you’ll make your product or services known all over the net through various means. In the past, these can be done through word of mouth but it’s now better to do this type of marketing online as many people are now utilizing the internet for various things.
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  • Profile picture of the author imkazu
    two approaches
    * create something that's new and would go viral (first mover adv. groupon, hotmail, etc)
    * look at a successful site, improve it a little (facebook)
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  • Profile picture of the author J Bold
    I'd like to become the next Google. I want everyone to share with me how to do this and I will act like it is simple but you should tell me everything about it, please.

    Tips and info welcome here. But no paid info, please, I just want to be spoonfed on how to be Google. Shouldn't be too hard, right? I mean, if they can do it so can I. Seems pretty simple.

    I guess I could settle for being Bing. Any tips on that appreciated, too.

    But Twitter, no, I am not a twit.

    Just Google and Bing please, thank you.
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  • Profile picture of the author paulie888
    Here's an alternative open source software for social networking that's pretty established - BoonEx Dolphin - Smart Community Builder

    The key with this is promotion, just like with anything else in internet marketing. You cannot expect to build a great looking site and just hope for people to come. I have already given some tips above, since you seem very interested in building up a social networking site.

    Paul
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