I’ve got a serious question for you today.
Are you *making money* (and not merely making Friends / Fans / Followers) Twittering, Facebooking and Bookmarking?
Is anybody you know making money Twittering, Facebooking and Bookmarking stuff?
Is anybody you know reliably or predictably making sales, using Social Media in any kind of systematic fashion?
I seriously want to know.
What are you actually doing? How well is it actually, measurably working?
Post your response in the comment form below. I’d like to hear from you.
Thanks-
Perry Marshall
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About the Author
Perry Marshall has launched two revolutions in sales and marketing. In Pay-Per-Click advertising, he pioneered best practices and wrote the world's best selling book on Google advertising. And he's driven the 80/20 Principle deeper than any other author, creating a new movement in business.
He is referenced across the Internet and by Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, INC and Forbes Magazine.
75 Comments on “Social Media: Anyone actually making money with it?”
Perry,
I’ve “made money” indirectly as a service provider (copywriter) because of both Twitter and Linkedin. I connected with a few potential clients, and with enough that through the action of connecting I uncovered clients with an immediate need.
But I think the mentality behind “making money with social media” is incorrect.
Do you walk down the street, see a group of random strangers, and shout “Hey! I sell something!”.
Nope.
Even if you go to a cocktail party, where you might know some folks, do you immediately go into “sales mode”?
Nope. You shouldn’t anyhow.
Instead, I like to start or participate in the correct conversations, and leave “breadcrumbs” for those who might be interested at a later date.
Sometimes, those “breadcrumbs” lead to immediate “sales” for me, but I do not leave them with the intention of generating immediate work.
Now, using the 80/20 and Linkedin, I’ve filtered down to the 20% of potential contacts I think gives me an 80% chance I will form valuable relationships that will lead to work later on.
Let’s just say I’ve been booked for the last year, and am booked for all of next year… because of this strategy. :)
We are making significant money advertising on Facebook now.
After reading a lot of the posts I think I’ll stick with my first impression of social media and that is that it teached business people a lot about marketing themselves through social values attached to their own business. That is, what values does your business have to share with your market?
Why piggyback on social media networks when there is every reason to believe that you could create your own marketing network using social values. You got to have the values first ’cause you can’t BS your way through when it is your own network your building.
People join a social network because they are attracted by the values expressed by the social group. And people will find their groups on the web.
Do those shared values work for Best Buy, for Sears, for Ford? Most important do those values work for your business. If there isn’t a match then you are probably spending more time than it’s worth.
Facebook is so huge that it blurs any core value of a group, so groups within groups form. It just seems to me that these big social networks are too blurry to be of use, or they have to be segmented to find a clear social value that fits your business.
Thats my story and I’m sticking to it.
Hey Perry and all,
Anyone out there reducing budgeted costs (vs. making new money/sales) by using social media tools? e.g. Job recruiters: How much are you saving on admin costs by mining LinkedIn?
Some employees really let it all hang out there on LinkedIn. Have you “lost money” at your company because a top employee was stolen away by someone who found them via LinkedIn?
I believe there’s much more to social media than just a new way to form a sales pitch. The amount of information out on the internet to be mined is a bit mind-boggling.
Thanks Perry!
Great question, great learning from the comments. Thank you.
How about comparing with a prior technology?
“Socializing: Anyone actually making money with it?”
Yes. I’d like your free mini-course “9 Great Lies of Sales & Marketing” delivered to me via email.
We’ve been using FB ads alongside Google ads and other website ads. We track the results and compare costs. We are doing HR recruiting, not making dollar sales, so things work a bit differently for us with costs, etc. But for our work, things like web banner ads on specific sites are our most effective source, followed by FB, followed by Google.
We simply use the FB ads like we do Google ads – split-test & measure ads, and all ads go to the same corporate website.
Andrew
hi gang,
I’ve gotten over $100,000 worth of leads using youtube for my backstage pass service. And my videos were shot in my bedroom or at concerts, check it out below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22juY3mu730
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NksO7YoTbtE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKh3h3ysYK4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEQHSEsFmyo
Adam
Direct traffic from Facebook ads to a retail website converts sales at 0.65% and newsletter opt-ins at 1.50%. Responsible for 53% of revenue with average CPC @ 7 cents and CTR @ 0.2%.
I’m usually not one for longer posts.
Let’s pretend I have an acquaintance. They want to get started on the internet. I’ll tell them about Perry Marshall’s free course.
Over time, as I get to know them better, I’ll start recommending they buy Perry’s ebook or souped up version.
If they are really good friends, I’ll recommend Perry’s Bob Sled run as a great way to jump start their business.
But if they are my best friends, I’ll recommend Perry’s Four Man Intensives.
Not all of our friends are the same.
But the key word is friends – not prospects.
Social Media is about relationships first, second, and third. Out of that, sales may come naturally.
Now Perry and I are old friends. Let’s say Perry came for a visit. What would we say?
We’d talk about families.
We’d talk about business.
We’d talk about where we were headed.
For darn sure, we wouldn’t be selling each other stuff.
For years, people have had one model of selling.
Now, there’s another.
People who don’t want to spend the time building the relationship aren’t going to be successful at Social Media.
Think of it this way.
When you use PPC, you may get a percent of people coming to your site who buy the first time.
Great.
But, as Perry tirelessly teaches, the real money is when you did deep and do auto-responders.
50, 100, or as I do, 3 a week always on something new and usually current.
That’s relationship building.
And they buy.
I just released a new product.
And my list is going crazy buying it.
And I’m making sales off Twitter too. How do I know?
People are telling me.
If you are looking to Social Media to be a quick fix, you are going to get burned and throw down your ball and bat and say it doesn’t work.
But if you take the time – months – to build relationships and network, you’ll be amazed.
Social media done right is a huge source of traffic.
On one of my recent projects, most of my traffic came from Twitter.
So I’ve probably proven both sides right.
You can’t sell in Social Media.
You can build relationships.
Which is more valuable for your time?
Hint? Which media is on the increase?
Is anyone making sales? Explore the Twitter and Facebook activities of United Airlines (Twares), Marriott (Deal of the Day) and Joie De Vivre Hotels (Twitter Tuesdays and Facebook Fridays)for examples of how big corporations are trying to build incremental sales (or simply lower their cost-of-sales).
What is admirable is that all are tightly controlling the sales message stream; price-led offers are time limited (creating a sense of scarcity and appealing to bargain hunters) and routed through dedicated web-sites which means measurable tight tracking (and the opportunity to hook into parent web sites for additional cross-selling – UA currently has a up-sell offer for more leg-room at an extra $5 on its Economy plus seats).
Commercially effective? I’ve not found any info that gives specific numbers on how well these tactical sales ‘campaigns’ are doing, but factor in the current market conditions and the need for airlines and hotels to fill seats or rooms; every time an airplane takes off and everyday a hotel room gets turned-down, and this appears to be an incredibly effective way to promote awareness and drive actual sales.(And down the line, imagine starting up a new route or open a new hotel?).
Both UA and Marriott have tens of thousands of Twitter ‘Followers’ and JDV isn’t doing to bad as a regional hotel company (California)with 4,000 followers and then there’s the ‘hidden’ element to Twitter. The number of times (and therefore people) a sales message is passed on to as a ‘retweet’. This is the ‘currency’ of Twitter and indeed its true ‘added-value’ which is extremely hard to measure – other than in extra sales (which must tough, having to report how much more revenue is being generated, eh!).
And as long as it’s so called ‘distressed’ inventory that’s being sold, there’s no erosion of margin.
http://www.united.com/page/article/1,,50062,00.html
http://www.marriottdealoftheday
http://www.jdvhotels.com/promos/summer
Hi Perry,
I haven’t personally. But I have seen few people claiming to do so in training courses and pre launch videos.
I am going to twitter soon. Hope I can figure it out.
Twitter has been of great help for me to make new business contacts and get in touch with existing customers. It’s been an important element in my marketing strategy.
Perry,
I have been moving forward regularly with Social Media Networks ranging from Twitter, Facebook, Blogging, LinkedIn and various industry networks as well.
I can, certainly, trace a sale or two here and there to these outlets, but that is not my purpose.
As I use Social Media, and as I would recommend all others to view it as well, it is a networking tool designed to increase product and brand awareness, not to directly sell. In fact, the more you try to sell, the worse results you are going to get.
I have seen incredible results in growing my network, and people are talking about me, personally, in relation to my industry and products much more frequently that they were even 6 months ago. I have only just begun in Social Media Marketing, and I have already seen impressive results. I just can’t wait to see the results after I have some experience under my belt and more regular content to offer.
Hi Perry,
I have just run a couple of seminars on Social Media. Thye were both sold out, which is unusual because seminars about ebusiness matters don’t normally strike a chord with business owners in the UK. People really wanted to know how to use it properly, which has led to me developing a new product.
My research for the seminars did reveal some interesting facts though. Dell directly attribute several millions of dollars of sales to their use of twitter; in the fist half of 2009 they have generated over a million dollars dollars in sales from offers sent only to twitter followers. BUT the conversion was done at the website end; the tweets brought the traffic, the website did the selling.
Harley Davidson, now losing sales because of demand decline in the baby boomer marketplace, have turned to Facebook to lift flagging sales.
I recently wrote an aricle on Cybermugging that likened the way that may people use Twitter to a stroll through a Tunisian Soukh.This echoes many of the sentiments of your posters, but there is a definite rosy future for Social Media – provided that it is done in the right way.
I’m surprised by some of the comments here.
As far as Facebook goes, PPC on Facebook is NOT PPC on Google.
PPC on Facebook is far better.
Facebook has the single most accurate targeting of demographics of anything online.
Want to target people who graduated a certain school? You can.
Want to target people who teach yoga? You can.
Want to target overweight woman age 40 and up? You can.
One of my clients did so well on Facebook, making hundreds of thousands of dollars, Facebook cut his purchase because they couldn’t understand his success.
Later they came back to him begging him to purchase more inventory but he had moved on.
Here’s what I’m seeing on this thread:
People are trying the same techniques they use on PPC on Social Media sites and guess what?
It’s not working.
Social media is a horse of a different feather.
Learn how to use it properly and you will make money.
Do things the way you’ve always done them and lose your shirt.
Peace.
Harlan
Hi Harlan,
I’m completely sure that the biggest problem with my Facebook Ads test was “me”. Since the very first moment, I felt that I really didn’t know how this marketing in social media was going on. I wish I’ll have time soon to work with it as it deserves. But my first feeling was to be very far from making money with any of our professional software products because I could easyly find an “overweight woman age 40 who likes to prepare pizza in her weekends” but I couldn’t find any “pizza restaurant owners”, because at least in Spain and at least at the moment those social media are not used to speak about our jobs at all. Nothing about any professional interests .
I’ve tried to clone one of our best adwords campain in Facebook Adds. Our adwords campain works quite well with 3,5 CTR and 20% Conversion (opt in landing)but the same message on FaceBook gets CTR 0,2 and 1% conversion.
It was just an experiment, because I knew that theese % would be worse but … It looks like if we were veeeeeery far from making an EURO with that.
My firt impression? … I think social media will be a good way for promoting some kind of products but with be a dificult moor for profesional products like ours (bussines software).
Nick said,
“No offense to Perry Belcher and his course, but extrapolating success from an “I’m going to teach you how to make money on twitter by showing you how I made money on twitter by showing other people how to make money on twitter” angle isn’t exactly universally transferable.”
You hit a home run with that comment, Nick. You are one of the few who see through the fog.