Is anyone making money on Facebook or Twitter?

[Power Lunch Club]

The eternal question.....

Is anyone making money on Facebook or Twitter (from a business point of view)?

Of are people using it to keep their profiles up? Or are they just messing about it on it?

How do you use...yours?

 

[stuarty]

From our experience they will give you the odd enquiry. Some of our clients were making a wee bit from twitter but that was all due to the peak publicity a month or so ago.

Twitter is working well for some of our clients but this is more as a tool for information dissemination. We have one client who could be making a lot of money from twitter for his products and special offers but that's another story. I'll post about it later.

Facebook we've found to be completely usesless right accross the board. Maybe we've not explored it enough but the interface we find to be extremely cumbersome, slow and painful to use. We sent our a questionaire to clients and the overwhelming consesus was that it's a waste of time.

Twitter has potantial if you're in the right market - FMCG type sites will win out of this on the sales front. Information sharing is good for saving money or disseminating info amogst the follower base.

We've tried hard at it but it's not something that will benefit the broad business spectrum. There will be winners doubtless and the early adopters will find ways to be at the top of the pyramid. Someone will find a niche that will be exploited then it will be shut down by the twitter gods.

There's some advertising starting to creep in - Twitter Starts Serving Ads For Third Party Apps (But They Aren’t Charging For Them)

 

[Mike Lewis]

What about LinkedIn? Anyone got any experience with that?

A colleague invited me to join it a couple of years ago, which I did, but I never really got the point of it. It's all to do with building networks, but then what? I've had a constant stream of emails saying so-and-so (usually someone I've never heard of) wants to join my network (or maybe they want me to join their network),but that's about all.

Mike

 

[stuarty]

What about LinkedIn? Anyone got any experience with that?

Yeah - it's useless from my experience.

 

[Adventurelife]

Made money from both so far but not enough for me to concentrate on them. Have 2 meetings next month that have come about via twitter worth about £10-20K if they convert so for the 100 or so quick posts I have done that will be a good return. Still have to convert them though:001_cool:

Facebook I have not really tried from a business angle but picked up a little bit. I use it more on my personal profile to keep in touch with our guides who work all over the world depending on the season as they are younger than me and tend to chat a lot on it so when I am trying to track someone down it is the place I check first now.

There are so many routes to market these days it is easy to get distracted, time management is more important than ever

Peter

 

[Digitalface]

Hi Gordon,
I've been working with social networks for over 4 years now, we created a UK first in social networking a couple of years ago. As for making money using Facebook and Twitter I'm just back from Vegas working with Zappos.com who from nothing turned over $1billion last year using almost entirely social networks and tools.
If you want help or advice I'd be happy to advise on strategy.
Cheers
Colin

 

[marbrowne]

Hi Gordon,
I am busy exploring social networks as a way of promoting my new business. LinkedIn has been by far the best but Facebook and Twitter are starting to show early promise.

Funnily enough I am selling a box which monitors employee internet usage and I thought that most interest would come from employers wanting to prevent their employees from accessing unsuitable sites. What I am starting to find is a level of interest (particularly from smaller businesses) where social networking is being encouraged as a marketing tool but the employer wants to see how much time is being spent and whether it matches the return. If you find yourself in that situation I may have the answer!

Martin @prodsoft on Twitter

 

[Gordon N]

Most of the people that are following me are web designers/agencies or web software companies etc - so it is not really working as a sales tools as yet. It does however provide me with some fantastic links to design resources, tutorials and some great business/freelance articles.

Twitter (in my opinion) could hold great earning potential for those in the 'new media' or design industry, expecially freelancers. It's far easier to find potential clients on Twitter than it is for them to find you. Simple things like using search.twitter.com for a phrase like "need a business advisor" or "looking for ....." (whatever service you provide) can turn up a surprising amount of possible contacts. Just be aware that others in your line of work might be doing the same, and if they are following you they will see any attempted communication. For that reason it's always worth having a second account.

 

[happi6commercial]

Maybe I am doing something wrong but I cannot get my message accross in a way people will listen or get curious enough to look at my business and as my product could be potentially be of interest to anyone it is a bit confusing

Any suggestion and or tips