Who’s Making Money from Social Networking?

We are often asked “who is making money from social networking?”  It’s evidently clear that many are, whether it’s for branding, customer service or sales purposes. 

These companies are taking pro-active steps to use social networking and are integrating it in a manner to stay ahead of their competition.  Social networking is being used by businesses to:

• Provide an additional channel to communicate with existing customers,
• Find ways to reach a broader base of prospective customers,
• Enhance their customer service,
• Offer promotions and contents,
• Gather product ideas from the public  
• Complement their offline marketing activities.
• Drive greater interest and donations to non-profit organizations and political campaigns.

 Social networking is not just making money for the big boys, like Ford, Dell, Starbucks and Southwest Airlines who all have exemplarily programs.  It’s also being used by small businesses like ice cream shops who boast of flavors (@Coolhaus) to delis that share their daily specials (@Rosemarysdeli) .  Even Street Food Vendors from coast to coast use social networks to inform patrons of their locations.

Retailers on and offline have also found a means for adapting to social networking retailing.

Just this week, Bridal retailer Priscilla of Boston began running a social networking campaign, and a contest that runs through November 16 called “How does Priscilla of Boston inspire you?”  Priscilla’s goal is to build awareness of its line of wedding gowns to young women that are members of their social network.

The winner, who shares her entry with the highest number of other consumers, will win a dress.

Earlier this year, Supershoes.com  turned to social marketing because their new website initially struggled to attract consumers. They added several social marketing features, including more than 400 product videos that visitors can watch and rate.

As InternetRetailer.com reports:

“The videos, which Supershoes are marketing to its followers on Twitter, also come with ‘Love It’ and ‘Hate it’ buttons on the same product page that allow customers to rank which shoes they like and dislike. Other social features include a ‘Tag it’ option, which allows customers to enter a term they would like to associate with a particular product, and a ‘Share’ button, which enables customers to send a product page link to friends and family accompanied by their own messages.”

Previously, online marketers would use Facebook Connect for such features.  Now with the recent launch of Paypal’s Adaptive Payments API, you can begin selling your merchandise within Facebook for a true one-stop shopping experience.

There are many other success stories we could share with you, and we will continue to update you on this blog often.  However, if you want to start selling to the hundreds of millions of consumers on these more than 350 social networks, you need to create your social infrastructure and build a following. 

You can do this easily with the tools at BrandManagment20.com .