Social Networking for Profit

If you don’t sell advertising space or you don’t sell a product or service to the under 35 crowd, then how does a B2B marketer make money in Web 2.0 social networking sites?

To answer this question, I’ll tell a story (fictitious but illustrative).  Let’s say I started a new organization in my community about something worthy and noble.  It doesn’t matter what it is for this illustration.  If I went around to everyone in the community and pitched my organization, I may get a few recruits but it would be like pushing on a rope.  After a while I might get discouraged and fold my organization, or just keep “selling” the hard way.

On the other hand what if I am very active in my community and have developed a lot of friends and acquaintances who have come to know me well.  They know my passions and I have gotten to know their’s too.  These are people in my community with whom I have developed relationships based on mutual trust and respect over time.  Most of all, these people have been witness to my contributions to the community.  My contributions to the community have been genuine and heartfelt.

So, when I start telling these trusted friends about my organization and I invite them to visit, they come.  And, they tell their friends about it and eventually over some time (not overnight) my organization grows and flourishes because it was built on a word of mouth reputation.

It is the word of mouth factor that doesn’t get talked about much in the social networking world.  But, it’s a huge factor.  Trust, respect and community is the very essence of social networking. 

To be successful in social networking you have to be – well you have to be social!  You have to participate in the community and develop a reputation.  So, you can see by my illustration that it’s no different than the physical communities in which we participate. 

As marketers in social networking sites like Facebook, we build profiles of ourselves and our companies and we invite friends to connect to our profiles.  We can also create “groups” and “networks” about relevant topics or workplaces. 

When we participate in the communities that fit our interests we build relationships and when you invite them to participate in your group about a business topic they will come.

But, just like the story I told, expect it to take time.  Just like building relationships in our communities takes time so it does in social networking sites.  But with those relationships, the word of mouth about your groups or networks can grow and you can build traffic or buzz or brand or all of the above.  Just be patient and persistent. 

BTW, visit my Facebook group on B2B web marketing strategies here.  If you like what you see, tell your friends about it….