Monetising Facebook
It is already happening. Companies are making big money on facebook and other social marketing sites. Understanding which companies are profiting and how helps fast followers exploit the opportunities developed.
So, with many successful businesses pursuing social strategies, what is Facebook’s moneymaking trick? The ability to purchase directly from social sites is limited. The majority of users are there to chat to friends, play games and arrange meetings. They are not there to shop. So who is making money directly today?
As might be expected, ‘social’ businesses lead on the social sites: leisure pursuits; PADI and BSAC, have taken a quick but limited lead. Branded restaurants have already built ways to order food from facebook – just look at the Pizza Hut facebook page. Sure it is just in the US today but we can expect it to roll out globally sometime soon.
Information businesses make money through knowledge: Information has always been valuable but intelligence is precious. Simply knowing an individual’s name and email address is of limited value. Knowing their preferences, what social groups they belong to, age, location and their on-line behaviour is intelligence and it is gold dust. Amazon, iTunes and on-line retailers are masters.
Strategies to obtain and exploit this intelligence abound: commercial intelligence has become big business. Though tacit in nature (an individual may not know what information is being collected) commercial social applications rely on permission in order to work. This can be woven into the online experience and may not even be recognised by the individual themselves. It is the online equivalent of the loyalty card.
Business to Business companies are profiting too. But perhaps not on ‘social’ sites. Professional networking and specialist sites provide opportunities for experts to contribute professional opinion. These sites might be sponsored by business: information on backup management and disaster recovery can be found on ARCserve.com, discussion on lowering service management costs can be found on datavailability.co.uk.
Business has started to control ‘social media’. Strategies to exploit are understood and it is time for fast follwers to embrace the medium.
Posted: November 18th, 2009 / 2 Comments /
2 Comments to Monetising Facebook
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Creative Techs
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Very interesting site, but you must improve your header graphics.
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