DOLLAR DOLLAR BILLS & SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media is crazy and unpredictable, making everyday people into online sensations and celebrities in a matter of a few hours. Everyone knows about the babyface Justin Bieber – he was discovered on YouTube, a social media outlet.
Another example would be Ray William Johnson, who hosted a show called Equals Three, a recurring weekly show featuring comedic commentary in regards to new, viral, and unknown YouTube videos. As you were watching the show, you might have seen an interesting ad that you may accidentally click on, or perhaps you were forced to sit through an adjust as I was forced to. Now, Ray William Johnson has earned a massive amount of money from YouTube, the company even threw him a party for having the most amount of subscribers on their platform.
I won’t get into the semantics or the formulas that are used to calculate the amount YouTube pays its biggest stars, but I will tell you that it was all paid for by the revenue generated by marketing and ad placement. When we talk about any business, marketing efforts are mandatory.
Prior to the explosion of social media, there were limited channels for marketing. That is no longer the case with social media, which is extremely cost-effective, allowing you to target the unique demographics you need to reach. You can sponsor or pay for your content to be marketed towards a larger audience, but if your content is engaging and creative, then it has a better chance of doing well on its own without the need for sponsored marketing.
Rich, interesting, and engaging content will be liked and shared, allowing it to gain momentum on its own. But it never hurts to spend a little bit of money to make money.
GAINING A FOLLOWING
There are two different methodologies to making money off social media. The first is to develop an audience or a following, one engaged enough to keep the buzz going for your social media profile. You can either gain the following by sponsoring your content or paying for your content to be pushed. However, engagement is required in order to continue the growth.
Another option is to have content that is so engaging and powerful that people choose to like and share it just because it is that good. Regardless of the approach, the right audience is required in order to ensure a positive outcome. If you personally have a large following, then looking for sponsors would be a good idea. However, you want to be careful and only focus on limited sponsorships. Otherwise, all everyone will see is a tirade of advertisements when they look at your posting.
You must ensure that any negative comments are dealt with. But don’t forget that you can also swat trolls that just don’t know how to behave. A moderator is highly recommended, but you should personally monitor your audience as well. When in the public’s eye, you have to be careful to try and avoid the snowball effect.
CONNECTIVITY & REACH
You want to make sure you have a solid and stable internet connection to maintain the ability to have an online presence, and control both the negative and the positive outcomes. If you don’t have a cable or fibre internet provider in your area, AT&T Uverse allows you get connected when cable companies aren’t able to. The end result is having the ability to be connected and to be online using your choice from various Uverse internet bundles, including hotspots while on-the-go.
Most social media platforms allow you to link online products and services into your postings, thus partnering with affiliates or internet personalities is always a good idea.
ANALYTICS AND THEIR IMPORTANCE
Analytics are important when it comes to gauging whether or not your social media is generating revenue. If you are in fact using your social media accounts for business, knowing which demographics you need to target will yield the best results.
For example, you can have different landing pages and telephone numbers for different marketing strategies and campaigns, which will help you to specifically analyze what does and doesn’t work for you. If you’re using social media to gain fame and followers, analytics still play a very important part, since you can see how many people watched a video. You can also see how much of the video they watched, so you can gauge whether or not the public found your content engaging and interesting. Analytics are just as important as engaging and trending content.
