Social Media Monetization

Social Media in the world today has become a big part of everything from the precious moments of your personal life to the to finding work, and marketing for business. Some people look to these sites as a way of expression of themselves and to stay connected to their family and peers. While others look to these platforms as a way to get the word out about their business or use them for monetization opportunities. In order to do this successfully you need to know which sites are capable of what and how they work so I thought it would be good to do so in this entry.

Social Networking

This is the type of social media that stands out above rest with sites like Facebook and the late great MySpace. These networking sites are used for a more direct connection to others and is an easier way to get what you post in front of others. MySpace emerged in it’s as a strongly personal networking site and later began to promote indie music artists. Although they can be personal these networking sites are great for business in that aspect, networking. Facebook has grown to be used for business as well as personal networking, while LinkedIn is more aimed at the professional standpoint.

Photo & Video Sharing

The social media that has changed the world as we knew it before it came about is YouTube, one of the various video sharing platforms but undoubtedly the most popular. YouTube and others like Vimeo, DailyMotion are used to upload recorded content to be viewed by others such as podcast, video logs, short films, tutorial, music, among countless others.

Then there are photo-sharing sites like Flickr that are solely image based and other users to comment and converse about all things in photography and still art. Some others include Photobucket, Picasa, and SmugMug.

Blogging

Blogging is a great aspect of social media because it was always there prior to the YouTube and Facebook sites of today, and has just grown over time. Blogs are majorly used to record opinions and information on a daily or consistent basis. These can encompass the traits of other sites all in one page; photos, videos, text, audio, etc. Bloggerand Wordpress are great for the professional route, but another great blog site has to be Tumblr. It of course accomplishes the same feats of other blog sites but has increased the activity that is now called “photo blogging.” Additionally, Twitter is a micro blogging site where you post updates in 140 characters or less.

Social News

A great way to stay informed while stay connected are social news sites where your peers share news articles, among other content, and everyone else then has the option to decide whether or not it’s important, which in the end reviews the most popular content uploaded. Digg, Designbump and Reddit are among the top best social news sites as of today.

Social Coupons

These are used to save money by offering discounts on local business and certain chain stores all by gps location. If you’re signed up you receive these coupons and codes periodically and are redeemable before their expiration. The most widely know coupon site is GroupOn. You can’t advertise here like on other sites but you can get your local company put on the site to send discounts and possibly increase sells.

All of these sites can be utilized to increase awareness and sells for your company/product. If you happen to be shooting a film you should check my previous entry Independence Movies & Building an Audience for Them. You can use the marketing ideas there and the social media mentioned here, hand in hand to better market for your film.