4 Ways to Monetize Your Social Media Presence

Monetizing Social Media. It’s one of the most common questions asked by clients thinking of starting a social marketing campaign. There is no doubt that there is intrinsic value in a successful social media initiative, but sometimes the results may seem intangible. We know that social media can result in increased customer/fan loyalty and interest, but what about the bottom line – revenue generation. Here are 5 ways to monetize your social media presence.

1) Extending Sponsorships
For many brands, athletes, and celebrities, social media reach can extend into the tens of thousands. As previously discussed, your fan or follower base is a great representation of your target market. Those who become fans choose to “opt-in” to your updates and have taken the time to show their interest in your brand. To your preexisting sponsors, who find value in your customer/fan base, social media becomes another valuable marketing medium. Increase your digital inventory by offering ads or other creative advertising opportunities and present this to your sponsors. Use this to sweeten a deal for a sponsor on the fence or generate new revenue opportunities from sponsors with a smaller budget.

2) Featured Events
Facebook Fan Pages have the built in ability to host events using Facebook’s built in Events system. As you may know, when you send out an invite from a fan page, all fans will receive an invitiation and the event will show up on the user’s Events Calendar on Facebook. Imagine a local car dealership having a special clearance event. Utilize your strong fan base by virtually sponsoring the event. Think “Dwight Howard invites you to the Ford Summer Clearance at Smith Ford.” The value, for sponsors, is the use of the brand’s (or athlete/celebrity) name to invite the already interested fan base to their event.

3) Sponsored Tweets (and/or Updates)
This is the classic celebrity product endorsement translated to the social media realm. With a strong and loyal following, sponsored tweets or updates about a product can have a high conversion rate. All it takes is a handful of tweets direct from the brand, athlete, or celebrity to create an association between subject and promoted product. Add a direct link to the product and create a highly effective, traceable promotion.

4) Title Sponsorships
Think Tiger Woods on Facebook presented by Gillette. With over 300+ Million active users, a Facebook Fan Page or Twitter Page can generate page views, interactions, and clickthroughs that can rival, and often surpass, personal websites. Take full advantage of these numbers as you would if it was a website and offer a title sponsorship to your Facebook Fan Page. A perfect example of this is the Detroit Pistons Twitter Page, presented by National City.

Social Media Monetization can be tricky, but with the right creative thinking, unique and appealing sponsorship opportunities can be created to entice new advertisers and keep existing deals alive. Have you seen any other creative monetization options? I’d love to hear about them – please post a comment!