In my previous post, we talked about what social media is. I hope that after that and a quick Google search, you now have an idea how powerful it is. Perhaps if you’ve had your dose of regular primetime news over the past year, you know the extent of fascination the old-school peeps at NY Times, CNN, the BBC and other news organizations have on the power of Social Media networking or marketing. We’ll have more details on that in the next few days.
Today, let’s talk about why you should take advantage of social media to advance your blogging career and hopefully generate you more money. Let’s put this subject in proper context:
Authority-Building and Making Money Online
I can not overstress the importance of the role social media plays in authority-building to making you money online. Blogs with a higher authority are those we consider popular. And by popular we mean
First, they have got a higher Google Page Rank,
Second, they have content that have been quoted or re-published in other blogs or websites
Last but certainly not the least, they have got a large number of good quality back links, i.e., other people on the internet are putting links in their very own website that point to content on your website.
If your blog has a higher authority, that is, it’s more popular, you’ll have good traffic, gain a solid reputation online and potentially monetize on both accounts. So how does Social Media fit into all these?
Social Media Exposure
Exposure is what social media mainly does for you. I say mainly because it actually does a lot more for you than exposure. But in the context of authority-building, exposure is its largest benefit for your quest to make money online. What does this mean?
Think Facebook and Twitter. Think MySpace and YouTube. Then think Mark Zuckerberg and Tom Anderson. Then think Marie Digby, Bo Burnham, and Arnel Pineda. (Hey, if you don’t recognize these names, Google up! You’d like what you find.) One of them is the world’s youngest billionaire. One is definitely a millionaire, and one is now Journey’s lead singer. Not very long ago, they were all just ‘a face in the crowd’ as David Cook’s song would say. But today, they’re all very successful people – money wise and fame wise, thanks to Social Media.
Now think about this:
If Facebook turns a 23-year old former student into a billionaire in less than 5 years, if YouTube can turn a poor – but talented – man into an international star and change his life completely, what possibilities lie ahead for you? Yes, folks. That is how powerful Social Media is. If you’re not totally sold on the idea yet, here’s the biggest deal: it’s a free facility! Yes, there’s no cost for using Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and most other social networking sites.
Millions of people across the globe live on these websites. And both small and medium-sized businesses and large corporations are using these websites to reach their customers and a build a wider market base with broad reach. And regardless of the technology you’re using – whether you’re on a Mac or PC, whether you’re using a high-end Dell or HP, or whether you’re using a refurbished computer – social media is accessible. The medium and the technology is readily available, the benefits up for grabs. Don’t you want a chunk of a huge, billion-dollar pie?
