Social media has proven itself to be one of the best venues for
marketing
products in a hurry. In the past, Internet marketers have held contests
to see how much they can make in one day, one week, or one month by creating a
new product and selling it through a social marketing medium.
When it comes to this type of project, there are two things to ask
yourself: 1) what type of product should you sell? And 2) what medium should
you sell it in? In this section, I will cover how to sell on Myspace forums. In
the next section, we’ll consider Twitter. Let’s start with the types of
products you might want to sell on Myspace.
What Product to Sell
You might immediately assume that you should sell one of your flagship
products, but in fact, social media sites are not always the best place
to do this. For this reason, you will want to answer this question by doing
market research, rather than simply picking a product and running with it.
One way you can approach this is to begin browsing through a variety of
Myspace member forums. Do this for various categories; and make an
attempt to gauge how large the forum following is. Are there hundreds of people
who post regularly? Thousands? What is it that they’re talking about; and what
information could they possibly need to help them in their endeavors? Once you
find a group that strikes you, begin reading up on their topic of choice; and
then participate in the forum discussions. Try to make friends and be helpful.
This will benefit you in the long run, since they are unlikely to respond well
to you if they perceive you as a green-eyed infiltrator whose only interest is
in selling them stuff.’
After you have a feel for the forum and the topic, commission a writer
through a site like Elance to create a powerful, but brief, “how to” manual on
some specific facet of their topic. For instance, you might follow a jewelry
group; and decide to create a guide on how to purchase high quality beads
online at a steep discount.
Whatever you do, make sure that this topic is something you hear about
on the forum frequently. Your goal should be to provide a product that solves a
problem that seems to be common among forum members.
Once you have this guide in hand, create a mini-site with a short copy
salespage; and a PayPal checkout button, so that you can receive payment
immediately. On the sales-letter, highlight the following benefits of your
guide:
Explain how it will tangibly improve the lives of your target
demographic
group (i.e. after you read my guide, you will be able to do task x twice
as
fast) in general.
Highlight the specific benefits of certain chapters (i.e. chapter 8
alone will
save you $100 per month). Also, consider selling your guide for a very,
very low price. Your goal here should be to make the decision to purchase a
no-brainer. At least initially, you shouldn’t bludgeon your new customers with
high-end products. Introduce them to your work with something that costs around
$3-7. If you do a good job with everything else, you could easily make around
$500 in a matter of days.
The final step is market your product by creating a signature that
references it.
Beyond that, all you can do is post frequently; and hope that people see
it and
buy.