This session of the PubCon Las Vegas 2008 focused on the different possible ways that social media outlets could be monetized.

Moderator:

• Rand Fishkin, CEO, SEOmoz

Speakers:

• Michael Gray, President of Atlas Web Service
• Alexander Barbara, CEO of ReidBrown Enterprises, Inc.
• Vanessa Fox, Founder of Nine By Blue

The session was initiated by Michael, who hit the nail right on the head by pointing out how tough it is to monetize social media, since very few people are perceive social media as a place to buy.

He pointed out that the first and foremost thing is to play by the rules of the community. One should attempt to create a knowledgeable resource by coming up with valuable and helpful content that solves a problem. You could then offer a free solution for problems through direct or through links. Internet Marketeers could use social media to promote reviews in the form of comparison of similar products. However, it is essentially important to keep the review honest and avoid superficial language. It is equally important to provide an in-depth review, but it should be of readable length. Michael further stated that social media could be optimum to build memberships by using blogs, Twitter and e-mail to create a group of followers.

Next up was Alexander Barbara. Her basic message was to find tangential concepts that fit in your subject’s overall strategy as well as provide you with a broader appeal. The objective is to have a dynamic site that can handle traffic. One has to understand the audience and be prepared for the traffic.

Vanessa Fox was the third and the last speaker of the session. She pointed out that it was extremely important to define your action goals for social media outlets and ensure that your every action is prominent and visible to the visitors. She backed her theory with case studies and showcased the importance of forming criteria on which the success of your plans could be measured. It is of extreme importance to have measurement criteria in order to measure the possible failure points and make requisite adjustments. On microsites, Fox stated that they there’s no point in using redirection in them, links are more advisable.

The essence of the session was that engagement and traffic is simply not enough for monetizing social media. Page views are no longer good enough indicators for the success of the plan, bounce rate is more applicable now. It is imperative to measure each stage of your social media plan to zero down on failures.

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