Fans are vanity

Fans Are Vanity. Revenue Is Sanity.

Smart programmers tie their social media efforts to their web sites or another direct marketing methodology to strategically drive traffic.  Your sales manager will love you for giving them the Holy Grail, (gasp)… ROI!

Unfortunately, many programmers have illusions that their social network connections are “their” audience. The harsh reality is that if they don’t visit you outside the network, they’re only friends you enjoy at Facebook’s “party.”

In my presentation at the Albright and O’Malley Pre-CRS event, I likened Facebook to a billboard on a freeway.  You have all this traffic on the internet.  (The freeway).  You want them to find your restaurant at the bottom of an off ramp (your web site).  You need a billboard as a direction device (Facebook)

Think of your Facebook presence as a way to get listeners to move from the social platform to your web site.  One of the big issues working against you is Facebook wants to keep these people on their web site.  Why?  They make money with those people.  Precisely why you should be getting them to you site.

Converting connections from social networks to paying customers should be a critical focus of any social media campaign. Otherwise you’re only improving the experience for the social networks.