How to Be a Social Media Millionaire - January 22nd, 2010
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HOW TO BE A SOCIAL MEDIA MILLIONAIRE Okay, so here’s what you should do - follow these [insert random number of] easy steps and you too will reap the riches of the internet! Hope springs eternal, right? So many people play the lottery, and yet the lottery always makes money. That’s the only reason I can think of that people so eagerly provide (and follow) links to sites that make social media get-rich-quick promises. This is just me, but my advice is “don’t fire your boss just yet.” After all, the Great Recession isn’t quite over. Earlier this week I received an e-mail from a company offering me a free sample of their product and also mentioning “hope you have a good time while you are in L.A. this week visiting your cousin.” Now, I’m sure that on a marketing manager’s strategy plan, this looks like a great idea. Something along the lines of “Personalize your e-mails and create a connection with your customer.” As for me, however, I just found it to be creepy. Sure, I blogged about my trip, but I wasn’t trolling for free products. If you have a smartphone, you’ll never need to worry about finding the closest gas station. Or for that matter, the fastest way to get to the closest brand of gas station which you prefer to use, which has the lowest price. By the same token, if you’re just feeling lonely, new mobile social networks like Foursquare and Gowalla promise to help you find your nearest friends (literally). But will this lead us to become as socially dependent on technology? After all, if you’ve ever relied on a GPS service to get somewhere, you know how quickly you can become attuned to a computer that tells you what to do next. Every time I finish paying for the services of yet another home repair professional, I ponder how much wealthier I would have been had I learned a useful trade instead of wasting my time in college getting a degree in Spanish Lit. Peter Kim points out, however, that as the internet and social networking goes increasingly mobile, the real winners are those people who can design mobile web applications. So maybe the real money is to be found in creating web apps that help people find good plumbers? |
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