I was reading this article on VentureBeat about how much a tweet is worth compared to Yelp, (and by reading I mean I saw the pretty infographic), when I got the urge to spew my views on Social Media and how it's misconstrued. Here are my random thoughts on Social Media being profitable.
Social media, like all products, must be directed/adopted to fit what the demographic wants. Not what the founder/Creator thinks it should be. Twitter can't be a tool for selling a service/product like yelp can, if users don't use it in that way. I use Twitter for nothing more than a news aggregate, and to feed my Facebook posts. So for someone like me, the only profit you'll make is if your tweet is good enough to get me to click the link to your page. Then, your page still has to have the standard sales/marketing items to catch my attention and get that ever elusive click. (This is greatly simplified, but I'm not writing a how-to for people.)
Facebook on the other hand is much easier, because people trust input from friends and family more than an ad online. Or a tweet from a random site/company. (Even a relevant one). Once one person hits that like button, it grows exponentially as their friends see it in their feed and also hit the like button, or comments. Of course, you've still got to get that "Like" in the first place.
I have no experience with Pinterest yet, but can see great potential here for brand recognition. As users pin items, it goes through their Facebook feed, and thus grabs the power behind Facebook as well.
I know, none of this explains how to make money on these site. The answer is, to go hire someone that knows what they are doing to train you on it. (Not to do it for you.) As I said before, this isn't a how-to article. (Those will be on http://geekhome101.com if I ever get it going.)
Foursquare however, can be highly annoying and should be used only to tell your friends what bar you're at, so they can join you. No one cares if you're at the bank or seeing your Dentist... /rant
I understand the benefits of Foursquare. I just don't care for them.
