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Using FaceBook Marketplace Can Be Lucrative

May 9, 2008 on 1:22 pm | In Uncategorized |

When I use Facebook, I use it for close friends. These are usually people I know personally or have met. The level of relationship is deeper than associations found online. So, they know what I do for a living and are oftentimes among my readers. Their support is priceless.

While at Java Hut Café one Sunday, I met a friend who was using Facebook to make money.

At first I thought he was going give me an urban legend. Something he heard through a MySpace friend of his that he was sharing with me deep down the communication pipeline. So I made sure I asked all possible questions. I wanted to truly understand how if he was indeed making money.

While promoting his numerous offline social events, he managed to gain a huge following. Wanting to take advantage of his huge response, he made some really nice glossy business cards that looked the size of postcards. On these postcards, were his email address, his name and all his online affiliations. Obviously, he wasn’t trying to sell his guests anything, although he could and some of them would have bought.

Instead, he was establishing a relationship, several relationships.

His guests, enjoyed themselves and believed my friend to host fun, safe things to do that complement their lifestyles. Instantly, Mr. Friendly becomes the person people want to align themselves with, he becomes the man, a celebrity.

His credibility has shot up like a Technorati Ranking and now, those people who have become his online friends on Facebook wait patiently for my friend’s next move. They come to his parties, support his projects. The point is the time he spent building his relationships.

After watching his friendship requests swell, his popularity grows virally. So, he decides to post an ad in the Facebook Marketplace. This is where it gets interesting. There are two types of ad placement in the Marketplace: free and paid.

Free ads are like announcements on the supermarket bulletin board: you gotta be looking for it. However, Mr. Friendly uses the free ads as a trial, to see how much success he’ll have by informing his base of friends. He does and gets a 20% return on 1630 friends: 326 of his friends joined his affiliate program.

Taking into consideration that 20% is an awesome number; he dials down his expectations on the paid crowd. These will all be strangers, and the rate of return is around 1%.

His first ad he allowed a $10 budget. This would reach 220,000 unknowns. Here’s the thing, if it worked, he’d get 2,000 conversions, well worth the investment.

Well, he didn’t get the 2,000, but he managed 400 sales. Racking up a cool $7,200 (his commission was $18 per sale.)

The key wasn’t in just placing an ad in the Marketplace, he made sure his copy was tight and his message created desire and culminated in action. Simple as that. He hit the proper market, getting the right message to the right people at the right time.

Don’t give up on Facebook, utilize the Marketplace. Play around with the free ad posting first, then fine tune and tweak your message until it brings optimal results.

I’m going to be toying around with some copy this week myself. I’ll be trying this out next week.

Have a great weekend all!

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Posted by Teasa’s Tips