Earning the 'e' way

Social networking has become a fad not just for friends but also some business like brand promotions, freelancing and online earning. S.S. Kavitha and A. Shrikumar learn the nuances of making money sitting in front of monitors.

Glued to the screen and being caught in the web is the craze of the time. The machine puts the entire world into your fist at a click. So what is in a click?

Every click counts time and of course money. Within this big domain of net surfing, 'social networking' has become a cult, with young and old connecting across physical and virtual boundaries in the e-era of globalization.

Social networking has become a true force to be reckoned with on the internet especially among youth. One can have a spanking long friend's list and also trace long lost pals.

Balaji who has traced many of his Kindergarten mates on orkut and facebook, is on a mission of touching 1,000 by this year end. "I spend three to four hours a day on facebook" says he.

"Even if we don't read newspapers, we can know everything happening around through active threads," says, S.Balasubramanian, who networks with non-governmental organisations across the country.

For some like T.Ruso, facebooking or orkuting is a stress-buster. He thoroughly attends to his facebook craves with at least a dozen sign-ins a day, just to check the number of friends requests. "It starts as a trend and then a habit and certainly results in addiction," shares the young business man.

Of course it is complete fun for three hours daily, adding friends, chatting, forming groups and sharing photos and videos. Net caf?have become second home for many facebook and orkut users.

But what if the whole indulge can be lucrative too and not just mere fun? Some business oriented social networking sites like 'Linked In' or 'Xing' lend the right measure of both.

Groups of various fields exist here with discussion boards, job listings and active postings about opportunities. People of similar interests come to together on such platforms exchanging ideas, floating contracts and even signing up new jobs! And even corporate companies, brands and NGOs have their profile or group page.

Pay per click

If you own a company and want to promote your brand, you can not avoid signing up on a popular social networking site. "Companies seek maximum visibility online and can get in touch with PPC (Pay per click) experts.

PPC expert is a person well versed in making catchy online ads and putting them on prime places on the web. Any user doing a related google search would get the ad on top. People usually tend to click on top of the page options as they are considered to be the most relevant. The company thus achieves more visibility and gets debited a specified amount per click. The next step is to convert clicks into sales or business, also done by the same experts" explains, C.R. Venkatesh, Managing Director & CEO, Dot Com Infoway.

Social networking sites form a platform between such companies and a freelance PPC expert. The expert gets a job or a contract and the company promotes itself, as mutual it is. Even students, interns, part timers and freelancers get their hands on big contracts through these sites.

Apart from such exclusive business oriented networking sites, even fun sites like facebook and twitter have started including an 'earning' component. Companies display their business pages and promote their brands through various innovative means.

Virtual companies

There are virtual companies only available on net. All they do is advertise on the site, outsource designs and works and pay them off. According to Navin Negi, a freelance stylist, who has a fashion styling agency on facebook, owning a company profile on facebook also cuts down costs of building an actual office and paying employees. The process of selling, buying and running a firm overall is quick, simple and hassle-free.

These sites are flocked by a majority of youngsters and apparel brands find them to be just the apt arena to target their core customer base in one go. Here is how it works. Any brand or company signs up a business group page on facebook or twitter and makes itself visible on the side ad panel of the website.

Any customer on facebook can become a member of the group, which conducts interesting simple competitions, polls, discussions and interactions. Info about latest collections and new arrivals and an online store are other features, to enable you to shop while chatting.

This means more comfort as you needn't navigate to another window to shop and keep increasing the tabs. But, how can a lone user earn from such groups?

All one needs to do is to get a membership as online brand promoter for any brand. For every five status uploads or tweets of the user, the brands tweets on behalf of the user and it is all about the brand's latest developments. This increases message reach, as all the friends of the user receive the tweet. The number of times the brand name appears on your tweets, the more you are paid. This way, one can easily earn Rs.5,000 to 10,000 a month.

Certain companies also hire online promoters who keep tweeting. Every tweet has company name with a hatch tag. By constantly doing this the brand name appears under the top trends or 'talk of the day' of that particular site. The main aim of brands is to bombard people with info. "A click means a message reach and conversion means a sale or e-commerce" adds Mr. Venkatesh.

It is a great way to connect and earn but these sites are parasites that can eat away time and energy if not used the proper way. However the options are aplenty but one must know to distinguish the genuine from the fake.

SOurce : The Hindy

By : S.S. Kavitha & A. Shrikumar