Most people ask the wrong questions when talking with marketers: “How are you able to earn money off social networks?” 

The value is placed on social networks such as MySpace, Orkut, Friendster, LinkedIn, Mixx, Stumbleupon, Reddit, Twitter and Flikr, while ignoring the real reason these networks were setup and how you can use those ideas to help your business.

The top social networking websites which are Myspace, Orkut and Friendster were set up as a way to stay in touch with buddies and family and to meet new people online that all share identical ideas. LinkedIn has an analogous slant – it is great for entrepreneurs and pros who want to keep track of their contacts for hiring / outsourcing. Flicker is just a blindingly easy tool for sharing footage.

The successfulness of social networks marks a dynamic movement in how folks are using the Net. We have evolved from just looking for information to making and taking part in social spaces with other individuals through the internet. This model is based on the hive mentality where people identify themselves as part of a group with similar likes and interests that draw them together.

Social networks make viral promoting and word-of-mouth marketing much easier than before . The optimum use of social networks isn’t to make money “directly” off them, but to harness their marketing potential and to use them to promote your own business. Let’s assume you run a store based around Niche Blueprint 2.0. The only way to do that is to optimize your website (including the process of link building) for your target keywords.

Online social networks present an effective platform for you to use in the spread of your selling message. Additionally, they are also a useful tool for getting tons of visitors and thousands of page views to your website.

What this all means is that you need to give more of your attention towards how you can leverage the traffic you do receive from these sources. To do that, you must permit your visitors to form their own social network focused on your niche subject. The power of this cannot be missed since social networks allow for multiple points of connections between nearly anyone on Earth, giving them the ability to find, share, enjoy, and track anything and everything that teases their fancy.

Social network promoting works in the precise same fashion, except folk opt to provide your link without being asked to do so, and places such as del.ici.ous, Digg, Blogpulse, and Technorati give them the ability to do that. In offline terms, that suggests veering towards your pals and family to request their viewpoints. Online, it implies turning in the direction of a bunch of trusted folk whose opinions and suggestions you put a value on.

Actually, in heaps of cases, you have potentially done some research on your own, using the traditional search website promoting model and then turned to a social network that you?re a part of to validate your findings and complete your research by getting their experiences and viewpoints about the subject. This is social internet promotion at work in its purest form.  

Online social networks supply the platform needed to speak out (if they’re that way inclined) or to simply watch the conversations as they occur.