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Comment by lachyg | Hacker News Reader

To provide a counter point, Twitter generated me 50% of a $10,000/month revenue business. All I did was search for people discussing a topic, and answer their questions. Sometimes I'd plug the product, but most of the time I'd let them discover it naturally through our answers.

I tweeted about 1000 times a day.

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But thats ~6 hours a day tweeting for $5,000.

$5,000 a month is great, but where is the growth in it? Plus it leaves you little time for much else.

There is little meat on the bone left over if you are paying someone to tweet for you.

That was very much part time, I could knock out 100 tweets in 10 minutes. I would block them in 4-5 periods a day. It's incredibly quick, easy work.

I'm assuming this is hyperbole, since that actually turns out to be like a question answered every 6 seconds -- but what kind of questions were you answering in volume like that? I'm curious because it seems to have had such a large impact on your bottom line.

People were discussing and asking questions about a book at a constant rate, and I would catch up every few hours. It's not hyperbole.

I totally believe you but I also have a feeling you're part of that very small minority who it works for. There are just some industries that lend themselves better to this kind of marketing than others. Ecommerce sites are in this category. Generally speaking, if you provide a service that cannot be done by web app then social media marketing doesn't work well. That's generally. Think of pool cleaners, housekeepers, gardeners, nannies, car washes versus any ecommerce product or services like web hosting, online insurance, travel bookings, etc.

The web is all about instant gratification. If what you're selling can't be delivered over broadband you're going to have a you time. You have to set up your product to be available as an impulse buy or your chances are slim. On the other hand, when people use search engines not only are they more likely to have intent but if they're specifically looking for your product or it's category they're more likely to be prepared for a non-instant buying experience. This is where those physical world service providers fare far better. My big complaint is that social media is billed by many as a panacea or a replacement for search traffic and unsuspecting small business owners waste lots of time,energy, and money on it with little to show for it in the end.

You're right. It was very specific.

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