More and more celebrities, musicians and the like are embracing the power of social networking for increased exposure and profits.The latest is the rapper 50 Cent who has over one million 'friends' on MySpace but has now started his very own social networking site Thisis50.com.
So why bother if you already have a million friends elsewhere?
It makes money!
As Chris Broadway Romero who handles Thisis50 explains, "The thing that separates Thisis50 from MySpace is we control the e-mail database. We can e-mail members if we want to."
Celebs and musician networks aren't meant to replace Facebook, MySpace etc. but to supplement them and, as Gina Bianchini of Ning says, "(Artists) think about MySpace and Facebook as funnels for their own social networks."
Setting up your own network, whether a celeb or just a blogger, is relatively cheap. For example Ning charges just $34 per month for a site and hosting.
One of the important facts is that visitors buy from social neworking sites. A good example on the celebrity circle is Kylie Minogue's 
network KylieKonnect. This was launched in Autumn of 2007 and nearly 25% of users have either made a ringtone download or made a merchandise purchase.Get a like minded group of any sort together and it is a captured market. You know their interests and can therefore tailor the right products to match. Sales are bound to be a higher percentage than with a mixture of visitors with varying interests.
Years ago Newsletters were used to link people with similar interests. I used to do one myself in the 90's, which was very effective. Now we have to think Social Networking on the Internet.
The possibilities are enormous and it's not just for the likes of celebrities and musicians. It can be for absolutely any subject or niche.
How much money would you make, if you knew exactly what your readers interests were?
Good luck,
Mike
