#TSU: Is There Really a Model to Let Social Media Users Earn by Being Social?

Eli raised a lot of hyfaluting points many of which are indicative of his strong beliefs regarding the concept of “friendship” and “social networks”.

If we go back to the stone ages, friendship was most likely a mechanism to preserve the small tribe. Humans banded with others because they know that they could not survive on their own against the elements, wild animals and enemies. In a way this relationship has what we now call the element of “friendship with benefits”. They shared in the hunt while others kept the home dwellings. In return for this cooperation, food and dwelling was shared. Mutual survival guaranteed. Companionship was a bonus.

Now, fast forward to today and we have complex relationships between corporations, individuals, communities and other formalized entities such as governments and its agencies. It’s much different now but “friendship” in a way is still the same. People often leave when it’s no longer mutually beneficial.

Why and how do people choose their friends? Companionship is one, but companionship with different interests is not that beneficial. So the strongest friendships that last longer are those that are based on the mutual desire to achieve something. It may sound “heartless” or even “callous” but if you think about it – friends often drift apart when they’re drawn to different values or interests. The relationship is further strained because of geography, among many other things.

Of course this does not hold true for all kinds of relationships.

The model for social media users to earn

This is very hard to prove so most of what I’m going to say will be based on opinion. How does social media make its money? Through advertisements paid by advertisers which ultimately lead to a solid tangible product. I know that many products nowadays are intangible such as software or intellectual property, but if you go further down the line, you’ll realize that it all still leads to some thing – a physical object of subjective and perceived value.

For example, a company may sell SEO software, such as SEM Rush. To sell it, they must prove themselves to be experts in their field. They must prove their relevance by showing how their system works. They blog, tweet make a FB post whenever something related to their niche comes up. They must demonstrate that their tools work.

Next up, think about who would use SEM Rush. These are mostly webdesigners, seo practitioners, writers or bloggers who package their services along with SEO tools.

The webdesigner designs a website for a restaurant who wants to have more paying customers who will patronize their business. Whether the restaurant gets more business or not, the webdesigner gets paid. In turn, the webdesigner purchases additional tools to keep his business on the cutting edge.

However, if the restaurant does not sell, he might choose another webdesigner, outsource or else stop maintaining his website at all.

Social networking is about the amplification of the emotional reaction to a product or a service about its perceived value. But the thing is, we already have too many tools at our disposal. The idea is very appealing if it becomes successful however, I have seen many who tried the same route and failed. One even offered the option to provide stock options in the network. They had to market it really hard and it was so obvious that eventually, the entity just dissipated.

One such example is Zurker. The site is offline now.

Search about Zurker and you will find a ton of controversy, disagreements and just overall bad things about it. But the thing is, it’s gone.

My final answer is – yes

But it’s not going to be based on a social network that promises members money just by using it. Here, Eli is right. That community will only be focused on that activity alone. If they don’t get the perceived benefits any more, they will leave.

But, and this is a big but. Networking and building relationships can bring about amazing things. How? Who knows? It depends on the group, their values and how they mesh and blend together. Take for instance, Christian communities in physical neighborhoods. Why do they thrive? Why do they still exist despite everything? Because the gain is not in this world. The benefit is not in this world – even though most of the time, the gain can be made possible in this world. Christians aspire for the practices and teaching in the Christian bible. Of course, there are many interpretations, but still, the basics are common. Now once you put that group together, they undergo several challenges and trials – this is where their character gets built. The longer they stick together, the stronger their group becomes.

Still, they are people with physical needs. So an opportunity comes up, and they introduce one another to another’s network. Trust, faith and the belief in the same value – ensures the proper flow of the transaction. A little is left for the group’s maintenance and other projects. And that’s it.

Tsu is an interesting experiment, but I fear that it could lead to the same fate as Zurker. Time will tell.

I joined yesterday, not out of any expectation to earn but to try to simplify my SM accounts.

The only people likely to earn anything are those who have thousands of referrals.

I have zero faith in anything that is so reticent about publishing how you earn as a formula, which I might have missed in my few minutes on the site, admittedly.

Jeevan Jacob John

Sites like Sponsoredtweets come to mind (I have earned a few bucks through them). It’s never really much though (unless you have a large follower base).

However if you pay people to be social, you eliminate their instrinsic motivation to be active on SM (extrinsic motives are almost always less effective and persuasive an instrinsic motivation).

Take blogging itself. If you started blogging just for earning money, chances are you will quit pretty soon (as it happens with many new folks).

But, if you start out with an instrinsic motive – a way to help others, or educate others (you can also develop an intrinsic motive over time; becoming passionate about your blog and its readers). It is possible to maintain both an instrinsic and extrinsic motive at the same time.

Take youtube gamers for instance. They are passionate about what they play, but they also want to make money (Affiliate marketing, advertising and selling their own products).

As for paid social media opportunities. Sure, a lot of people will jump on board, but success over the long term will be much harder (people will give up when they don’t make enough money; they might even end up hating social media for it).

I hope it doesn’t come to that. It’s best to leave social media as an beneficial activity with an instrinsic motivation – social media is communication. Paying people to just interact with others isn’t going to work well (changes the way we view communication).

(Of course, there are people who get paid to talk, but that’s different. I am just referring to normal conversations).

Nishadha Silva

To share revenue with users you need to have advertisers.

And advertisers want real users who join the network to manage/create social connections.

When you start paying for something like that you attract users who are there for the money and not for any meaningful social interaction.

So it will be hard to find advertisers for it and eventually die down. I think it will give a decent return for the early users but eventually die down.

Al Remetch

Jason Darrell