EconSM offers the excloo on monetization in Beverly Hills

There are confabs and there are confabs. “Expos” are usually the biggest, “summits” the most intimate. In between there are conferences, conventions, shows, rallies, meet-ups, colloquies, gabfests, coffee klatches and… name your synonym. “Boutique conference” has a nice, upper crust ring to it.

That might be the best way to describe the Economics of Social Media (EconSM) conference at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills last week. A stone’s throw from the exclusive Los Angeles Country Club to the west and chic Rodeo Drive to the east, EconSM was as about as boutique as you can get. You almost expected Thurston Howell III to waltz through at any moment and exclaim, “Good heavens, a Yale man!”

As the name implies, EconSM centered on monetizing social media, a thing Mr. Howell would have loved. During the sessions, speakers noted the three basic ways to generate cash from social media (i.e., applications like flickr or del.icio.us that allow users to interact with one another and with your content, products or services). These are:

• Advertising
• Subscriptions
• Merchandise (t-shirts, hats, mugs, pocket squares, monogrammed poodle accessories, custom golf tees and so forth)

Of course, we’re naturally a little biased toward the first, but we’re open to diversification. Regardless of whether you’re planning on building and monetizing your own full-bore social media app, or are planning on piggy-backing off of existing social media services in order to drive traffic, it’s vital that you explore the potential of this new medium.

Here are the best session quotes that filled our ears:

“If people are hungry enough… they’ll eat dog food.”—Kara Swisher in a variation on the charming business phrase, “Eating your own dog food.”

 

“There is no algorithm for conversations.”—John Batelle, in reference to his company’s need to educate media buyers on how to measure the value of social media networks.

For more on EconSM, here are two good reports from our friends over at paidContent.org:

Making Marketing Desirable for Social Nets

 

Social Networks Need to Tap Users’ Passions through Niche Brands

—Marc Levin, Marketing Maven

Photo Credit: Rafat Ali