Making money on social media sites is no longer fantasy — it’s reality. Some have even found ways to strike it rich.
Quentin Fottrell, a columnist at the business and financial news site MarketWatch, recently put together a list of what he considers to be five of the most profitable tweets ever.
Fottrell said he compiled the list after speaking to marketing agencies that deal with celebrities to find out what has made money on the micro-blogging social media site Twitter.
Here’s his list of top five tweets, along with marketing lessons companies can learn from each of them:
‘I didn’t live to be 73 years old so I could eat kale.’
In 2009, Justin Halpern started a Twitter feed called @s#*!mydadsays.
His first tweet: “I didn’t live to be 73 years old so I could eat kale. Don’t fix me your breakfast and pretend you’re fixing mine.”
The Twitter account was about … you guessed it … reposting things his dad said.
The concept became so popular, Halpern’s tweets were adapted into a book that became a New York Times bestseller.
But Halpern’s windfall really came when the concept was adapted for a television series of the same name starring William Shatner.
The show didn’t last long, but it helped Halpern pull in more than $1 million. Not bad for just tweeting some of his father’s ridiculous comments.
The marketing lesson: Do something funny, outlandish or unique and people will follow you. It may even turn into something bigger than you imaged.
A Kardashian endorsement
Some celebrities have been offered as much as $20,000 for a retweet. Fortell says this is what has helped build part of the Kardashians’ empire.
Sisters Kim and Khloe are often asked to endorse brands by retweeting company posts — and they are paid plenty for it, according to Fottrell.
Considering the Kardashians’ close ties to the fashion industry, it’s probably safe to assume that a lot of what they endorse is fashion-related.
The marketing lesson: Leverage your assets. In other words, take what you do well (like setting fashion trends), and teach others how to do it, too.
Haiti auction
Not sure if what TwitChange did can actually be classified as for-profit, but it was included on this list because of how much money its Twitter campaign generated — $540,000.
In an attempt to raise funds for a nonprofit group to build an orphanage in Haiti, TwitChange, a for-profit social media company that’s not affiliated with Twitter, held an online auction.
What it auctioned off was the ability to receive Twitter endorsements from celebrities like Eva Longoria, Demi Moore, Ryan Seacrest, Demi Lovato, Zachary Levi and Justin Bieber.
The highest bid of the 13,000+ the auction generated was $20,825, which was for a Twitter endorsement by Levi.
The marketing lesson: Find a cause to support that’s bigger than yourself.
Pa-pa-pa-poker face
Lady Gaga offers a unique experience on her Twitter account. She asks and answers questions, and retweets followers’ posts. As a result, she’s collected more than 36 million followers.
That’s turned her Twitter handle into a powerful marketing channel from which to advertise upcoming concerts, album releases, appearances and more.
Marketing firms’ estimation of how much Gaga has made from her Twitter activities: $17 million a year — about a third of her annual earnings.
The marketing lesson: Treat your customers exceptionally well, and they’ll return the favor.
The tweet that started it all
In March of 2006, the co-founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, posted: “just setting up my twttr.” That was the first tweet ever and is credited in some ways with launching Dorsey’s career into the stratosphere.
He’s now worth an estimated $1.1 billion, according to Forbes.
If his success is because of that tweet, it’s worth about $55 million per character, says Fottrell.
Marketing lesson: Start a trend, or create something original.
