By Joey Gabra
Special to YNOT

It’s not new knowledge that social networks are living, breathing communities filled to the brim with people. The population within these networks is spread within different demographics dictated by interests, nationalities, gender, beliefs and even values.

Not to belabor a point, but the above-mentioned details paint social networks as potential marketplaces, among other obvious uses.

People, products and services

People are consumers driven by interest. The higher the number of people showing interest, the more products and services come out of the woodwork to cater to a growing market.

The availability of products and services is dictated by demand. But demand is not always dictated by necessity. Most products parade their capabilities and features to generate desire. That’s why people want the new smartphone that has a thousand and one state-of-the-art features, because the smartphone they have now only offers a boring 1,000 features.

Services earn billions because consumers can’t be bothered by the various inconveniences that surround them. Hungry? Have it delivered. Lazy? Let someone else do your laundry. Interested in a book? There’s a book that comes with an audio file just in case reading isn’t convenient… In fact they’ll even deliver the product to your home on a day and time you choose.

Planning, content and engagement

With the numerous businesses that cater to every whim a person might have online, planning is a major difficulty. How do you get past others? How can you be “the brand”? Being generic leaves you to compete with so many others, but being service-specific can shut out the bigger demographic. Plan for flexibility. After all, consumers love convenience.

What’s next? Content. The simplest things can be huge money-makers through generation of interest in content. To this day, various products and services have no conclusive scientific evidence on their actual therapeutic uses or declared benefits, but the content created for these products and services generates interest by being either outright unbelievable or just plain entertaining.

Closing this off is proper social media management. Study the times to post, the type of content to share and the current trends that may affect campaigns. Having a great editorial calendar for social media is very useful. Following up with messaging campaigns or updates is a definite plus for any business.

To bring things full-circle, online engagement brings value to the customer, not just for support purposes but also for future sales.

The internet may be a virtual space for business, but everything else is real. The targets, the workload, the money and every tiny little detail that makes or breaks a business — they’re all real.

If you’re in the mobile sector of the adult industry, you’ve likely heard of Joey Gabra. His list of credentials includes previous employment as managing director for Affil4You, as well as marketing manager for Twistbox Entertainment and American Mobile Ventures. Gabra has built strong business relationships by delivering what he promises, which often comes at his own expense. Combining humor with sharp business acumen has made him respected by both peers and competitors, leading to numerous industry awards. In 2015 and 2016, he was named Businessman of the Year by the YNOT Awards. These days, he’s applying his expertise and expanding his reach as solutions director for New Media Services. He may be reached at jg@newmediaservices.com.au.