If you’ve been peripherally following social media the last couple of years, you have probably heard that in order to make money with Facebook, you need to have fans. Well, that’s true, but there’s a bit more to it than that.

Buying fans just doesn’t work. Not even so

metimes. If you paid for a fan, they’re not really a fan.

The value of Facebook as a marketing tool is twofold:

1. It allows people who are genuinely interested in you to stay up to date with what you’re doing
2. It makes it easy for people who like you to tell their friends about you

Facebook works because it allows people to stay in touch with their friends. The “news feed” feature allows friends to keep on top of new developments with the “weak” connections – in other words, those people with whom they don’t regularly stay in touch. It gives you something to talk about at their high school reunions, other than the fact that you’ve both gained twenty pounds since your senior year.

Fan-buying sites are scams, and their claims are false. Even if they do exactly what they say they will do, it will not yield you any bottom line results. At the end of the day, you’ll be out a bunch of money and have nothing to show for it. At best, your fan count will have gone up a bit, but you won’t know if your “fans” actually exist or if they’re fake people. At worst, the sites will just take your money and do nothing at all.

If you want Facebook fans, you’re going to have to roll up your sleeves and get to work. Make your site interesting and make it worth talking about. There’s no shortcut.

Blogging is fun and  it’s a creative way to establish credibility as well as gain a following for your brand, business or services that you provide. If you are a WordPress user, then you are in luck as there are literally HUNDREDS of really awesome plugins to take advantage of.

The word “plugin” simply refers to a type of computer software that enhances the user experience while utilizing other types of software. For example, if you have just written a blog post and want to share it with a bunch of people immediately, there is a plugin that you can add to your WordPress blog site that will allow you to do just that with a simple click of a button.

The following are 5 great WordPress plugins for those who are social media-oriented. If you have other plugins that work for you, we’d love to add it to the list! Just leave a comment

5 Awesome WordPress Plugins:

1. ShareThis-a plugin that allows you to choose which sites you want to target as well as which websites your readers will submit your blog post to. ShareThis also provides tracking reports.
2. FriendFeed- This plugin pulls in your FriendFeed stream, makes it more attractive and then shares it with blog visitors.
3. Tweetmeme-Used by some of the big-name sites out there such as Techcrunch, CNET.com and Wired (to name a few), this plugin allows readers to automatically re-tweet your blog post on Twitter.
4. Add to Facebook- This plugin adds a footer link to add the current post or page to a Facebook mini-feed.
5. Social Homes- This plugin adds widgets for your various social networks to the side of your blog so that your readers can easily find you on the Web.

Earlier this week, I visited YouTube and happened to see a sponsored video at the top of the screen. Instinctively, I was about to turn off the ad, but something caught my eye and got me just curious enough to watch the CoolHaus video.

(Note: “CoolHaus.com” takes you to a dead domain parking page. The correct URL is EatCoolHaus.com).

The video starts out with a compelling line: “CoolHaus is an architecturally-themed ice cream sandwich company.” They describe their business in one sentence that clearly shows a unique and remarkable niche. The video goes on to show some quick teaser shots of ice cream flavors like red velvet, peach cobbler, coffee crunch, and others.

Here’s what got on my radar. The video mentions the fact that CoolHaus uses social media to sell more ice cream. The ad suggests that the strategy is working, and I don’t find that hard to believe. Why? Because their product and their delivery mechanism is optimized for social media and the web.

If you’ve ever watched Social Media in Plain English(a cartoon video using ice cream as an example of social media for business), you’ll particularly appreciate what CoolHaus has done.

What do I mean by that? The company uses ice cream trucks. The CoolHaus web site allows you to request a delivery to your office with sandwiches built to order, complete with an edible wrapper with your company’s logo on it. You can also load the company’s Google Calendar to see the truck’s delivery route and schedule.

Now, imagine if they’d opened an ordinary ice cream store and done the same thing as everyone else, complete with daily Twitter posts advertising 10% off an ice cream cone. Instead, they built a business worth talking about and then made it easy to spread the word. Seth Godin would be proud.

I don’t know how well CoolHaus’s business is doing, but I like the look of it so far. Let’s put it this way – I can’t imagine any company doing what CoolHaus is doing going completely wrong. If you’re in New York, Houston, or LA and get the chance to try their ice cream sandwiches, let me know how they are! Meanwhile, I’ll be waiting until the company opens up shop in Raleigh.