Many people want to earn start their own businesses, but are stuck on what to do or how to do it.  A 22 year old studying at Ryerson University in Toronto has found some success in a niche using the social networking site Facebook, as a vehicle for sales.

The young entrepreneur named Brian Neckles discovered his business after realizing he could save money on his long distance phone bill  using Skype. According to Carmen Chai of The Toronto Star, “the information technology management student at Ryerson University needed an inexpensive phone plan to keep in touch with his girlfriend, who was moving to Taiwan. The business idea came to him after buying two Skype phones from a wholesaler.”


For those who may not know, a Skype phone is a phone that allows Internet users to talk for free to others that have Skype accounts  using only their internet connectivity and Skype software any where in the world.  As well, Skype offers discounted phone rates to regular telephone numbers and other benefits to Skype phone users including text message chat. I know of several small and medium size businesses that are using Skype to reduce their telephone expenses and stay in touch with branch office.

Mr. Neckles realized that this technology would likely be popular in his former country, Trinidad, and after purchasing five phones at wholesale, he made himself $500.00 in one day.  Discovering he could export hi-tech items and sell them below the normal retail costs in the Caribean, Neckles formed his business, “Freedom IT.”

His advertising and marketing expenses up to this point have been zero as he has used the power of Facebook by setting up a “Group” for his business on the Social Networking site, and using that method has generated his leads and customers.   According to The Toronto Star article,

” Whenever Neckles posts new items, they are displayed on every Freedom IT group member’s homepage. When a member comments on the item, the item shows up on all of his or her friends’ homepages. “The harder you work and the smarter you work, the more you get,” Neckles says.”

I personally have not used Facebook for any marketing - and I recently deactivated my account.  I found myself too addicted to Scrabulous and WordScraper where I’d constanly be checking to see if there were any moves available to be played instead of getting my work done.  But it might be time to become more creative with Facebook as a method for generating sales and leads for some products.

Have you had success using Facebook as a marketing tool and not simply for on-line socializing?

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