Saving $100,000 A Month With Social Media

Received an interesting press release from Forever Living Products today about how they saved over $100,000 using social media. Now that piqued my interest so I had to learn more.

A little background. Forever Living Products (FLP) is the world’s largest grower, manufacturer and distributor of aloe vera based health and beauty products. They have distributors in 125 countries and traditionally they have kept them up-to-date with marketing messages and materials via DVD distribution.

FLP decided to house their distribution materials in a single social media based location called “AloePod Online Media Center”.

With this central media center FLP was able to provide distributors with instant access to product training, business building and marketing videos and podcasts through iTunes and an FLP YouTube channel.  And the results were pretty impressive:

The results were instant.  The first month saw 21,000 downloads and a savings of more than $110,000, clear evidence that the hefty distribution costs of years past are no more.  Most importantly access to the materials increased for all distributors.  In the past, there were those unable to receive physical FLP materials either because of proximity or cost issues.  That problem no longer exists as all distributors can access the information from their most convenient location.

A lot of time we focus on using social media to reach customers and prospects throughout the Internet. FLP saw another use for social media. A way to communicate quicker, more effectively and cheaper with distributors. A six figure saving in the first month is pretty impressive. Annualized that is over $1 million that will flow to FLP’s bottom line because of social media.

What creative ways is your company using social media?