Can social media make you money? It’s not an unreasonable question given the way that social media is capable of hyping itself up.

The answer – yes and no.

Some of the spambots, internet marketers and multi-level marketers on Twitter and the rest of the web would have you believe that it is simply a matter of gaining a truckload of followers or traffic, and suddenly money will start magically appearing in your bank account.

Well, spammers are bammers and are guilty of clogging up the web with nonsense. Money won’t magically appear in your account if you have lots of Twitter followers.

But if you use Twitter to find interesting people to follow, you engage with them in a useful, meaningful way to develop a relationship, then you might make some money.

Take the example of Mackenzie Morgan Aerospace Consultants. Managing director Malcolm Cox (full disclosure – Murray’s brother) started dipping his toe in the social media water at the start of 2009 and can point to the positive difference it’s made to his bottom line.

Malcolm took his time to learn about social media before making a splash by following interesting and relevant people in his professional world. And as one of the first aerospace consultants to embrace social media so fully, he has managed to talk to – and win business from – people he would not normally have been able to access.

But here’s the rub – social media hasn’t made him any money. Malcolm has made the money by being good at what he does. He has simply used social media as a tool to develop new relationships and offer value to his professional community in a strategic way.

At the other end of the spectrum, Dell is the cause célèbre of the social media digerati by attributing $US3m in sales to Twitter. How did they do it? Have a look: http://twitter.com/delloutlet And effectively, it boils down to offering Twitter-exclusive offers, Dell Outlet deals and Outlet-specific information. Could you do the same?