Khai NG asked:


With the new blast of social media the world is rapidly becoming a small place. We are now able to get in touch with people from all over the world very easily. The network marketing industry is based on recruiting and social media has allowed a person to have access to anyone who has access to a computer. In this way networkers are able to tell the world about their business. This all has had an impact on the MLM industry but just how important is social media to MLM recruiting and how does one use it effectively?

What can you do with social media?

Connect: You can connect on just about any level by using blogs, personal emails, commenting on social pages, and even joining groups. Social media offers gives people a way of connecting with others. Build: Networkers can build new friendships and relationships. This is done by including people in your circle and joining their circle of ‘friends’ which then allows the networker access to all of those people.

Discuss: Talking to people is one of the main advantages of social media. Talking to people that you have met or even people that you barely know lets a networker find out what others want to discuss and to let others know what is on their mind, i.e.; their business. This can be accomplished with blogs, posts, direct messages, notes to people, audio and videos, as well simple emails through the social site.

Podcasts are becoming part of more mainstream thinking as a way to connect and market. As well connecting with video is becoming big in marketing. Video marketing techniques gets the attention of about two-thirds of people.

Peak interest: One can use social media as a way to employ attraction marketing by showing an interest in what others are doing and helping them solve a problem. Listening to what your contacts have to say is important and then one can share new ideas and possibilities that they think are of value.

Even though social media sites are a way to bring free traffic a networker must have a game plan and not just waste a multitude of hours clicking around all the sites. The experts say that spending 1 hour a day on social media marketing is enough and too much more than that is just a waste of time. Social sites are for building a basic relationship and directing people to a solution for their problem, i.e.: your MLM site or product.

One must also familiarize themselves with all the available tools for each site in order to get the most benefit and streamline the social media process. Using social media correctly is important if it is to have any effect on MLM recruiting. Just sending out birthday wishes or irrelevant messages won’t do too much for your business and people are actually becoming a little immune to this. As well, just talking about yourself won’t get a networker very far and will probably just chase people away in the long run. It’s important to actually listen to people and their needs and find people you have things in common with. Once you have found someone that you have something in common with, genuinely engage and talk about commonalities and ways to solve problems.

Bottom line: The MLM recruiting business is about building relationships and social media marketing can help or hurt a business depending on if it is used correctly or not.



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Travis Fitzwater asked:


So, you’ve figured out the basis of social media concerning your sales and internet marketing business, but you still don’t know what to do when you begin to interact in social media.  I had this same issue when I first started with social media and web 2.0, trying to figure out how to interact.

Well, for starters, to conquer social media and web 2.0 strategies of the top earners, you have to treat social media like a relationship.  If you want people to be interested in you and what you have to offer, you have to build relationships with them.

I use the example of my wife (also on the video below):  If I didn’t talk to her, communicate, build our relationship, and generally treat her well and get to know her better, she wouldn’t want to serve me in the different ways she does, like cleaning house, cooking meals, washing clothes, etc.  It’s the same with social media and web 2.0 strategies, to really get anything back from anybody, you have to give a lot more!

This is the crucial point you must learn and apply:  after figuring out how to succeed in social media you have to quit selling as I stated before (from my first post on social media), then you must know that you have to build relationships with people.

What are some ways you can build relationships with people in social media and web 2.0?

1.  Talk to them (like any other relationship you have), but maybe more importantly is listen to them

2.  Respond to everyone you can and to comments people make on the various social media and web 2.0 networks (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Digg, Stumbleupon, etc.)

3.  Add value – link to an interesting article you’ve read, offer advice, give examples of how you’ve failed and succeeded, etc.

4.  Be positive – nobody likes negative people, so don’t constantly whine on social media about your life

5.  Ask questions

6.  Offer a listening ear or even take phone calls from people who want to know what you’re doing (even if you don’t know them)

7.  (VERY IMPORTANT) Be honest, people can see straight through lies, even on the internet

People will only even consider your products in social media AFTER you build a relationship with them and they can trust you.  If you work on these things, it will pay off in the end!

There you have it, the social media and web 2.0 strategies of the top earners are very easy to apply, and they’re fun at the same time.  I love using Twitter, Youtube and Facebook.  In the words of my friend, Perry Belcher, think of this as a party – people build relationships at parties, not sales teams!



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Jeff Schuman asked:


Do you know what social media marketing is and to go about making money with social media?

First of all before you can make money at something you need to know what it is. Once you are educated on the subject then you can start to make money.

So what is social media marketing?

Social media marketing is promoting and trying to sell your product on social networking sites. For example a couple of different social networking sites would be Facebook, Twitter, and You Tube, just to name a few.

Some other forms of social media are blogging and forums. With blogging you can write about your products and reach thousands of people. I would suggest this blogging blueprint for making money if you want to get serious about it.

On forums you can have links to your website abd tell others about your products. You can also talk to people and create relationships with them by answering their questions on your products. You can find forums relating to the theme of your business at Big-Boards which is the largest message board and forum site on the web today.

So how do you use social media to make money?

By having links to your website on many different kinds of social media websites then you can potentially increase traffic to your website resulting in many more customers which will result in many more sales.

If you are doing this for internet business reasons it can lead to you making money.

With so many different forms of marketing on the Internet, making money with social media is an easy and fast way to get in front of potential customers. There is no reason you could not start a new blog and be getting 500 visitors a day in less than 2 months if you work at it.

To find out more about making money with social media you need to further your research and decide which social media sites are best for you and the customers that you are trying to reach.

You can find many websites online that offer excellent training on social media including ebooks, and blogs specificially about it.

To make money with social media you have to work hard at it all of the time, just like any other form of internet marketing. If you are willing to do this you can start and run any business you want online and use socail media to promote it.



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Jennifer Fong asked:


If you dive into social media without making a plan, you’ll make more mistakes than you need to. After all, you don’t want to go through a social media identity crisis in front of all the world to see.

Before any social media marketing campaign, and online presence, is launched, you need to decide what it is you want to project. How will you position yourself? What is it that you want to say? Who is the audience that you’re trying to reach? Since social media functions at its best when used to create relationships, think about the community that you want to engage, and how you want to present yourself to that community, before you jump in.

Now this is NOT license to take 6 months to get involved with social media. Honestly, with the pace this is all moving, the rules will have all changed again in 6 months! But it does make sense to take some time to plan out who it is you’re trying to reach and how you want them to perceive you.

When I began my journey into social media, I had some very clear objectives. I wanted to connect with direct sellers and direct selling executives, and provide a forum for the discussion of how to integrate social media marketing into the direct sales industry. I believe that social media will revolutionize the way that direct sellers do business, and I want to have a voice in the conversation. Knowing that, I created a social media strategy that took advantage of social media tools to reach the people I wanted to reach, and made an effort to provide useful information to these people.

So here’s how I did it.

1. I was already on Facebook. I had built a group of friends, colleagues, etc., and once in a while I posted status updates and notes about my business. Most of the time, however, I just engaged the community through the sharing of information, pictures, etc, developing relationships and reigniting old connections.

2. On Facebook, I also set up a fan page for my business, set up and publicized an application where users could send virtual gifts of our products to one another, and created “flair” with our company logo that I sent out to friends. We publicized opportunity calls through our fan page, and highlighted our charitable work here too. I taught our distributors how to use these tools to build their businesses.

3. I began checking Google Analytics for the traffic our company website received from Facebook. We are able to see where web traffic is coming from, and to see how long those visits last, what pages they are looking at, etc. As I’ve mentioned before, Facebook began to consistently rank among the top 5 referrers to our website, with a visit length of 3-5 times the length of any other referrer. The pages that were most visited were our product and opportunity pages.

4. I enhanced my professional profile on LinkedIn, since I was going to begin actively using it. I joined groups on LinkedIn that were relevant to my industry.

5. In January 2009, I began this blog. I researched on the web the discussions going on about social media and direct sales (there isn’t much, unfortunately) and began to add my voice to the discussion. I published all posts to my LinkedIn profile, to my Facebook profile, and to LinkedIn groups that I had joined that were relevant to the direct sales industry. People began commenting on my blog posts, as well as in the LinkedIn groups. I have tried to personally respond to all commentors, in order to continue to develop the relationship.

6. I joined Twitter, and began to try to figure out the tool. I observed more than I posted at first, in order to understand the cadence and the unspoken rules, and slowly began to add to the discussion. I searched for direct sellers and began following them. Many began following me back. I also began to follow giants in the social media world, so I could learn from them. All the while, I tried to add my thoughts about direct selling and social media, as well as helping out people in any ways I could, with all of my knowledge, whether related to direct sales/social media or not. I quickly learned that even with the little I know, I know more than some others about certain things, and so I am generous in my sharing of information. I also take the time to read the profiles and personally respond to those people that begin to follow me. It helps me to better understand what will help my followers.

As a result of this strategy, I have had the great pleasure of connecting with many well-respected leaders in my field, and have helped many people with their businesses. I am learning a GREAT deal, and believe that I am helping to lead my industry into its future with social media marketing. For me, this is greatly satisfying.

I share this strategy with you today because I think it’s important to really think through what you want to project, in order to make the most effective use of social media tools. I am learning everyday how to do this better, and I think that the leaders in social media marketing are constant students. Social media is a great big networking pool, and when you jump in with just a little bit of preparation, you will develop relationships that are beneficial, and that enable a flow of information that positions you as a giver as well as a receiver.

Has this post helped you? I would love to hear how it has, and also how you have crafted your own social media strategy. Let’s learn from each other!

For more articles on this and other topics related to social media marketing and direct sales, visit my blog at liajen.wordpress.com.



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