Network Marketing - Social Media - Get in the Conversation

Back to the meat of conversation. Give and take. Questions and Answers. You say, I say. You tell your story, I add bits of mine. We get to know each other. Social media is built on the question format. People love to talk about themselves. We all do. It’s human nature.

The best way to get me to talk about me? Ask me questions and be genuinely interested. It will help you get to know me (as your client, customer, colleague or friend) and how I tick, what I like, what I don’t like…and how you can solve my problems with your product or service.

If you take the time to engage with people, ask them questions, hear their answers and learn about what they want, you can then give them what they want. It’s like any other relationship – you don’t go from the first coffee date to getting married – (well most of us don’t anyway!) so give it some time to grow and develop.

I see so many people, network marketers especially who want to get right in there immediately and offer their business. What if you took the time to get to know me first before you pop the big question? When you’re in my face and aggressive I feel like you don’t care at all about me, just what I can do for you, and that’s a red flag for me – like it is for most of us.

The cool thing about social media is you can paint a picture of what you do and who you are and attract people with your story, the way you do things, how you move in the world. And, the online rule holds here: you have to contribute to build up ‘social capital’; you can’t just run in, ask for something and leave. Well, you can, but you actually lose when you do that, because unless you’ve built up your social capital by contributing, no one will pay attention, you’ll be perceived as a freeloader, or as annoying, or worse, you’ll get un-friended and lose opportunities for building connections.

You can tell a lot about someone by how they show up online – just the way you can anywhere else (!). I visit a lot of different blogs every week – some I read regularly, some I just skim to see who the person is, what they’re doing, whether they’ve got something that interests me, which might make me a regular reader.

I can tell in an article or two (usually) whether or not the person’s style works for me. I can tell you some things that really draw me in: knowledgeable, funny, open, but not too much personal detail. And, I can tell you what I click away from in a minute: arrogant, snotty, big personal agenda up front, or someone who’s trying to hard to be clever – some of those people have huge followings – I’m just not one of their followers – doesn’t matter to them, doesn’t matter to me – it’s about finding the right people, not all the people.

Keep your updates fresh, and vary them – change up what you talk about so you have a chance of appealing to more people. Provide real and valuable information. GIVE. And give your best stuff – don’t hold back. I used to feel if I gave away my best stuff, there’d be nothing left and I’d dilute all my efforts. What I found is giving as much as you can builds loyalty, it builds trust and it helps forward your brand. It’s the culture of the internet.

A quick word on giving and FREE – the internet for business is moving away from free and toward paid. Some people hate this trend, but for most of us, it’s the same subconscious experience we have everywhere: we value what we pay for. Often the more we pay, the more we value what we pay for.

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Network Marketing and Social Media

Using social media (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace) for your business can really give you an advantage. The thing to keep foremost in your mind and your “posts” is that it’s always about relationships first. You can’t go blasting out there asking people to look at what you’ve got, or to join your team or check out your opportunity.

This is the first in a series of articles that will teach you how to write for social media, how to find your brand, market your brand, BE your brand.

And, to participate successfully in social media, you need to build your brand first. Remember the elevator speech? Stop rolling your eyes, I know…but it’s important…have you taken the time to figure out what is unique about you? What sets you apart from everyone else who does what you do? Could you tell it to me in 20-30 seconds in a way that gives me just enough information so that I want to know more?

Call it your USP if you like (Unique Selling Proposition). What makes you different from everyone else? Even in a business where you do the same thing, or sell the same thing other people do – there IS something that sets you apart. That is unique to you. Maybe it’s your personality, your values, your approach. Do you reach a certain audience? Do you offer something different to people you do business with? Do you have a technique that you can teach/share? A body of knowledge?

Say for example, you’re teaching how to write for social media – do you target a certain audience? My audience is boomers – I’m one, I know how they think and what’s scary and intimidating to people of my generation. I speak their language and that’s why they might choose to work with me. For people significantly younger than I am, or they are, it’s a whole other world. That generation grew up with social media, the internet, computer games – they’re fluent.

We’re not – certainly not most of us – not in the same way. So, that’s a USP – I ‘speak’ social media for boomers. My elevator speech (which in reality is a little broader, but includes): I teach baby boomers how to navigate Facebook to promote their business or their cause. Simple, straightforward and you know immediately whether you’re my target market. If you’re 25, you’re not. If you don’t care about using Facebook, you’re not. If you’re 45 and you wish you knew how to bring in more clients using Facebook – bingo – we’ve got a match.

That’s the focus you want from your elevator speech. First you need to know who you want to reach. In the next article I’ll talk about how.

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Strength in Team Work

I’m a big believer in building business by educating people. Because so many people don’t understand the concepts of residual or leverage, you can get a lot of traction building your business by helping people to understand these two keys concepts. And, understanding these concepts and being able to explain them a bit will help you to gain confidence and get some rock-solid foundation that you can build on for years to come.

Years ago I coined the term Cooperative Capitalism. Team Work. Leverage. I think it describes what we do really well. The other way I put it is that instead of dog-eat-dog, our business model is dog-help-dog. Cooperative Capitalism – a new twist on building income.

John Paul Getty (the richest business person in his era) once said: I’d rather have 1% of the effort of 100 people than 100% of my own. Actually he said MEN, but that was 100 years ago…Anyway, what he’s talking about is leverage. You’re much better off to have 100 people working for or with you and getting paid a little bit on what they do than doing 100% of the work yourself. Your risk is spread out, so is your effort. It takes time and energy to create, but it gives you what many others will never have.

Employers get leverage by having employees. They pay a salary because they make money from the efforts of the people who work for them. Leverage. You can get leverage on your assets –

it’s your money working for you. Networking is a way to use ‘sweat equity’ to build leverage. You don’t have to invest a lot of money, you invest your effort (or your sweat) and your time. It’s along the lines of employing people, except that everyone is in business for themselves, with the potential to create their own income, and to determine, by their own efforts, how big they want that income to be.

People seem to think that the networking model is people making money off other people in some kind of strange or even unethical way. I see it as being able to work with people, without the hassle or expense of employing them. Essentially, it’s just another method of distribution. Let’s look at a typical distribution chain.

You have the person who produces the product. They either buy or grow or build or create their own ‘ingredients’ depending on the manufacturer or the product in question. Let’s take a bottle of wine as an example. Someone grows the grapes, someone picks the grapes and prepares them. Those people may or may not be involved in creating the wine. Sometimes vineyards sell some of their grapes to people who make wine, sometimes they make their own, sometimes they do both (more distribution).

Now, the wine gets bottled and the distribution chain begins (well, it has to age etc, but you get the idea…). The wine is usually sold to a wholesaler or a distributor who then gets it to the retailer. Sometimes the vineyard sells directly to the retailer. Somewhere in there is the trucker – self-employed, employed by the vineyard or perhaps the distributor. Someone who works for the retailer (or the store owner in a smaller operation) unloads the boxes, someone else gets the bottles on the shelf so you can come and choose one off the shelf and take it home. I’m tired just thinking about it.

However – all along that chain people made money. It’s what greases the wheels of commerce. All that goes into getting the product to market and it provides many people with a living. In the network distribution model, the company usually produces the product and pays the distributor handsomely for building a distribution network that gets the product right into the hands of the end user.

All the commission that would normally be paid to many people: grower, manufacturer, trucker, distribution company, retailer (and sometimes there are more people involved, the jobber, etc, but let’s keep it simple here!) is paid to the distributor, the network builder. That commission might be split among several people, but again it’s the leverage concept at play, because not everyone was involved in making that transaction happen, but they’re getting a small percentage of each ‘action’ for having gotten that network started and because hopefully they’re contributing by helping it to grow and prosper.

And it’s very similar to the employer paying people – let’s go back to the vineyard example. Say the vineyard employs a vintner to test the soil, tend to the plants, decide when to harvest. And also employs people to pick the grapes. Those costs are figured into each bottle, they have to be or the vineyard owner would go out of business. Is that wrong? Unethical? Does it provide everyone with a living? Hopefully! It should be profitable for the employers and the employees. The employer is taking a bigger risk and so gets a bigger share of the profits. But, the employees are being paid (ideally well) and are entering into an agreement to trade skills, talent and time for money.

Here’s what’s cool in networking – products that get launched often need explanation – why would you use the product? What can it do for you? The distributor gets it explained efficiently, and has a motivation to share the word about it. Work-of-mouth is STILL the most powerful marketing medium, and our business model monetizes that effort in a fair, ethical and potentially profitable way. The consumer gets very personal service, and someone who explains the benefits to them and is interested in making sure the whole process goes smoothly. It’s win-win-win. Good for the company, good for the distributor, good for the end-user.

And, if that distributor can find some others to do the same and get a small percentage of their sales for teaching them how to do what they do, how great is that? Especially when each person has the chance to rise to their full potential – contrary to the myth that one person gets it all started and makes all the money. So, as you begin to explain the power of leverage, of team work, of each person doing a little, together we can accomplish a lot, people start to see and understand why network marketing makes sense. And, as that light goes on, you get someone who sees it and gets and might really do something about it. Again, it’s win-win!

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You Can Build It

If you’ve been around the networking industry for any time, you’ve probably heard about the marketing technique called the 3 Foot Rule.

It exists because the road to success is all about talking to people about your business and finding the handful of partners who see it, get it, build it. So, exposure to the business model and your company is the way you get started. It follows then that it’s a numbers game. The more people you talk to, the more likely you are to find the people who are interested in what you’ve got.

And, interestingly about 70 thousand people worldwide get started in a networking business every single day, so if you were to talk to even some of the people you encountered in a day, chances are good, you’d find some business partners.

So, the 3 Foot Rule was a technique often taught to enthusiastic beginners – I shouldn’t say was, I should say IS. Someone will tell you: talk to anyone that gets within 3 feet of you – wherever and whenever. Suddenly everyone is a walking target – your walking target. And, it ain’t pretty.

Maybe it’s happened to you – you’re waiting in line at the post office or at the grocery store and someone starts up a quick conversation and asks what you do and the next thing you know, they’re telling you ought to check out this great new company that’s going to change your life, make you healthy, help you lose weight, grow hair if you’re bald and make you rich – maybe even by next week!

It makes people want to run screaming from the building. Really. It does. Do you suppose in any other profession people find business partners by stalking them in the supermarket? OK – maybe I’m exaggerating a little, but really, it’s one of the things that makes people love to hate network marketing. People are taught to come on like a freight train and it’s a turn-off.

No one likes an in-your-face-marketer, and I don’t think most of us want to be one, either. It’s unattractive at best. There are great ways to talk to people when you’re out – and, in my opinion, this isn’t the way to do it.

So, what is the way to talk to people you don’t know? Be SUBTLE. Be PROFESSIONAL. Do it like this: Say you’re at a party, or in line at the post office – because honestly, sometimes I’m in line at the PO for longer than I’m at a party, at least it seems that way. You get chatting with someone. It’s a great skill to develop in this business –whether you like small talk or not – it will really serve you well over time to get good at it.

At a party, it’s a little more normal to make small talk by asking someone what they do. At the Post Office, you might start with the weather or someone more universal and less directly about them.

Let’s start with the party example – any gathering or business meeting would be the same, it’s a ‘mingling situation’ technique. Ask someone about themselves. Become a Master Question Asker. Most people will be very forthcoming, because they’re (generally speaking) talking about their favorite subject: themselves!

What do you do? Do you like it? What company are you with? Have you been there a long time? What’s it like? Learn a bit about them. In your mind you can be evaluating whether they might be a good business partner candidate. Are they upbeat? Friendly? Easy to talk to? Funny?

Maybe they reveal some things that tell you extra income might be helpful. Sometimes people will tell you they love what they do, but they work too much. Or don’t get enough vacation time. Or no retirement plan. Or, the job is great, the money is good, but they hate it! All of these become cues.

BUT YOU NEVER, I SAID NEVER – is that CLEAR? NEVER prospect them then and there. If they ask you what you do, you need to have a 2 minute answer prepared so you don’t either look like a deer in the headlights and not know what to say, or worse, start downloading everything about your business. I promise you that download will lose you more business then it will EVER get you. Guaranteed. Really. Avoid it like the plague.

Read my article: What to Say When They Ask: What Do You Do?

Then after a reasonable time you say – and you have to learn how to do this gracefully – you know, I’ve really enjoyed talking to you, you got my wheels turning and there’s something I’d actually like to run by you next week if I could call you – do you have a card?

NOTE: always carry your own card – a good generic one with your contact info, no business/company name is good (sort of like an old fashioned calling card). If you give them a card with the name of your business/company that you represent, you’re giving away what you want and it doesn’t work as well.

If they don’t have a card (and at parties and other social gatherings, people often don’t), you can say: Here, just write your info on the back of mine, hand them one of yours to write on, have a pen on you, get their info! Let me give you a call next week…if they press you and say, what do you want to talk about…you have to say something like…it’s a business question and I don’t want to talk business here, just not the right place, but I’ve really enjoyed talking to you – enjoy the party or see you later or whatever phrase feels comfortable to you.

Then, next week give them a call and say something along these lines: Hey Barbara, this is Sue Miller, we talked at the Siegel’s BBQ last Saturday and I mentioned wanting to give you a call. Is this a good time – do you have a quick minute right now? If not, ask her when she does, make a time, and call back.

If the timing works – say: you know, you mentioned that you love your work, but that you were concerned your husband might get downsized. I was wondering if you two keep your financial options open and if you might be interested in looking at a very interesting way to generate a secondary income?

If you get a yes, you’re on your way. If you don’t have a good idea what to do when they say yes – read my article: Inviting Them to Take a Look.

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Ideal Networking Prospect?

In all the years I’ve been around the networking industry, I’ve been fascinated by how often we are willing to have the same conversations. Year after year, even between the same two people. One friend and I seem to have had the same conversation running for almost ten years.

The weird thing is, neither of us are bored. It always circles back to how to find prospects. Last month I was working on creating a lead generation campaign for a client. I was talking to several internet marketing companies. One of them created a fancy proposal, sent it over for me to review, set up a conference with their marketing team and tech guy – we were more than half a dozen of us in a web conference room and after all the how are you, how’s your weather preliminaries, they said they were sure they could generate what the client wanted (business prospects) as soon as we answered one simple question: Who’s the ideal target candidate.

Well, the whole scene went downhill from there. I had regretted saying rather snappishly the week before to another marketing firm: Well, if I could tell you that we’d all be rolling in dough and wouldn’t be having this conversation. That comment was not particularly well received and I admit, it was a bit snotty. But I get tired of paying people for their expertise when it turns out I’m the one with the answers, and I especially get frustrated if my answers aren’t, in my opinion, good enough.

From there, it’s often speculation. Back to the conversation my friend and I have been having for ten years. Who is the ideal prospect and how do you find them? At one point we decided to ask everyone we talked to whether they were entrepreneurial as kids – Newspaper route? Sell Girl Scout cookies? Fundraising for school projects? I sold greeting cards door-to-door when I was about 10 years old.

We found a lot of entrepreneurial adults were entrepreneurial kids. Good place to start. It’s an interesting thing to think about. What makes an entrepreneur? Willingness to take a risk? Believing in oneself? Open-mindedness to new ideas? And, if someone possesses these qualities, what makes some people act on those tendencies, and others just think about them, or get burned after attempting a project or two?

Wikipedia defines an entrepreneur

An entrepreneur is a person who has possession of an enterprise, or venture, and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome. It is an ambitious leader who combines land, labor, and capital to often create and market new goods or services.

Sounds like exactly what we’re looking for. And, in our industry, we have a blueprint for people to follow, so they don’t have to be the Lewis and Clark of business (that’s what the definition above brings to mind for me!). So, we need to learn how to talk about what we do so that people understand the benefits simply, and if they’re entrepreneurial, they’ll take an interest, and at least see if what we have might be a fit for them. So, the next post will be about how to ask the questions that get you closer to knowing if you’ve got an entrepreneur in your midst, and if so, how to ‘handle’ them so you can next steps without terrifying you, or them!

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Building Your Business During the Summer

The summer of 2009 has been a little different than previous summers for networkers. Summer is always a bit slower, and it can be frustrating if you’re at a point where you’re trying to grow and move things forward (this applies to the majority of people generally speaking). I’ve spoken to several people in recent weeks who have been feeling like it’s them – something they’re doing or not doing. Not so!

During a typical summer (no recurring bad economic news) things slow down. We take vacations — even if it’s the now popular stay-cation, spend more time socializing, and if we’re lucky, feel a little less hurried. That means summer has never been a big decision making time for most people. This summer is no exception, and in fact, it’s a little more difficult than previous summers in that there is a national “freeze” on making buying decision large and small – from cars and homes to new appliances, even home repair and remodeling has slowed down. We’ve all been programmed to think twice about spending and to pull back and hunker down.

What does that mean for you and your business? It means relief is around the corner with the fall season coming. AND, it means right when you might be at your most frustrated and feeling like you’re not getting any real traction with your marketing efforts, is the time you need to push ahead the hardest. Because, ultimately you’ve got a solution to the financial problem many people are experiencing, but you have to keep finding key people and letting them know that, so while they’re thinking about solutions, your option is on the table.

Your major marketing effort is exposure – of your business, your products, your marketing concept. The more people you “expose to” the greater chance you have of reaping big benefits when the freeze thaws. We’ve seen year after year that people make decisions in the fall – there’s a real feeling of buckling down – the back-to-school mentality kicks in, doesn’t matter how long it’s been since you’ve been a student. September means a return to life as usual, and that includes decision making and planning. For some people it also signifies the time to start thinking about what they’ve accomplished during the current year and what they want to have gotten done when the new year rolls around. It starts feeling like that time is approaching.

All this is good news for you. The challenge: to keep motivated when you feel that things aren’t moving as quickly as you’d like. The reward: results when the inevitable shift, that is now right around the corner – happens as it surely will.

So, enjoy the summer, but don’t slack on your own marketing efforts, pour on the steam, that will also set you apart and give you a huge advantage as fall approaches.

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