Direct Selling Leaders Experts

I love direct sellers. I really do. They are some of the most passionate, giving, enthusiastic people that I know. However, one of the occupational hazards of friending a lot of direct sellers online is that those who have not (yet!) taken my social media training for direct sellers still do what I affectionately term the “Sales Swoop” any time they see an opening (and sometimes when they don’t!)

So today’s post is about what NOT to do as a direct seller online in social media.

Let me preface this by saying that what you SHOULD be doing is providing valuable content online that people appreciate. You should NOT be an overt sales pitch. I love it when people get it right. One of the ladies I’m friends with on Facebook who happens to be a wine consultant posts wine tips a few times a day as her Facebook status update. I’m learning the temperature my white wine should be to bring out the flavor. I laugh at her jokes about how most people age wine for as long as it takes to get it from the store to the glass. In short, she’s got an audience. She GETS it. I know she sells wine. But she’s not ramming it down my throat, and I look forward to her posts.

So let’s talk about some of the things direct sellers should avoid in the online world.

1. The Sales Swoop: If I mention your company or your product, do not swoop down on me and try to get me to buy from you. Instead, start a conversation with me. Get to know me and find out what I like, what my interests are. Check out my blog and see what I write about. In short, know me as a person before you try to be my consultant.

2. The Link Attack: Don’t provide me with a link to your website the minute I meet you online. I won’t click it. Instead, I’m more likely than not to ignore you and never click on anything you send me ever again. I might even block you.  Instead, engage with me. Say hello. Share (FREE) resources with me about the interest that I’ve mentioned. I’m a lot more likely to be interested in what you have to offer when you express an interest in my needs, and try to help me with my needs (without trying to sell me immediately.)

3. Is Anybody Listening? Do not make every status update a broadcast about your product and your opportunity. You may think you’re meeting people’s needs by sharing valuable information about your products and your business opportunity, but you’re not. I really hate to break this to you, but you sound like a commercial. And I like to go get ice cream during commercials, not pay attention to them. People don’t CARE about your products and opportunity if they don’t know you, and/or haven’t opted in for that type of information. I’d rather get to know YOU in your status updates, and have you get to know me.

4. Meet My Logo: PLEASE don’t make your logo your avatar, even if your company gives you one to use. People in social media want to connect with PEOPLE, not logos. It’s amazing, but I feel a LOT more connected with those people online who have faces. When people have a logo up, I have no idea who they are, and I pay less attention. The people you’re trying to reach will do the same thing.

5. Spam Attack! And finally, DON’T sign me up for your newsletter until I do it myself. Now perhaps this is another occupational hazard of communicating with a lot of direct sellers, as I do for my job. But my friends, this is actually against the law. It’s called SPAM if I don’t sign up for it myself. If I have an interest in your newsletter, rest assured, I know how to find you. But don’t sign me up without asking first.

Social media can have a dramatic impact on your business. It can help you connect with people you never could have met before, and can position you as an expert that people turn to for advice and products. By avoiding the mistakes I mention above, you will be on the path to success in social media.

What do you think? Have you experienced the “Sales Swoop?” Are you a reformed “Sales Swooper?” Would love to read your comments below!

Jennifer Fong helps direct sales companies, direct sales professionals, and other home-based business owners leverage the power of social media to grow their businesses. A former direct sales company CEO and serial entrepreneur, Jennifer is passionate about teaching direct sellers how to use social media tools to enhance their businesses, while remaining true to the basics of a party plan business. She helps business owners put the principles of social media to work in a profitable way, maximizing the return on their social media investment.  Visit Jennifer’s Direct Sales & Social Media blog at http://liajen.wordpress.com and subscribe to her newsletter by clicking here.

While there are many tools available for social media marketing and social networking, there are some sites that rise above the rest because of the sheer numbers of users.  These sites are Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. As direct sales professionals, our business thrives when we network with as many people as possible, so it makes sense for us to focus on those sites that have the highest traffic.  And while it may be tempting to view these sites as all pretty much the same thing, they have distinct differences, and as a direct sales professional, it is important to understand this difference.

First, a definition.  Social networking tools allow people to communicate with one another online.  People can set up profiles about themselves, find others with similar interests, and then build relationships.  As a direct sales professional, a great profile can be the key to that successful first impression that leads to a long-term relationship and prospects for your business.

But too often, I see people treating these tools as if they are all the same, and I believe that this is a mistake.  Tools such as TweetDeck and ping.fm exacerbate the problem, allowing people to update various tools with the same status update, all at once.  While providing the same information across various tools works once in a while, the problem with this approach is that different tools attract different kinds of people which leads to different kinds of relationships.  You should consider using these tools differently, especially when you begin your foray into social networking and social media marketing.

For example, Facebook is an EXCELLENT tool for connecting or reconnecting with family and friends, and developing deeper relationships that are further strengthened by face to face meetings.  Facebook’s unique ability to suggest friends based on your information makes it easy to connect with people you haven’t spoken with in a long time.  And that, along with Facebook Pages, gives you a great platform to make your business more visible.  Many direct sales consultants that I work with have reported that Facebook makes it MUCH easier to get a response from potential hostesses, which leads to bookings they weren’t able to nail down before. People just respond much more quickly through Facebook typically, at least these days.

Compare that with Twitter, which is primarily for meeting NEW people.  I find that most people that use Twitter are business people.  This is a much better tool for finding people interested in joint ventures, business arrangements, and information (preferably free.)  You can also use supporting tools such as TweetDeck and Twellow to search people’s bios and conversations, to find potential prospects for your business.  The thing you must keep in mind about Twitter is that people here have their own language, with # and @ symbols that confuse the heck out of people that don’t use Twitter.  So when people automatically import their Twitter status update into Facebook, they’ve already lost half their audience.  And the people that do understand your secret code have already seen that status update in Twitter…they don’t need to see it in Facebook too.

LinkedIn is comprised mainly of professionals supporting one another in business.  It’s a great tool for finding potential business builders to join your direct sales team. (I think the Groups feature is the most beneficial for direct sellers.) But if you’re pushing your products here, you’re not likely to find much success, and people that message all their contacts to promote their business will quickly lose contacts on LinkedIn.  You’ll have greater success here by interacting in the groups and providing value to others.

By mindfully using status updates and other interactions that fit the social networking tool and the audience that you’re targeting, you’ll experience more success than if you try to use a one size fits all approach.  And that’s why it’s so important to clearly understand your social media goals and your targeted niche market before selecting the social networking tools you’ll use.

What do you think?  What tools do you use, and how do you use them?  What kind of success have you experienced?  I would love to hear your thoughts below!

Jennifer Fong helps direct sales companies, direct sales professionals, and other home-based business owners leverage the power of social media to grow their businesses. A former direct sales company CEO and serial entrepreneur, Jennifer is passionate about teaching direct sellers how to use social media tools to enhance their businesses, while remaining true to the basics of a party plan business. She helps business owners put the principles of social media to work in a profitable way, maximizing the return on their social media investment.  Visit Jennifer’s Direct Sales & Social Media blog at http://liajen.wordpress.com and subscribe to her newsletter by clicking here.

Article Photo Credit: shashiBellamkonda 

A blog can be a powerful tool for the direct seller.  Your “home base” on the web, it is the foundation of a content marketing strategy.

How can a blog benefit a direct sales business?

1. Set Yourself Apart.  There may be many consultants out there that sell the same product that you do.  How do you set yourself apart?  By providing free, actionable content that gives real value to your prospects.  When you connect with people on social networking sites now, where do you send them?  To your company-provided website?  That’s not personal, and it doesn’t give people the chance to understand the benefit they get when they shop with you, specifically.By sending people first to a blog, you have the opportunity to provide value that helps people know, like, and trust you.  You can also use your blog to encourage prospects to sign up for your newsletter, which helps them move down your sales or recruiting funnel. (You can sign up for my newsletter here.) Instead of just a one-time sale, you gain the potential for a life-long customer who connects with you on a personal level.
2. Experts Have a Competitive Advantage.  You establish yourself as a thought leader when your blog, that people want to refer.  Who would you rather purchase from?  Someone who sells stuff they can answer only basic questions about, or someone who is passionate about the type of product that they sell, and can give you excellent guidance as you learn about it yourself?  In person, you can share that passion face to face at a party.  But online, the way you share your passion is through your blog.  People get a real sense of who you are and why it would be great to do business with you.  And if your content is truly valuable without feeling “sales-y”, people are more likely to take advantage of the viral nature of the internet, and share your blog with their friends.  It’s a win-win.
3. Reach a Lot of People.  The internet is vast, and there are potentially millions of people that you can connect with at any given moment.  When you allow people to sign up for more content from you on your blog, then you have the opportunity to market by sending your newsletter.Through your blog you can share ideas, photos, videos, live streaming video…you name it!  Even though you may be far apart from your prospects, you still have the opportunity to personalize the experience of shopping with you.  That’s part of the beauty of the direct sales model.  Rather than a nameless, faceless website, or an uninformed sales clerk, your customers get the benefit of getting to know the real you.  You can meet their needs one on one in a way a faceless corporation can never hope to!  Use your blog as that connecting point, and you’ll gain customers that adore you, even if they’re half a world away!

There are so many free blog platforms out there now (my favorite is WordPress), that it costs nothing to start a blog except for time.  By employing a blogging strategy, and direct seller can reap many benefits that capture the beauty and essence of the direct sales model, while taking advantage of the far reach that social media and the internet provides.

What do you think?  How is a blog helping your business?  Would love to hear about your experiences in the comments!

Here’s to your success!

Jennifer Fong helps direct sales companies, direct sales professionals, and other home-based business owners leverage the power of social media to grow their businesses. A former direct sales company CEO and serial entrepreneur, Jennifer is passionate about teaching direct sellers how to use social media tools to enhance their businesses, while remaining true to the basics of a party plan business. She helps business owners put the principles of social media to work in a profitable way, maximizing the return on their social media investment.  Visit Jennifer’s Direct Sales & Social Media blog at http://liajen.wordpress.com

Content marketing is a powerful tool for the direct sales professional.  By providing relevant, useful content in a way that your readers can easily use and share with their friends, you can greatly increase your brand recognition, as well as your chances that your content (and therefore you) will be referred to others.  You also establish yourself as an expert that people want more information from.  As an independent direct selling professional, it is important to understand the content your targeted niche market is looking for, in order to establish your brand and yourself as the solution people are looking for, and want to refer.  This is the first step in the online sales cycle.

The essence of content marketing is providing free, actionable content that people can use right now without spending a dime.  As you share this content with your online social networks, people begin to recognize you as a thought leader that they seek out to help solve their problems. Think about it: when people go online for solutions, one of the first things they do is a Google search.  If the content you provide contains the keywords that they use when searching, you can pop up as the solution.  Note that at the moment they’re not looking for PRODUCTS.  They’re looking for SOLUTIONS, and they want those solutions in the form of content.  When you become the content provider, they will down the line consider you as the product provider.

It’s important that you understand your targeted niche market intimately in order to be successful with this approach…if you want your target market to find your content valuable, it must be the type of information they are searching for.  Be careful that the content never sounds like an ad…this will cause you to lose your audience and all that you’ve worked for.  Instead, be a relevant, useful member of the community, and you will build a reputation that will ultimately benefit your business.

The next step in a content marketing strategy is making your content easy to share.  This is such an essential component to the overall strategy.  If you’re providing content through a blog, be sure to provide a means through which readers can share that content with their friends.  If you’re providing videos, be sure they’re on a site where they can be shared with the click of a button.  By making it easy to spread your content, you will gain referrals.  Chances are, the people in your targeted niche market have friends with the same needs.  And the beauty of online marketing is the fact that people can share easily, which makes your message go further than you could manage if you had to spread the word by yourself.

You can also provide people with the opportunity to sign up for your newsletter in order to get more content.  (Sign up for my newsletter here.)  When people invite you to contact them, then you can provide more content, along with targeted marketing messages that continue to move prospects down your sales funnel.  Your marketing messages will be a lot more successful when people opt-in for them by subscribing to your newsletter.

So what do you think?  How are you using content marketing for your business?  Would love to read your comments below!

Jennifer Fong helps direct sales companies, direct sales professionals, and other home-based business owners leverage the power of social media to grow their businesses. A former direct sales company CEO and serial entrepreneur, Jennifer is passionate about teaching direct sellers how to use social media tools to enhance their businesses, while remaining true to the basics of a party plan business. She helps business owners put the principles of social media to work in a profitable way, maximizing the return on their social media investment.  Visit Jennifer’s Direct Sales & Social Media blog at http://liajen.wordpress.com.

Social media has amazing potential in terms of helping you build and support your direct sales team.  One way to build long-term income in a direct selling business is through recruiting other people and supporting them in reaching their goals.  Your compensation for building and supporting your team is the commissions that you earn on your team’s sales, and this provides more income than you would earn through selling alone.

As your team grows, however, it can become challenging to meet everyone’s needs, while building your own personal business at the same time.  Social media can help you provide a strong, 24/7 support system for your team, as well as a community that feels plugged in to your central message, and one another.

Here are some social media tools that can be used for building and supporting a team.

1.    Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn: Social networking tools such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn are excellent for finding people that may be interested in your business opportunity.  Now this is not license for you to spam people.  However, as you share delight in your successes, enthusiasm for your business events, and your love for your customers and team, you will naturally attract others who may want to learn more.

Facebook in particular is a great venue for sharing photos and videos about your team and corporate-sponsored events, and these show up on the side of your friends’ news feeds.  Instead of taking the direct approach of trying to recruit someone online and making them feel potentially uncomfortable, showing the fun of your team events through photos and videos invites someone in without feeling pressured.  And that can help you when people consider joining your team.

You can also use groups on Facebook and LinkedIn that are dedicated to people looking for work, and build relationships while providing valuable content.  By participating as a relationship-builder and giver in these forums, people who are good prospects for your business opportunity will be interested in learning more.  And don’t forget to use searching tools to specifically identify those people who are interested in your product line!  People who are interested in your products are often your best prospects for the opportunity.

2.    Your Blog: A blog is such an incredible tool for your direct sales business.  It is a place you can provide content of interest to prospective customers, and is your home base for building relationships with people.  A blog can also be a valuable tool for team-building.  By providing content that is of value to opportunity-seekers, you become a trusted resource that attracts people to your business.

A separate blog can also be valuable for your team, providing team information, incentives, links, and a place to ask questions and make comments.  Imagine being able to provide your team with articles specifically dedicated to skills your team is currently working on building!  Blogs make it possible for you to provide that content without having to email everyone, worrying about spam blockers, etc.  You can provide a central location that your team can learn to come to as they need information.  Because all the information is archived on your blog, you can also send team members to specific information as they need it, providing a valuable library of topics that will be of benefit to your team for a long time.

And because blogs are easy to set up and maintain, they eliminate the need to go to the expense of setting up a personal website for your team.  Instead, you can set up an attractive blog with a few clicks, and provide all the resources your team needs in one place.  You can even password-protect that content!

3.    Groups - A Facebook group is another valuable tool you can use to support your team.  Facebook makes it possible to set up “Secret” groups that are not available to the general public.  Your team members must be invited by you into the secret group, and this provides an excellent forum for team members to learn from and support one another.  As your team gets large, you may feel like you are answering the same questions over and over.  Imagine being able to send your team members to a central location for the answers!  You can set up a series of frequently asked questions on the discussion board of your group, and add to these as necessary.

Your team members can also use your group to support one another.  If someone has a question and you are not available, she can post her question to the group, and other team members can share what they’ve learned.  The collective wisdom of your team can help you build a stronger team than you ever thought possible!  And social media enables that sharing.

One of the most powerful components of a group is the community that it helps to build.  Your team members can get to know one another, cheer one another’s successes, and support one another through the difficult times.  By sharing photos, videos, and other content, your team will feel connected to one another in a way that would be impossible otherwise if they’re spread out across the globe.  There’s something about seeing people’s faces that really helps people connect.  And as your team feels connected, they are more motivated to stick with their businesses, even when the going gets tough.  And that leads to more success for both of you.
By employing social media tools that your team can access, and then teaching your team how to make the best use of those tools, you can be more efficient and effective in your team building.  Your team will develop closer relationships with one another, and that will naturally attract more people to your team.  Social media makes it possible.

Are you a leader in direct sales?  How are you using social media to build and support your team?  I’d love to read your ideas in the comments below!

Jennifer Fong helps direct sales companies, direct sales professionals, and other home-based business owners leverage the power of social media to grow their businesses. A former direct sales company CEO and serial entrepreneur, Jennifer is passionate about teaching direct sellers how to use social media tools to enhance their businesses, while remaining true to the basics of a party plan business. She helps business owners put the principles of social media to work in a profitable way, maximizing the return on their social media investment.

To learn more about Jennifer, visit her blog at http://liajen.wordpress.com and follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/liajen.