Social Media & Direct Sellers
I recently took a class on Social Media ~ it is the rage right now. After setting up profiles and hours of learning, here are a few of the things I learned, relative to Direct Sellers:
• They told us they preferred Twitter to Facebook.
I learned that there are definitely more MLMers on Twitter than Party Plan Consultants.
• They told us to network with as many people as possible.
That makes sense because we are in the relationship industry, so the more relationships we have the better, right? I found out the MLMers are totally cool with this. On the other hand, the party plan folks weren’t as happy with this idea. With party planners, about 2 out of every ten wanted to verify that they knew me before connecting and about 1 out of every 100 were offended that I would want to “friend” someone that I had not met.
• They said to get 50 new friends a day on Twitter.
This I could do.
• They said to keep from getting “sucked in” to the Social Media time stealer, only spend 30 minutes a day on building these relationships.
I couldn’t even click on 50 people that fast. Well, I guess I could, but somehow you have to “find” the people. Then, I wanted to read their posts and profiles. I mean I am trying to create a relationship, right? This caused me to be much slower – shortening my effectiveness.
• They said that social media etiquette was that if someone follows you, you should follow them back and vice versa.
I found out that 99% of direct sellers don’t know this.
• They said to use Tweetdeck to save time.
I found out that it is a great tool, but I don’t use it effectively.
• They said Twitter is the new Facebook and that people are moving towards it more and more everyday.
I found out that a lot of people are, but not as many direct sellers.
• They said the pareto principle applies to posts on Facebook and Twitter, meaning that you should only Tweet about your business 20% of the time.
I found out that most Direct Sellers – including MLMers either don’t know this or ignore it. About 98% of direct sellers on Twitter……ONLY talk about their business.
I found out that I still have a lot to learn about Social Media as it relates to Direct Sellers.
What are your thoughts and experiences with Social Media?
As a direct sales consultant I’ve found Facebook to be more effective for building relationships than twitter. Some of my customers asked to be my friend before I really started using it. A number of my team members are also on facebook so it’s another way to keep connected with them too.
I as a general think MLMers are looking for new recruits verses party planners who are looking for new customers and hosts so this might account for them talking about their business more. MLM folks would need to be more cautions about their messages. Blasting out recruiting messages would be a surefire way to have 0 friends. However, people might want to know about products, current sales etc from a direct seller.
I rarely talk about my business on twitter and my facebook profile, I might make general comments but not sales messages. A facebook page is the place to include some sales messages and other business information.
At this point I don’t have a mission to find X# of new friends per day on either site. People find me naturally and that works pretty well.
Good luck with your social media efforts!