Archive for May, 2010

Does Twitter Help with MLM Advertising?

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Twitter, the social networking site that capitalizes on updates from users in 140 characters or less, has gained a lot of exposure as a way to ramp up MLM advertising. But how much of this buzz is really true, and how much of it is just hype? You can read a lot more about manipulating Twitter to your own use by going to Tweet Adder. But if you want my own personal take on Twitter, here you go!

What Is Twitter?

Twitter is a relatively new social networking phenomenon. If you are familiar with Facebook or MySpace, you know you can update your “status,” posting a brief message about how you feel or what you are doing that day for friends and family to see. Twitter takes this to the next level – it’s only about status updates, and you have to update yours in 140 characters or less.

It has gained in popularity after being used extensively in the recent presidential election as well as well-publicized public relation campaigns and even upheavals in world politics.

Pros of Twitter Marketing

There are several pros to using Twitter in network marketing recruiting:

• You can compete on equal footing with huge corporations in the same platform, which means you have a level playing field for competition;
• Twitter offers a free tutorial for business users so that you can learn the basics for free;
• It’s a free way to advertise and promote your company, stretching your advertising dollar further;
• You are limited to 140 characters or less, which promotes clarity and brevity;
• You reach out to thousands of potential MLM business leads with a single tweet.

Cons of Twitter Marketing

• Although adults are catching up, Twitter seems to be the major domain of teenagers – it’s largest demographic falls in the 13-17 year old range, which can limit your potential to reach serious investors;
• Some people find the 140 character limit too restrictive.

Given its potential to reach thousands of people and its rising popularity, I highly suggest you use Twitter for network marketing lead generation.

If you are ready to launch your work at home business idea, you should take the time to set a plan in motion for start-up, lead generation, and advertising. Many entrepreneurs take the “fly by the seat of your pants” approach to starting a company, but that means you will encounter many mistakes that could derail your success. Follow these steps for a smooth business launch:

1. Have a Business Plan

You need to begin your network marketing program with a plan. You must decide what your long-term and short-term business goals are, and draft a plan so that you can reach them. If you don’t have any experience drafting business plans, there are books available in the library or at your local bookstore that can walk you through the process step by step.

Many people make the mistake of going into a new career without a plan to achieve their goals, or even any long-term goals in mind. Aim at nothing, and you will hit your target every time! So be sure you have goals and a road map for reaching them when you start your home based business.

2. Begin Generating Leads

Once you have thought out a business plan and are taking steps to implement it, you will want to begin generating MLM business leads. This means reaching out to people who might have an interest and the ability to join your company.

The old-school method of recruitment is to search among family members and friends for leads; however, this method is inefficient and puts you into the awkward position of mixing personal relationships with business. If you put your recruiting efforts out into cyberspace, you run a much better chance of finding leads who are qualified to join your company and enthusiastic about the prospect. You also don’t have to worry about mixing business and friendship.

3. Start Advertising Your Company

Finally, once you have established your business plan and generated leads from the internet, you will want to start MLM advertising. You should try at least a few of the new kinds of advertising campaigns, such as blogging, video marketing, social media marketing, and network marketing articles to target an audience for your products and services on the internet. These methods have replaced email marketing as the hippest way to tap into your potential market; they also have the advantages of being inexpensive, easy to accomplish, and quick to update.

How do you know you are ready to start your home based business online? Start by asking yourself these questions:

Do you have an entrepreneurial spirit?

Having your own home business opportunity online should be fun as well as a good way to earn a living. If you have an entrepreneurial spirit, you will enjoy the challenges and obstacles you face during start-up. You will look on them as learning experiences. You’ll enjoy finding new ways to generate leads and experimenting with different marketing techniques.

But if you aren’t of an entrepreneurial frame of mind, these tasks will seem tedious or even intimidating. Make sure you have the right personality to pursue this career path before you ever get started.

What do you want to do with your career?

Many people get into home based business marketing because they want to earn lots of money quickly. Given the right start, you can always accomplish short-term success. But what about the long-term? Where do you see yourself in five years, or ten? Do you want to nurture your own company along and have the power that comes with being the boss? If so, then starting a home based business is the right calling for you.

Do you feel held back in your current job?

A lot of people make the call to leave the typical workplace because they feel held back in their current jobs. You may feel that your hard work makes no difference to your company, as your efforts are wasted by inept coworkers and lazy supervisors. When you own your own company, all your work can directly benefit your bottom line.

So if you are tired of corporate waste, or feel restricted in your current career, being an entrepreneur can help you earn your freedom.

Are you in a financial position to start full-time?

Many people make the leap to home business network marketing without thinking about the financial commitment they need to make. If you can make that leap without causing financial upheaval, then go for it.
But if you need more time to ease into a full time home career, consider working at it part-time until your business really takes off. You’ll be able to enjoy the best of both worlds: the secure paycheck from your traditional job with the power and freedom of running your own company.

For every legitimate home business opportunity online, there are about three scams. So before you make plans to join a network marketing internet business, you must make a careful check to make sure you are joining an organization that is a genuine and lawful entity. To keep from being burned, make sure you follow these steps:

Check Up on the Company

Even if a trusted friend or family member is trying to recruit you to join their network marketing business opportunity, you should always begin with a background check. You should check with the Better Business Bureau to see if any complaints have been registered against the company. If so, what were the nature of the complaints and how were they resolved?

It’s also smart to do a little secret google search to see if anything turns up on the net. If a company has consistently gotten bad marks from consumer watchdog groups, it’s better to move on than risk your savings and your future.

Read the Fine Print

Before you sign on with any internet MLM marketing company, you need to make sure you read all the fine print. You need to know exactly how and when you will be paid, and in what amounts. If you work on commission, what percentage of each sale will you receive? If you have quotas, what are they and what happens if you don’t make them?

A lot of misunderstandings arise when people simply don’t read what they are signing. Read first and ask lots of questions, and when you know what you are getting into, then (and only then) sign on the dotted line.

Be Cynical

A lot of MLM marketing companies rely on personal relationships to grow their sales forces. They depend upon their salespeople to trade on personal bonds of trust and love to entice others to join the company. So it’s quite possible that you will be approached by one of your friends or relations to join a company at some point during your work at home career.

But be cynical of any company that wants to grow a sales force in this way, and do a little judicious sleuthing before signing on with anyone – regardless of who’s recruiting you.

If you follow the old-school methods of recruiting in the home based business marketing world, your efforts will be ineffective and unproductive. If you want to build a company with steady growth and a large amount of cash flow, then steer clear of these common mistakes:

Mistake #1: Trade on Personal Relationships

Most network marketing prospecting begins at home, at least if you follow the old-school methods. Once you join one of these organizations, you are asked to trade on personal relationships to build your downline and create residual income. There are two major problems with this approach:

    It mixes business with family, creating a potentially awkward situation if your loved ones cannot or do not have the means to join the company;
    It limits you to choosing among loved ones for your own business associates, who may have little or no background in sales and therefore, no real qualifications other than they know you and you know them.

Mistake #2: Keep Your Efforts Local

Another old-school method of network marketing recruiting is to keep your efforts localized. If you follow this approach, you find recruits from within your local community, either by methods like posting fliers or ads in the local newspaper or by getting friends of friends to join. This method poses the same problems as above; mostly that you are limiting yourself to a small circle of people who may or may not have what it takes to join your company and become successful.

Mistake #3: Recruit in Huge Numbers

Finally, another old-school way of generating MLM business leads is to recruit in huge numbers. The concept is quantity over quality because the more people you recruit, the better chance you have of creating a downline with a sizable residual income. If you adhere to the old-school methods discussed above, then quantity may be your best bet for getting anyone to sell any amount of your products. But if you focus on hiring quality salespeople with a proven record, you really only need a handful to make a lucrative amount of residual income.

Network marketing prospecting has come a long way since the 1960s, when it was used to build companies like Mary Kay, Avon, and Tupperware. Thanks to the internet, the whole process of recruitment has become revolutionized, and it’s time for you to change your methods as well. The old-school way of doing business will no longer be relevant or effective. In order to build a successful MLM online business, you should incorporate new school methods of recruitment into your repertoire. Following is a breakdown of old versus new ways of generating MLM leads:

Old School Methods

If you follow the old-school methods of lead generation, you will focus on friends, family, acquaintances, and their circle of friends and relations. While you may generate some leads through this method, it severely restricts your ability to recruit quality salespeople. This is because your efforts are extremely localized; relying on only your circle of loved ones to generate leads.

In addition, this is a scattershot way to recruit, as your loved ones may or may not be qualified to join your MLM marketing system. The idea behind the old-school method is to generate lots of leads, building a large downline quickly, with the hope that a few of them will stick around and generate some residual income.

New School Methods

New school methods of recruitment all work towards generating a select few leads while targeting a global audience. Using the power of the internet, you reach out to the net-wide world, attracting people who are already interested in joining a network marketing business opportunity. You can use different methods, such as video marketing, social media marketing, and blogging to build a loyal following and reach out to potential recruits.

You can focus your efforts on choosing a select few top-tier candidates, people who have a background in sales and won’t need a lot of training and hand-holding to bring in large accounts. This new method of recruitment allows you to focus your efforts on building a short downline with large returns of residual income, so you can work on building your customer base and generating long-term wealth.

When it comes to network marketing lead generation, don’t rely on old-school methods and don’t start without a plan. You want to address people who are both interested in your company and will bring something to it. So focus your search using these Three easy steps:

1.    Think Outside the Box

According to the old-school method of generating an MLM business lead, you need to immediately begin targeting your friends and family. Trading on the familiarity of personal relationships, you are then able to recruit people to your company without much effort. In reality, this is a terrible way to grow your work at home business idea. It puts you in a box, limiting you to prospecting among your loved ones who may or may not have what it takes to make it in your company.

To generate healthy, solid leads, you need to think outside the box, targeting people who can really make a difference in your company.

2.    Make a Concerted Effort

Once you have decided to think outside the box, you need to decide which population you will target and how best to reach that audience. If you are looking for aggressive, short-term growth, you should set your sights on recruiting a lot of people in a very short amount of time.

If you are looking for long-term, steady growth, you should work on cultivating a choice few top-tier leads that can bring in large accounts. Before you recruit anyone, you need to ask yourself, “Where do I want to be in five years?” and then come up with a recruitment plan that helps you reach your goal.

3.    Take Advantage of New Methods

Finally, you will want to take advantage of the wealth of lead generating ideas the internet can offer. You can reach out to a global audience with just the click of a mouse, and you should capitalize on that.

You can take advantage of blogs, social media sites, pay per click ads, and even write a network marketing article or two to get your message out to the net-wide world. Once you have a targeted audience, you can tailor your message through these different media outlets to make a maximum impact, producing an abundance of leads.

It’s getting easier and more fun to transmit network marketing information to your clients, your team, and your prospects. The internet has made it possible for you to access a huge audience for your products instantly, and there are several ways you can capitalize on this phenomenon to spread the word about your home based business marketing company. Following are three of the best ways you can get your message across:

1.    Blogs

Blogs are great for disseminating information quickly, because they can be updated on a daily basis – or even more often than that if you are really passionate about a subject. With a blog, you are able to speak in a more casual manner than a website usually allows, and the personal tone of a blog allows you to build a rapport with your readers. This kind of rapport allows you to establish a personal bond with your readers.

2.    Social Media Sites

Social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace, are similar to blogs in that they allow information to be broadcast swiftly. In fact, social media sites are even faster than blogs for MLM advertising because you don’t have to write an entire network marketing article to get your point across.

In fact, in Twitter’s case, you have to get your message across in 140 characters or less. This makes it possible for you to get information to your team or your prospects lightning-quick, and it helps you develop bonds of trust and loyalty with your clients.

3.    Video Marketing

Video marketing is a lot more time consuming than blogging or social media interaction, but it’s invaluable for spreading detailed information to your prospects or your clients. Many people are visual learners and actually learn best when they see facts and figures being presented. Video marketing offers the best way for you to get your message across to that population.

Also, video marketing is great for helping you brand your own image; as clients and prospects see you speak, your face becomes familiar and you are essentially able to brand yourself, rather than just your company. You can then upload your videos to sites like YouTube and access thousands of prospects with just the click of a mouse.

A network marketing article is a powerful tool for building your company and recruiting new salespeople. With this article, you can optimize web searches for the kind of data you provide, establish yourself as an expert in your field, and get information across clearly and effectively.

Following are the top three questions people ask about these kinds of articles, with instructions on how you can use them to promote your work at home business idea.

What makes this kind of article special?

This kind of article is special for two reasons. First, by using strategically-placed keywords and SEO content, you can boost your visibility on search engines like Yahoo and Google. This means that when someone is looking for the kind of network marketing information you provide, your website will pop up before any others through an internet search engine. This gives you instant visibility and even instant credibility, as you stand out from the competition.

Secondly, this kind of article allows you to broadcast information about your company accurately and quickly, allowing you to provide prospects and clients with up-to-the-minute data about your home business network marketing company.

What do you need to write a network marketing article?

In order to write one of these articles, you need to do a little keyword research to see what kinds of keywords people use when searching for information about online internet business opportunities. Statistics show that people use certain terms or phrases over and over when looking for information on the internet, and you want to know what those phrases are so you can use them in your content.

You will also need to have good copywriting skills, such as the ability to get an idea across in an effective and informative – and hopefully brief – manner. If you don’t have great copywriting skills, you will need to get someone to help you out.

What’s the point of these articles?

The point of network marketing articles is to get your information out to the net-wide world clearly and effectively, targeting a core audience who is interested in what you have to offer. If you use this tool in an efficient manner, you should have no trouble attracting quality leads to your company.

After you have started generating a list of followers, you will need to spend the majority of your first year in network marketing building lasting relationships. You first gain your audience’s attention through methods like video marketing, social media, pay per click campaigns, and network marketing articles. But this interest can be fleeting, and you won’t actually generate any MLM business leads unless you capture their attention and hold it long enough to create a dialogue between the two of you. In order to build that bond, you need to do follow these tips:

1.    Provide Your Audience with Content and Value

You must begin by giving your audience something, like a reason to listen to you and a reason to come back for more. You cannot get by with giving them filler and expect they will come back for more. We live in an era of spam filters, privacy blocks, do not call lists, and we can even edit out TV commercials thanks to TiVo. So if you read like a commercial, you can expect to get tuned out. Give your audience some real information, and they will reward you by coming back for more.

2.    Encourage Loyalty and Trust

You need to cultivate an atmosphere of loyalty and trust. A network marketing business opportunity is all about teamwork, and you have to build a strong team in order for your company to function efficiently. If you allow backstabbing, disloyalty, petty arguments, and distrust to permeate your network, you won’t be in business for very long. Your team is only as strong as your weakest member, so find ways to encourage allegiance to your company and you will be in business for years.

3.    Brand Yourself, Not Your Business

Finally, you will want to brand yourself, not your business. You want to establish yourself as the heart and soul of the company. You are the leader that everyone wants to follow. If you brand your company, you run the danger of just being another employee. By making yourself the face of your own online internet business opportunity, you will have a greater chance of gathering a following that is dependable and trustworthy for years.