Social Network Marketing For Dummies: 7 Ways To Use Facebook And Not Get Slapped

If you’ve used facebook you’ve likely been spammed…hard!

It seems that as soon as you’re added as a friend, it’s unleashed… the beast otherwise known as the endless stream of unsolicited offers.  These come often and unwanted, not unlike in-laws.

And then… they start sending you farmville requests, mafia war requests, and every other time wasting application imaginable. I clean out my in-box daily of useless spam.  And I refuse to inflict “the beast” on others.

So the question is:  How can you make your time on facebook (or any other social networking site) efficient and profitable?

There are many paths you can take, and applications you can use it will make your mind swim.  Here’s the basics – the proven methods that don’t take a re-invention of the wheel to get you started.

1. Most important… don’t constantly sell your opportunity.  Never, ever lead with your business opportunity. You must provide value that makes you stand out from the rest. Think of it as a 95% give away, and 5% take away.  Give away valuable information, and then invite your readers to learn more by visiting your web-sites.

If all you do is push your ACN, or Trump Network, or MonaVie opportunity (or whatever other business you belong to MLM or otherwise) you’ll get passed by, reported and likely slapped.  Your supposed mlm building efforts will be spit out before you see any return.

This direct marketing won’t work. People don’t buy direct off the internet.  They want a relationship – a face and a personality with whom they can build trust before they make a decision to buy anything.

2.  Obviously your on facebook to network, and in order to do that yo umust create a friend list.  You don’t want to do this to aggressively – maybe 40-50 friend request per day.  Some people advocate using “bots” like FriendBlasterPro, but you can get flagged, and repeat offenses lead to the slap.

Add a personal message in your friend requests. This slows the process down some so you’re not as noticeable.  I like to copy and paste messages, and add the person’s name.  Oh, and ask them to respond on your profile page…

3.  Where to find friends.  I primarily work on MLM networking, so you would think the first place to visit is any group with a interest in network marketing.  Wrong!  Find other entrepreneurial sites and fan pages.  Less saturation there, and many of them are fellow networkers.

Find an author like Tony Robbins’ fan page and start there.  Think of other books people with similar interests might like, and find a fan page, then follow step 2.  Make a personal connection, build a relationship, and offer value in the way of education, training, words of wisdom, inspiration… it’s your call based on how you choose to brand yourself.

4.  Video tagging. Not many people know how to use videos on facebook, but they are the most powerful means of creating a bond.  If a picture is worth a thousand words, whats a video worth?  30 seconds to introduce yourself and your personality makes you stand out in the crowd of people just typing messages.  You want to be noticed, videos will do that.

5. Find your niche, build your group and invite people to join.  The biggest advantage to having a group is that you are now in the position of marketing guru, and you can send messages to your entire group, instead of one at a time like the struggling masses you are emerging from.

This is a great place to advertise your affiliates from.  Remember, as the leader of the group, you’re the one who knows the most.  A lot of your suggestions will get noticed and you’ll find your affiliate commissions take a good turn for the better.

6.  Market events.  When you have webinars, or company webinars, and so forth, you can send out event invitations to your group.  These post on all your group member profile pages, which will be seen by their friends, and becomes a viral marketing explosion.  If you’re using an auto-responder you’ll want to create a new campaign for events, and have people sign up for those via that campaign, which puts them into your lead funnel.

7.  Stay the course.  There is much to learn on marketing, and you must stay committed to the effort for several months before you start to see much response.  Remember, you’re offering value, and building relationships.  That will take time.

I’ve seen too many people start up, spend 2-3 weeks at it with little result and give up.  Rome wasn’t built in a day, neither will your marketing platform.  Be patient and stick to a set plan of action for at least 6 months – a year is better.

I haven’t gotten into other forms of marketing, like connecting twitter to your facebook account to automate your tweets, using bookmarks, or paid advertising.  Again, facebook has almost unlimited means of marketing.  It’s up to you what you want to focus your time and energy on.

The basics will build your following by creating value in the eyes of your online friends. Always remember what facebook is for: for creating and building relationships first.  Be a resource, a sounding board and attract people to you.

I invite you to visit my training site, where I have available more facebook training information, as well training on Myspace, using Free Ads, twitter, Pay Per Click, Forums and more.  Drop by and visit me at http://mlmgrowthexplosion.com

Warren Smith

406 490-2556

warrenbsmith1 (skype)

Tagged with: facebook marketing for dummies • mlm building

Filed under: Marketing

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