March 01, 2011
Welcome to this month's edition of Marketing Magic. In last month's newsletter we discussed on Trendy social networking tools for your MLM business.
This month we will continue our online marketing series and talk about establishing a social networking platform for your business.
Marketing Magic's Contents
- Incorporate social networking to trigger business traffic
- Step by Step guide to creating accounts on social networking sites
I am sure you now have a very clear picture on what social networking is all about and what it can do for your business. Now, the next step is to establish a social networking platform for your MLM business. Don’t we agree that social networking sites act as a great sales portal, right? But what can a busy and time-challenged business owner do with this powerful tool?
Incorporate social networking to trigger business traffic
First and foremost, create accounts in all these sites to create a presence. You can now expand your MLM business by using social networking because:
- Internet has facilitated new venues of interaction and connectivity
- Public forums cater to many of the social networking sites to generate awareness
- Search engines categorize information and yield desired results
Access to a rich target market globally which could have been never done before, is relatively easier. Many of the social networking sites have free sign ups making all the more enticing for you to use. It is important to “cash” in on various social networking sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc. By constant interaction through various channels like responding to every message posted, posting comments on blogs, regular email communication and getting involved in every forum; you are bound to expand your network of contacts within a short period of time.
Moving on to the next step is to open accounts with these social networking websites. I will guide you through a simple step-by-step process that will have you exclaim” Is it that simple?”
Step by Step guide to having accounts on Facebook, Twitter, & LinkedIn
As one of the most popular social networking sites, Facebook now has millions of profiles from all over the world. It is a very straight-forward and simple to use website that allows to search, add and connect to people with similar profiles & more.
Basic Setup:
- Type in www.facebook.com in your browser window
- Look at the right side of the screen. There is a "Sign Up” form
- Enter your information including the email address that you constantly use. If you don’t have an email address, sign up with Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo for a free account. Click "Sign Up"
- You are then required to enter the captcha code. Fill it up and proceed by clicking "Sign Up" again
- Once you are through with the initial setup, go to your email account used during the registration process
- Facebook would have sent an email to your email address. Open the email & click on a link to verify your email address
- Now, go back to www.facebook.com and look at the top right of the screen. There enter your email address as the login name and your set password to access your account
- Add all your friends and other contacts from your email account for initial setup
- On your main Facebook account page, look at the top left corner and select “Edit my profile”. Here you can enter or edit more information based on your account usage
- On the left column of the page, look for “Friends” link. Clicking on it will give you a list of your contacts. Selecting a contact, you will be able to view their network of contacts too. You can start adding new contacts to your list by adding them as a friend by sending a Friend Request
- You are all set with a Facebook account with contact. Spend about an hour or so to get familiar with the other features of this site
It is a social networking/blogging site that enables you to communicate with your online friends via “tweets” (140-maximum character messages) describing your current status. It also allows you to update your personal blog. It is a great way to keep in touch.
Basic Setup:
- Type in www.twitter.com in your browser address
- In the Twitter homepage, look for the “Sign Up”
- Next, provide our Full name, username and password. Twitter will automatically check if the username is available. If you have found the right and available username, enter your email address (commonly used) and continue
- Once you have created your account, check if any of your e-mail contacts are on Twitter. For that, enter your e-mail username and password, and twitter will automatically import contacts it detects
- Next, invite friends. If Twitter was unable to recognize some email addresses, it will display them on the next page. Check those email addresses and send invites
- Search for friends. Look up their names instead of email addresses because they might have multiple email addresses
- Set up your phone for text messages. On the profile page, go to the "Devices" tab and enter your cell phone number. A confirmation message will be sent to your phone after which you'll be able to make your first tweet.
LinkedIn
Joining the LinkedIn network can help your MLM business grow efficiently. It has access to over 7 million people.
- Visit www.linkedin.com
- Click the "Join Now" button and by the way it is free to join LinkedIn
- Enter your name and email address in the provided slots
- Type in your password and confirm it in the boxes provided
- Fill in other necessary information, “Industry”, “Experience” & “Education”
- Finalize your account details by clicking "Join Now"
- Make your account customized by selecting the checkboxes in either or both of the categories titled "To Find" or "To Be Found”
- Select the categories that are best suited and most beneficial for your business
- Click on "Save Settings" and get ready for your brand-new account
- Build your network by conduct a "People Search". Locate the site map and use the "Name Search" option. Type in the name of a person and find entries to add appropriate ones to your network
These social networking sites will act as a fantastic channel for your network marketing business to tap in to target market pools. Understand the basic functionality of each and every site and utilize the tools and resources offered by them. A few hours of your time will help you build a strong and dependable network.
Hope you now are all set to explore the millions of opportunities of connecting to people and for your scalable business growth. Happy Networking!!