Facebook is rolling out their new wave of changes to your profile.

As announced, all of your activities, interests, music, movies, and books you listed in your profile will now be connected to a corresponding fan page.

Soon, when you log into your account, a box will pop up prompting you to chose the pages you want to belong to.

If you only want to belong to a few pages, or none at all, any pages you do not select will automatically delete that topic from your profile!

I found this out the hard way.  Fortunately, it was on my personal profile and not the profile I use to network for business.

If you have set up your business profile correctly, the topics in the activities, interests, movies, music, and books give a snapshot of who you are.

You need a little bit about personal interests so others have something to relate to you with.

You also need some things about you as a business professional, but not so much that you are a flashing neon billboard.

I would “select all” when asked which pages to join.  Once we see the effect of these changes, it will be easier to decide what to delete and what to keep.

Believe In Success, I Do!
Karen
mentor.karen.j.miller@gmail.com

When your purpose is to network with other people involved in MLM who you may want to attract to your business, you want to join groups relating to network marketing and MLM.

You can also join groups whose interest is a particular company or specific lead generation system.

With these groups, the hope is to connect with others who may be struggling to make money in the company they are with.

Groups focused on more general topics like self development, internet marketing, or women in business, will have more members who are not involved in MLM.

While valuable for personal growth and learning, these groups are not as appropriate for finding potential business partners. 

You want to join groups that are active.  Those should end up at the top of your search list.

Look for number of members and see if people have joined recently.

Look on the group’s site and see if the group owner posts events and discussions on a fairly regular basis.

Once you join a group, pay attention to the messages the group sends you.

About once a week is enough, otherwise it gets too time consuming and annoying. 

Are they sending valuable content to help you solve your problems or are they spamming you for their opportunity?

If groups annoy you with their messages or event invitations, or don’t do anything at all (messaging encourages activity from other members) then leave the group.

Periodically go through your groups and leave the ones you are not active in or ones that are not growing or offering content.

Remember, your time is money. 

As an entrepreneur building a business from home…probably part time along with all of your other life’s demands…you cannot afford to waste time.

Believe in Your Success, I Do!
Karen
Email: mentor.karen.j.miller@gmail.com

“The Future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their Dreams.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

http://www.complete-network-marketers-desk-reference.com

Facebook and MySpace are likely the most popular…and free…social networking sites on the web.

There are other sites, and although they have a more targeted membership, they aren’t as globally large and well known.

Sometimes when making friend connections on Facebook and MySpace, we may blunder and connect with people who are not the best business contacts.

The most effective way to friend people who have the same interests in network marketing is to join groups focused on network marketing, MLM, generating leads, and online marketing.

From the groups’ membership, we make connections with others who probably share our interests in building a home based business.

Most of the time, friendship requests are approved without hardly getting to know the other person.

We make initial cordial thank you-s for the friend connection, then move on to other activities.

After making thousands of connections, it is easy to overlook people in your network who are not appropriate business associates.

As I have written before, when building your business on Facebook, or other social network sites, you need to keep your profile focused for business building.

All other activities need to be kept on your personal profile.

It’s too easy to waste time on social network sites.  To effectively build a home based business part time, you must be disciplined with your time management.

As you go through your Newsfeed, Messages, Event & Group Invitations, and “Other” Requests, it will become easy to find friend blunders.

These will be people who actually are not as interested in building their network marketing business on the same professional level as you are.

With a 5,000 friend limit on Facebook, it is wise to perform a Friend Cleanse every so often.

Follow the clues.

No Comprendo. 

We often friend people from different countries and cultures.  However, if their only language they use on Facebook is their native dialect, and you don’t speak it, what’s the point?

It is wise to suggest them as a friend to one of your teammates who does speak their language and then un-friend them.

Wanna Play?

There are people who do business networking and want to engage their contacts in games, like Mafia Wars or Farmville.

These games are fun and very addicting.  Hours are easily wasted every day on these games.

Serious business builders simply do not have the time to play these games frivolously.  The invitations to play are clutter and time consuming.

Contacts spending more time on games than they spend on effective networking activities may not be interested in building and may not be interested in what you have to offer.

Dodge Ball!

You will find some of your contacts are so busy promoting their groups and events that they show up several times a week or even daily.

You end up getting hit with their promotions so much you feel like you’re in a game of Dodge Ball.

These people are so busy doing their thing that they are probably not paying attention to what you are doing or what anyone else is doing.

You have to decide whether it is worth putting up with their activity stream to  keep them in your contacts hoping they will eventually get worn out and take advantage of what you have to offer.

Or they may never stop playing their Dodge Ball game to notice that you unfriended them.

The Big Dogs.

There are many Network Marketers we connect with who are already successful in their businesses.

They are there to build and will never join a small part-timer whose main goal is to make about $1000 a month.

So why network with these Big Dogs?

If they actually are offering valuable training and inspiration that benefits you, then keep the connection.

If you’re not gaining any knowledge from their friendship, then unfriend them to make room for someone you can have a mutually beneficial relationship with.

Just Not There.

Sometimes we connect with someone from an MLM or similar interest group and we later find out that they are not really interested in the business at all.

We may not have looked at their profile closely enough and not realized that they have nothing on their profile to indicate any business activities.

There are those who you may tag in a note or video and they leave very negative comments behind.

They are not just disagreeing with your point of view, they are bashing you and MLM.

Unfriend them immediately before they do damage to your image.

The Soapbox.

The last group of people to closely evaluate are the ones who voice their personal opinions about religion, politics, or current events to the point of being obnoxious.

Business is business.  There is no place in a professional business setting to heavily declare personal views.

People who use their profiles to promote their personal agendas are not likely going to make good business contacts.

Unfriend them from your business profile.  If you share their opinions, then invite them to be friends on your personal profile.

It’s Business.

Keep in mind that your decisions on who you keep as a contact on your Facebook business profile are entirely based on good business.

There is nothing personal about it.

If others unfriend you, they may not share your interest or find value in what you are offering.

That is OK.  You cannot please everyone.  Your goal has to be to appeal to the majority of people in your target niche.

Constantly revise your friend’s list and your activities on Facebook to polish your business presence.

This is how you will attract success focused people to you.

Believe in Your Success, I Do!
Karen
mentor.karen.j.miller@gmail.com

In an effort to enhance user experience, Facebook has implemented changes that will make a lot of our information and activities public.

I don’t particularly like Facebook making decisions about what I put in my profile public.

But it is their sandbox, and they let me play there for free.

I have written before about guarding your personal information on Facebook and other similar sites.

Too often, people new to Network Marketing, or other types of home based businesses, start marketing their business using an already existing profile where they have been keeping up with family and friends.

Or if they’re like me, their first profile was for their business.  They were having fun and started adding family and friends along with business contacts.

If you are seriously building a business network on a social site, you will quickly have over 1,000 contacts.  After that, this number will grow and take on a life of its own.

Most of your family and friends are not interested in your business activities.

Your business contacts are not very interested in your personal pursuits.  They simply do not have the time.

So if you don’t already have two profiles…one personal and one business…get busy and create another profile.

I would create one for your personal contacts and ask them to friend you on your new profile. 

People who know you personally are more likely to friend you again than are business contacts.  There again…not enough time.

Once you have your personal contacts on your new profile, delete them from your old profile…the one you are going to use strictly for business.

You have to remember that once you start building a large business network, you don’t want people who you know only casually having a glimpse into your private life and the lives of your family and friends.

The other important task is to clean up your profile.

You really have to be careful of the information you put on your profile.

You are on social networking sites to build your business network…your contacts don’t need to know all of your personal information.

Share just enough about yourself to make you a real person others can identify with….but not enough an identity thief can use to make your life miserable.

One of the changes Facebook is making is to automatically place you in groups or fan pages based on your interests.

We generally list only a few key interests in that section in order to relate to each other as real people.

Someone is more likely to do business with you when they share common ground.

However, being automatically connected to random groups of people based on your gardening or bowling interests can wreck havoc.

Your personal information is shared with people you would not normally connect with.

Then you have to deal with all of the extra messages and posts in your Newsfeed from these groups.

I personally like to keep my Newsfeed clear to keep up on what my contacts are sharing.

If you happen to be put in particularly active groups, just imagine how cluttered your inbox can get!

So just be aware of what is in your profile and how you may have to clear out some information.

Time is at a premium for our marketing time.  It is easy to spend too much time on social networks.

Don’t get caught up in all the extra activity Facebook may be sending your way.

Believe in Your Success, I Do!
Karen
mentor.karen.j.miller@gmail.com

As you start reading the beginning of this post, you find yourself wondering… “What on earth is a Central Hub and Why should I care?”

If you are a professional Network Marketer, and are using the internet to promote your business, you need to know what a Central Hub is and how it can benefit your business.

Allow yourself to imagine the bustling scene of your family kitchen.  Most women would agree that their kitchen is the central hub of their homes.

This is where the family meals are prepared, children may be doing their homework at the table, you may be working on your home business there.  The kitchen is where all of the activities of your household and family’s lives come together to find cohesion and harmony.

In Network Marketing, we often start several marketing strategies with the goal in mind to attract potential prospects into our businesses.  But if we do not have a central hub, our marketing energies are not focused.

Secret # 1 

A Central Hub serves as the focal point of your marketing strategies.  It’s a home base so to speak.

All of your marketing strategies should point to your Central Hub.  If your other marketing strategies are ways to become introduced to people, then your Central Hub is a way to invite them in to get to know you better.

Secret # 2

If the term Central Hub sounds intimidating, don’t let it. 

Your Central Hub is generally a website, quite often a blog.  That’s easy enough isn’t it?

It’s important to remember that you should never use your company’s website or splash pages as your Central Hub.

Remember you’re inviting your new friends over to get to know YOU better, not throw your company or products at them.

Secret # 3

In using a blog, you will want to focus on content that adds value to your audience, or new friends.

Charles Heflin teaches that your content should entertain, educate and/or enlighten.

We should always be adding value to the network marketing community, especially to your niche.  This value needs to be interesting to your audience…so interesting that they will want to share your content with other people.

Secret # 4

Your Central Hub, or your blog, like in my case, needs a clean, crisp appearance. 

Avoid cluttering your sidebar with a lot of advertising.  The small amount of income you may make won’t compensate for detracting your visitor’s attention away from your content. 

It also makes it appear that you are desperate to make money.  So perhaps your primary business is not all that lucrative after all.  (Not a good impression.)

Your sidebar IS the place to offer a free ebook, newsletter, or other training information.  Do not be tempted to spam your audience with your opportunity.  You are still in the process of building your relationships.

Secret # 5

Once you have written your blog post, you will want to submit it to some social news websites like,

1. StumbleUpon
2. LinkInn
3. Digg
4. Reddit
5. HubSpot

Make sure you are visiting other’s sites and commenting and voting on their posts as well.

This gets you backlinks to your site and shows the news websites that you are not just submitting your own work. 

Get your wheels turning and generate your energies on making your central hub the focal point of your online marketing strategies. 

Wishing You the success of a Lifetime!
Karen Miller
k.j.miller.777@gmail.com