One of the marketing platforms we often use in promoting our network marketing businesses online is social networks.

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

Ezine Articles is giving us another opportunity to challenge our literary and marketing skills with the 4th Hundred Articles in a Hundred Days Challenge.

 

 

Participating in this challenge is a valuable chance to increase your web presence while polishing your writing and keyword skills.

Why is it important to write?

When you are using the internet to market your home based business, you will need to have a web presence that shows your value as a leader.

These days, when most people want to know something, they turn to the internet search engines.

Writing blogs and articles is a great way to get search engines like Google to recognize you.

So, it is in our best interest to court the search engines when marketing our businesses.

 

 

The challenge begins today, May 1st, and ends at 11:59 PM CST on August 8, 2010.

Ezine Articles has made signing up for the challenge a breeze by logging into your member interface.  They’ve written a blog post to guide you through the process.

If you read my previous post about how I did not the make the challenge…how I even fell far short of the goal at 28 articles submitted…you may wonder why I am even trying it again.

Because it is a challenge.

It is challenging me to rise above my current marketing performance and strive to reach a new goal.

This is what growth is all about.

This is what leadership is about.

Step out and enter the race to better yourself.  You are guaranteed to learn something and gain new skills.

You will also be braving new territory that your business associates will want to follow you into.

 

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

  

The next habit to develop with email has to do with your business correspondence.

How you and your associates write emails is critically important to how you all can efficiently handle your emails.

Following are some guidelines on writing business emails.

1. When selecting your business email, avoid cutesy names like freedomwings@yourserviceprovider.com. In a group of fifty emails, it is difficult to remember the person who belongs to such an email.
Name brand yourself. You are better off using your name like, joesmith@yourserviceprovider.com or mentormaryjane@yourserviceprovider.com in your email address.
This assures that the recipient will immediately know who you are and is more likely to address your email sooner and not think of it as junk mail.

2. Be specific and clear in your subject line, make it relevant to your topic.

3. Remember to sign your name and include your contact information to the end of your message.

4. Remember that your business associates are as busy as you are and need to keep their time with emails short as well. Keep notes for social niceties and visiting reserved for separate emails, Skype messages, or phone calls. If your upline is particularly busy, that person may have dealings with 100s of people in their organization. Remember to be respectful of that.

5. Keep your communications concise—only a few lines and stick to the facts. This has been a real challenge for me and I’ve needed to practice a lot on this skill….after all, I do love to write!

6. Fix in your mind first, “What is the end result of what I am asking?”, in other words, “What do I want, exactly.” Just ask your question.

7. Remember that your team (your downline) may not have these skills so you need to share with them how you expect emails to be sent to you. Create a document or email draft outlining your expectations.

8. Give them a clear method and time when they can communicate non essential business matters.

9. Tell them if they have a complaint or issue they need help with resolving, they are to send you a one or two line email giving a brief description of the issue and ask you for a time you can discuss it.

10. When asking for your upline’s time on a 3-way call, put “coaching call request” in subject line. In the body of the email, give the days & times your prospective client is available, and time zone. Leave other details for a later briefing with your upline if they so desire.

By keeping your email communications to the point, you will soon notice a huge time savings in this area.

Most people who are building a home business, find the information in this book to be critical to their success…but some don’t.

Wishing You a Lifetime of Success!
Karen
Success In 10 Steps