Mistake #1 Not Having a Social Media Presence.
Social media sites including the top dogs Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube and the other 160 others considered in the category are a must for participation by network marketers. If you have not created a presence yet, do so, but plan a strategy so you do it right.
You may already have a presence but only on a personal level, which is great. Now you want to leverage that presence so that the time spent can help you get leads for your business. If you spend too much time socializing and not building your business, perhaps you are not serious about building your business? A network marketer that has not yet opened up accounts is in a good position to leverage them for added traffic generation to their primary business opportunities and other websites.
Mistake #2 Thinking that they are just prospects to recruit into your business.
You want to position yourself as someone who has a lot of value to offer. All your participation and contributions should be with a tone of helpfulness, usefulness, support and sincere desire to know the other people better. Give without any expectation to receive anything in return. The last thing you want to do before you develop any kind of "relationship" is to pitch them your business. You will never succeed doing this. This is akin to bugging your friends and family when you first started in MLM. Remember how successful you were?
Be careful because people can read between the lines and know when you are not being genuine. Honesty is the way to go. Don't sabotage your efforts by faking to be someone you're not. And certainly do not have someone else post messages pretending to be you.
The smart way to leverage social media marketing is to keep your business opportunity link in your signature box when at forums, or withing the member profile areas. Dont pitch your company directly in the posts. Sure, you may gain recognition as very knowledegable about network marketing, but never come out and say that your company ranks #1, best compensation plan, etc.
Mistake #3 Failure to leverage the power of social media.
Social media is a trend happening right now. Consumers are no longer interested in old school forms of corporate advertising. They want to be able to develop a dialogue with the business that they frequent or support if given the opportunity. Select only several of the top sites. Don't feel you have to have accounts for dozens unless you can monitor and track your leads to see if it's worth it.
Avoid setting up accounts with nothing in your profiles. This is a big message that you don't care, so don't bother opening up an account if you're not going to maintain it. Keep learning about the different features available on the various social media platforms and you will improve your efficiency and skill so that it is not as time consuming as when you first start out.
There is a huge difference in seeing a post with an actual photo of the member. Real pictures are the best, but if you are concerned with being "identified", or concerned about privacy, select an avatar or other image that conveys something positive so people will get a positive impression even though you are not sharing an actual image of yourself. The default avatar simply says that you don't care enough about being part of the group to bother.
Another strategy is to set up accounts with different user names in case you have more than one niche that you are targeting. For instance, if you are a network marketer with a weight loss product, you could participate in weight loss and fitness groups and talk about health and fitness, showing you are knowledge and share useful advice. You could also set up another profile that paints you as a marketing expert, knowledegable about lead generation, copywriting, keywords, etc. This may require extra effort, but is something to consider to better leverage having a presence on social media sites that are popular.
Mistake #4 Not Posting Frequently
Consistency is key to creating fresh content and keeping your followers engaged. Set up a practice and be disciplined with posting daily. It doesn't have to be a lot, but try to respond to people as much as you post content on your sites. Add to your profile pages, making them more interactive for your visitors. Do something every day and mix it up. If you are pressed for time or want to be efficient, you can add content to your blog and then have it automatically posted to your social network sites automatically.
If you have a blog, which you should, frequent blogging is just as important as posting to your social network sites. Fresh content using keywords is another way to leverage the web.
Well, there is probably more than four mistakes mentioned above if you read closer. But here is the take away key message for network marketers: Start now. Take action. Do it thoughtfully. Make it meaningful and provide value to others. Posting messages with the reader in mind is the proper mindset to have in the social media circles because in the end, it benefits both of you.
John Stuart Leslie is a Network Marketing Professional and Coach assisting people market effectively online to generate more leads, get traffic, convert leads and attract others to their business. He also is his own webmaster for all his sites.
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