POWER MARKETING: FORUMS vs FACEBOOK vs LINKEDiN

Marketing is KEY to your success in Network Marketing that is why there is the word ‘Marketing” in the title of our business. However, another KEY to success is “KNOWING” how to Market. Today’s forward thinking entrepreneur has TOOLS that can reach the masses. People and entrepreneurs who are looking SPECIFICCALLY for what YOU the marketer have to offer. The most powerful tool is “TECHNOLOGY” and it is imperative that the marketer learns the correct way of how to use technology to his advantage in this very competitive field.

Money, especially when someone is starting out in network marketing could be pretty tight in the beginning and unless new marketers are careful they can loose a lot of money in marketing unless they know what they’re doing. Let’s take social media for example. How can you the marketer use social media to your marketing advantage?

Forums vs Facebook vs Linkedin

Forum Marketing:
Forum Membership is a terrific community and truthfully a world onto its own. A forum is an on line community for internet users that target specific niches such as Network Marketing, Home Business, Affiliate Marketing, etc. etc. A good forum membership offers great value, in fact more value then all of the training programs you could ever join. Why? It is full of real entrepreneurs, making real money, achieving real success on the internet and they are offering expensive value and education for free.

If you have been reading my posts on this blog you see that I am an avid believer in education. Well, let me tell you…you will get terrific education on some of these forums, education that if and when applied will covert into dollars.

How much does a Forum Membership cost? Most Of these forums offer a Free Membership and if you are interested in Internet or Network Marketing I guarantee you will find tons of them out there.

There are great benefits in joining these forums. A membership allows you to build relationships with fellow internet marketers. You can learn from others and enhance your library of knowledge which will serve you and your organization well. You will get to introduce yourself to other network marketing rock stars. You will get to share your ideas with others, ask questions, find answers, make new business acquaintances and friends, market and ultimately develop business partnerships.

Did I say “Market”? Yes, I did. However, there is a skill to it. I recommend never going on a chat room and promoting your opportunity straight up in the body of your posts. Read Forum Rules before you start to post and respect the rules. Engage in conversation and present yourself as a student as well as a leader in the business. Your material is most likely being read by professional network marketers as well as new comers to the business. When a member breaks the rules, a member can be kicked out of a forum group. So how does one market? Do it with tact! Everybody does it because in reality you want the readers to tap into your website and be introduced to the opportunity or business you are offering. So, create a strong signature for yourself. What is a Signature? A Signature is placed at the end, the bottom of each of your forum posts. A signature may consist of a short slogan such as for example what I like to use, “TO YOUR SUCCESS”, Your “NAME”, and here comes the most important part of your Signature which is the LINK to “YOUR WEBSITE”. This would be the Website you are promoting, whether be the site to Your Opportunity, Capture Page, Blog, or whichever site you want your reader to land on. This signature should be included under each of your posts and responses. No matter what happens to the discussion on the forum where you have posted new posts and responses, your Signature remains in the forum archives indefinitely and you can monetize from your signature for many years down the line.

Here are a couple of GREAT Forums I recommend:

Better Networker Forum
Conquer Your Niche Forum

How Can You Leverage Your Marketing Using “Facebook”?

FaceBook:
Facebook is another social media world you might want to tap into although its residents are of a different kind from that of the Forums and or Linkedin (we will discuss Linkedin later in this post). How so? FaceBook is a massive population with a large demographic and the multitudes are not necessarily looking for your business opportunity. Rather, the masses just want to hang out, sharing small talk and love to pile up the number of friends. Does this mean one cannot advertise on FaceBook? No. Not at all. Facebook is a powerful media platform and friendly! Advertising on FaceBook can be very advantageous. You just need to do it right because it can get costly. When I first started in my current opportunity, the training team offered tons and tons of terrific training on how to market on Facebook and awesome suggestions that actually work. On this topic I just want to share and offer a few suggestions and pointers of how you can utilize your marketing strategy without having to explain the baby steps of how to fill in the advertising forms, using the right keywords, headers, etc. Maybe I will write a post specifically on that subject some other time. Today, I am going to show you how to target your audience, save your money and a couple of ways of how to market for free on FaceBook.

So for starters, you need to look at what you are selling and figure out the best demographic for your business. Who is your customer? If your business is only available in the USA avoid marketing in other countries where your business is not available. FaceBook gives you the following wonderful options.

1) Reach Your Target Audience: Choose your audience by location (city, state, and country), age demographic and interests. Test simple image and text-based ads and use what works.
2) Deepen Your Relationships: Promote your website. Use FaceBook’s “Like” button to increase your ad’s influence. Build a community around your business.

Why is this imperative to learn? Knowing this strategy will save you a ton of money. You will also be targeting a specific audience and be REACHING YOUR TARGET CUSTOMER! The Customer who most likely is interested in what you have to offer.

Why must you take this direction in consideration? Because even though there could be 500 million members at your reach, the majority of those members are NOT LOOKING FOR WHAT YOU ARE SELLING and each time they click on your AD, and most likely they do it for fun or out of curiosity, each click is costing you and before you know it you have allowed a huge tab to be charged on your credit card. NOT FUN ANYMORE!

One thing I learned and recommend is that if you can’t afford to invest a lot of money in advertising right now and lets say you want to set your daily budget to $5, $10, $20, or whatever number you desire, I suggest you go in at $150 budget per day. Google and Facebook will like that, if your ad is built right your ad will get approved in no time and your impressions will go high fast. The trick is to monitor it for half an hour and watch your conversions. And at the point you reach your daily budget just go in your settings and pause the ad. Then, go to your settings and edit your daily budget to what ever $ number you decided to invest per day. A word of caution, Facebook’s response will not be immediate and swift. It might take a few minutes so prepare to edit that dollar amount to a lesser one a bit in advance so you don’t go overboard with your spending especially if you are working on a tight budget. On the otherhand, if you have the capital you would need to invest at least a $100 daily budget to see an ample amount of lead conversions.

You can also attract interest and market your opportunity and business for free on facebook. How? Be wise and join certain groups that can complement your business. Look for business magazines groups in line with your business “Like” them or invite them to be your friends and you will be able to communicate in those conversations as well. Don’t forget to enter your signature (same as in Forums) at the bottom of your comments so your link will be available and visible to click on.


Linkedin – The Caviar Of Social Media

Linkedin:
This Social Media network is like the Caviar of Social Media. You have at your finger tips the Elite, Business Executives, CEO’s, Presidents, you name it. Linkedin is a Social Media platform unlike any other. This is the white star community of the internet. Profiles posing credible resumes, achievements and recommendations that once again will put your future business partners and associates on a silver platter. Executives from Fortune 500 companies are members of Linkedin. Let me put it this way, in my other business in entertainment, I get invited to Premier Parties, Awards, Film Festivals and get to wine and dine with Hollywood Executives, Producers, Directors, Investors, Writers, Actors, etc. On Linkedin it is like being in a lounge that is full of executives in your business. On Linkedin you are surrounded by people who have influence. Most of these executives on Linkedin are not struggling financially. So this platform is hot for Network Marketing Entrepreneurs. With the economy the way it is even some of these members could be looking at a pink slip anytime soon. So they understand your concept.

The key is picking the right groups. The members in some of these groups are of the elite and very sophisticated. Linkedin groups are very sensitive to poor content. A group can cancel a membership as fast as a heartbeat or members will simply and quickly ignore valueless information. Some of the elite in these groups sit in a chair drinking their morning coffee and read profiles or content, and chew on active discussions as if they are reading important news in the New York Times.

It is critical that you build a solid profile for yourself. Upload a picture that represents you in a business and friendly manner. Make a list of credible experiences and most importantly a handful or more credible recommendations. People on Linkedin will check you out and your professional layout on your Linkedin page is the magnet that will attract those eyeballs reading through your profile.

On Linkedin it’s more about building relationships with fellow entrepreneurs and business professionals even though Linkedin pose nice features such as ‘Promotions” and “Jobs” where you can do some direct advertising. However, your profile page is going to be the hook for professionals to take you seriously and want to click on your websites, blogs and get to know you. Suddenly, if you are set up right and your content is valuable you suddenly become somebody of value to the groups and business professionals you have joined. People would eventually get to know you and would want to join you not necessarily your opportunity. The citizens of Linkedin are not like any other in other social media groups. On Linkedin you will find successful professionals who have successful careers. We talked about the same kind of value one would find in Forums; well we are swimming in similar waters here.

Lastly we don’t want to forget to mention the beauty of this magnificent engine that put brilliant minds together. The beauty is that Linkedin invites you to be a member for FREE. You can be a citizen of this business world that is like no other, where you can befriend specific groups and people and entrepreneurs from all walks of life. You can have discussions with forward thinking entrepreneurs who will become your friend, associates, advisers and one day…business partners.


To Your Success