4 step Social Media game plan for direct sales

So, you're a new consultant or maybe you're just realizing the value of social media marketing, how do you start promoting your business using Social Media?  


Here's my simple 4 step game plan to get you started:

1.   Company website - Setup your company provided website.  Most any direct sales company offers a personal website for their distributors, sometimes for free, sometimes for a monthly fee.  Either way, you must have it to play in the online ballgame.

2. Facebook - If you're not already on Facebook, open an account.  It's free and a great way to socialize with friends and family and network with prospective clients. 

• If you're one of the millions of folks already actively engaged daily on Facebook, enhance your existing profile to showcase your business.  
• Next, create a Facebook Page for your business. This is where you will distribute the content of your blog and your YouTube videos.  Of course you may not have a blog or YouTube Channel yet, but you can start by sharing information from your company, from other informative sites that your friends or family may be interested in relative to your products or services.

In my opinion, you could stop right here and be a big hitter in this game. If you want to hit it out of the park, consider taking the following steps:

3. Blog - Once you have a handle on Facebook, start thinking about your blog. You can create a simple blog like this one for free using Blogger or WordPress. You'll want to create relative content of interest to your target market.  

• Plan to post at least once a week.  
• You're blog should not be your product information copied and pasted from your company website. It should reflect your personality and provide good information that people are interested in reading. Your posts should be easy to read and not contain a lot of industry jargon. 
• Use bullet points or numbered lists when possible. It's been proven that people read less and less and are most likely just going to scan your articles for the specific information they want.

4. YouTube -  Because people are less and less interested in reading, you need to create video content to convey your message. 

• YouTube is one of the best cross-platform tools. You can share your videos on your Facebook Page your blog, etc.
• With YouTube, you get your very own "channel" where you can share your own videos, your company's videos or any other videos that you think your target market will find relative.  
• You'll eventually want to create multiple "playlists" of different types of things, like one for more formal type "commercials" for individual products (like those from your company), one for events you attend or host, one for "how to" videos, etc. 
• Start recording testimonies from your clients, team members and maybe even post a weekly update, etc.  

Now, don't be intimidated by this.  You can do it. Tackle it one step at a time and don't try to do it all in one day or even one week.  Decide how much time you can devote to this and get started.  

What other social media platforms are you interested in?  Twitter? Pinterest? LinkedIn? StumbleUpon?

Facebook Timeline: Don't be afraid

I'm so embarrassed. Its been way too long since I've posted here. (Not recommended if you want people to actually follow your blog.)  Truth is, I've been busy being "social" offline.  But here we are and its a new year.  In the last 3 or 4 months, I've been shifting my priorities around to make room to spend  more time helping you all with your Social Media needs.  So here we go!

First order of business: Facebook Timelines!

At the time of this posting, only 9% of my friends have signed up for the new Timeline. What are you waiting for?  As a Facebook Developer, I setup my timeline back in September and I love it!

There's no reason to be afraid!
Once you get timeline, you'll have 7 days before anyone else can see it. This gives you a chance to get your timeline looking the way you want before other people see it.To help you get started, your timeline includes some of your top photos and stories. Hide or highlight whatever you want and add anything that's missing. 

A preview of the Timeline Preview!

Privacy
Any privacy settings you've already set will still apply to the Timeline interface. So the photos of you laying on the beach that day last summer when you called in sick are still hidden from your boss.Only the people you originally shared a post with can see it on your timeline. If you want, you can go back and change who sees a post, delete it or just hide it from your timeline. To hide stuff, just click the pencil icon at the top of the post, then choose “Hide from Timeline.” Simple!

Simply hover over the post, then click the pencil to edit, delete or hide post.

Personalization
Timeline is all about you telling your story! You can even start from the beginning, as far back as when you were born! To add a historical stuff to your Timeline, simply hold your mouse pointer over the line in the center of the page until it turns into a plus sign, and shows you the option to add status update, photo, place check-in, or life event.

Simply hover over the center line to add new (or old) stuff.

So, what are you waiting for?  Go, get busy! Embrace the timeline and make it yours! 

How to Create a Facebook Profile

I recently conducted a Social Media Marketing session for a 22 year old, well established company that has many seasoned distributors who are brand new to social media. I recommended that they get started by utilizing Facebook. I started this post with the intention of creating a tutorial on how to create your personal Facebook profile, but found that there was "no need to re-invent the wheel". There is a great tutorial and video already available from AllFacebook.com.

Take a look at the link and video below and let me know if you have any questions.  I'm here to help and glad to do it!

Facebook Tutorial: How to Create a Facebook Profile




Remember, you can also connect with me on Facebook for daily Social Media tips and tricks and subscribe to this blog to get the latest news first!