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I’ve been spending more time on FaceBook lately and the way I use it has really changed quite dramatically since I first became a member of this social networking site. As a direct sales consultant I’ve discovered FaceBook is a wonderful way to connect with my team members, my customers and business leads. Here’s why FaceBook is Fantastic for direct sales consultants.
First of all I hesitated to share that I was on FaceBook with my team members. I was doing a lot of business networking there as well and I worried they wouldn’t be interested or worse, they might get distracted by the things my marketing friends and I shared.
However, some of them found me anyways! Since our associates are scattered all across the US and Canada we don’t have the luxury on face to face meetings and it’s harder to get to know everyone. Email and conference calls are wonderful for communicating and the latter for meetings but you still don’t get to know people.
While we don’t use facebook for meetings I have found that it is a great way to get to know each other. For example, I know Maureen broke her arm, and both Beth and Peggie moved to new homes because they posted this information on facebook. I get to see photos of them and their families and they get to see photos of me. You feel a more personal connection when you talk with people and have a face to go with the voice. I’ve notice it seems to be easier for people to message me on facebook rather than email or call me when they have questions.
We also have a private facebook group for our team where we can talk shop, share tips and just get to know each other. Of coarse everyone on our team isn’t on facebook so we don’t use it as a main training venue, it’s just another way for us to communicate, value added for people who do choose to use facebook.
It wasn’t just my consultants that found me on facebook, my customers and business leads were asking to connect with me too. How could I say no? I don’t post marketing messages but I do share helpful information, admire their photos and treat them like friends. They also message me when they need something. I have a business page for those people who want to receive my marketing messages, you can find it here Naturally Good.
How are you using facebook for your direct sales business?
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Great insight Melody.
Facebook has been very helpful in strengthening rapport and building camaraderie for direct sales teams through fan pages and private groups.
There are still many “old schoolers” who use yahoo group boards successfully because of the ease of calendar and file posting.
Best yet, in our opinion, is the direct sales (home party) teams using Ning.
Bottom line, use what is convenient and easy for you!
Thanks for dropping by. Actually, don’t you think you need to use (the network/location) that is easy and convenient for your people?
I personally use face book big time and not only has it built my business in ways i cannot even begin to explain, it has kept me connected to many people and created what is known as “authority status”. In short, people have gotten to know more of what i do (MLM) and gained great respect for what write about or post because i use Face Book as a spoke and have them all come through to my blog where i talk about business, wealth creation and Christianity. This way, they get to first know what i talk about, then like the content (as i have value there) and finally they trust me if i have provided content that has proven very helpful to them in the past. This way, when i start making suggestions, they are more likely to trust what i am saying…
Through Face Book, Twitter and Linked In, i have been able to gain many leads that have converted into downlines and some are even doing the business quite seriously – and as an added advantage, from great distances (over 3,000kms away)!
Bottom line, you need to incorporate FB into your market funnel and find a way to be effective in that – do some research…
Bless you all