Multi-Level Marketing and Social Media Marketing: A Marriage Made In Failure

I have been involved in multi-level marketing (MLM) before, several times. For some products and services, it is fantastic. It creates ways to get reduced pricing on quality items and services, business opportunities for entrepreneurs with little start up money, and is a great way for some people to make a great living, and for others to supplement their income part time. I did well in one of the opportunities, and terrible in the other! What you put in, you get out. Simple.
I never thought I would see the day when marketing itself would become a multi-level marketing entity! Yes, you heard it here. There is now a company that is basically a multi-level marketing entity that is selling social media marketing tools and "support".
Had I never been involved in MLM, I may think this would be a good idea. But since I have experience in both MLM and 20+ years of traditional and new media marketing background, let me break down why buying something as important to your business as social media from an MLM source is probably not the best idea.

1. Lack of experience. So far, having researched this company, you can get in with absolutely no marketing background at all. I can pay to join the MLM, get my portfolio of tools to sell, and off I go. In reality, social media marketing is a complex entity, and growing more so every day. While lack of experience will still get you some results, and cool tools will make it look pretty, having a marketing background is what separates mediocrity and real results. Having looked at ten of this company's re-sellers, I can tell you they haven't the foggiest idea what ROI even stands for.





2. Here today, gone tomorrow. The retention rate in MLM is about 20%. This means that 80% of MLM participants will drop out within the first year. In essence, trusting your business's most important element (marketing) to a source that has an 80% chance of disappearing on you in the next year can be a bit scary. As well, over 90% of MLM participants are involved with their MLM only part time...well, you can figure out the problem here.


3. Who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters? Might as well. Beyond the tools and online info you can get from them, can you call someone to discuss a strategy? An issue? What if someone just posted on your wall and you don't know how to handle it? What about your Facebook ads? How can you interpret insights? Facebook changed a setting, how do I adjust it? Any reputable agency will answer your call and help you...and be ABLE to help you. Real social media agencies live and breathe social media marketing and continually educate themselves on webinars, at seminars and digest tons of white papers and watch trends. It's moving way too fast now. Not being involved every day all day is long term failure.

4. Strategy is king. There is no such thing as "viral" explosion to your Facebook page, and more than this, no such thing as just getting it out there and getting windfalls of prospects and a huge ROI. It takes engagement, relationship building, cross marketing and it must fit in with the other marketing you are doing to work well. It must work with your other social media platforms, using each platform to help bring people to the platform they would most like to hear from you on. "Viral" marketing on facebook brings you some likes and may jump your numbers up a bit...but how qualified are they really? Creating a personalized, developed strategy that integrates with your other marketing (both traditional and new media) is paramount for success.

5. REAL tools and customization. Plug in designer tools are cool. You can get a decent look, and if you are a "mom and pop" business that doesn't care so much about branding, go for it. For those businesses that have a branded look, nothing beats true graphic design capability. Pantone colors are important, the layout or look of each entity (such as the sidebar or landing/welcome page graphic) is paramount to looking professional, and having someone you can go back and forth with who has a graphic background and experience is important. Graphic design has actually come down in prices , so not utilizing talented individuals who can separate you from the plug-in crowd is a no-brainer.

7. Beyond Facebook. Social media isnt just Facebook. While they are the largest piece of the puzzle, having an agency or professional that can help you determine what integrations you should make are important to long term success. As well, having a branded look and strategy across these platforms will be the deciding factor of ROI. Start on Facebook, but don't forget YouTube, Twitter, linkedIn, and other platforms work together and with your traditional marketing to create the ultimate platform. When you develop across all mediums, you dramatically increase your sales funnel.



Research who you decide to use to handle your social media marketing. Interview them. Ask to see their LinkedIn profile (if they don't have one...RUN!!!), ask their marketing experience, look at what other social media platforms they utilize. Do they give seminars or webinars? Can you speak to any of their clients for references?

In essence, social media has gone beyond "playtime". It has become a serious marketing tool that deserves serious attention and professional support. Companies and businesses who realize the long term potential and develop their social media along these lines will be the ones who grab market share, create real relationships and advocacy and generate ROI. The ones who would like to play with simplistic tools and treat it like an ancillary tool will get ancillary results.

You may now kiss the bride.

Blogging with #Irene

So I prepared like most of you did. I have my water, food, fuel, cooking supplies and of course coffee and as of right now 10:04 am Sunday it looks like I will be able to watch TrueBlood tonight because the power and cable is still on here at my house. I am monitoring the usage of social media to get the word out to the people who have mobile devices that are not effected by the storm. Here is what I have seen so far.

1-Everyone is a mobile newsroom now.

2-People want to help other people by posting information to assist them to know the danger areas around them.

3-Social Media is being embraced by all news platforms to help stay in communication with the world.

I hope everyone is staying safe during this storm.

Erik

Why We Created "Share Your Fanpage"

Why We Created:

We launched Share Your Fanpage just about 36 hours ago, and it has been growing at a steady pace. We envision that in about 30 days time it will have a couple of hundred pages posted up, and many more will come join the platform as word of this spreads, and the usefulness of it becomes apparent.

So what's the method behind the madness; why did we decide to create a place where Page owners can freely post their Page?

For a long time, Erik and I have thought about Facebook as not only a B2C platform, but a platform just on the brink of being able to be utilized just as well for B2B. The best of both worlds. That came to fruition a few months ago, when Facebook changed features on the site to enable people to "Switch" from their personal profiles and assume the personality of their Fanpage. When this happened, we were finally able to speak as our Fanpage once we left our little spot on Facebook.

What this in essence did was create the ability to now go to other Pages and post as our own Page, easily spreading the word about our businesses and organizations organically. For example, Talking Finger could now go to Subway's Page and post AS Talking Finger. Subway has 8 million fans at our disposal who would have the potential to see our post. Powerful stuff! By engaging and posting as our Page, we have attained clients we wouldn't have if we didnt have this ability of speaking as our Page. More about that later.

We watched other Pages similar to Share Your Page pop up, and fall into disarray. Spam and lack of organization lead to a jumbled mess of posts that went to everywhere from Fanpages to porn sites. Most of all, no instructions on how to actually utilize a platform where Page owners could help each other out to find prospects: NOT just "Likes". Likes are great, but they don't always equate to ROI.

We decided to try something new. Our Page includes Video Guidelines (text version available) and "How To" videos for connecting to other pages and cross marketing by simply engaging in conversation. Conversation that isn't just spam, but one which builds relationships between pages who wish to connect and partner up to "share" each other's fan base. Because the relationship you build B2B between Pages equals a huge gain in B2C. After all, If I have 1000 fans on my Talking Finger Fanpage, and you connect to it with your Fanpage and engage in conversation (rather than just coming, dropping a link and leaving), you are now not only speaking to Talking Finger, but to all of Talking Finger's 1000 fans. In the example below, Franklin Management who is just starting to get going on Facebook, has a wonderful thing to say about Talking Finger, but more importantly, they posted to 1000 of our fans.

Now if Franklin Management continues such practices, and starts connecting and sharing and building relationships on other Fan Pages, they increase their odds of finding a prospect and eventually a client.

It takes time. It takes planning. It takes consistency and it takes a dedication to allocate resources to social media marketing. Share Your Fanpage makes it easier to share your Fanpage, but ultimately it is up to you to make it work. We can't make connections for you. After all, if you went to a Chamber of Commerce meeting, would you stand against the wall afraid to engage in conversation? Does this method work?

Hopefully, you would walk around, try to meet as many people as you could and engage in conversation. So why on Earth wouldn't you do this on a social network!!??

Go forth! Share, Like, Engage!!

I am an Official Foursquare Creeper

Last night a friend of mine asked if I would like to grab a drink at a bar all of our friends frequent. Despite my fatigue from a long weekend I agreed.

As I pulled up to Anna Liffey's and parked my car I immediately took out my phone to check into the establishment on Foursquare (I don't get very good service downstairs). As I began to accumulate my points I saw that my friend checked into another place that we frequent, Gourmet Heaven. Wondering why he was there and not at Liffey's, I decided to take a walk down the street to see him.

I walked into Gourmet Heaven and walked down the aisles of imported food and drink searching for my friend. Confused, and slightly disappointed that I couldn't share half of whatever he bought, I walked back down the street to Anna's.

As I walked down the stairs I saw him sitting right at the end of the bar. "Jason! I totally just walked to Gourmet because you were checked in there!"

As soon as I said it I knew...I had become a Foursquare creeper.

A better definition of a Foursquare creeper would be someone who uses the app to find where people are and then go to that place. Granted, Jason and I already had plans to meet so I think my creepiness was on a lesser degree (at least, that's what I tell myself) but it was still apparent nonetheless.

After I found Jason we began chatting with the owner of the bar, Patrick. Patrick overheard us talking about checking into places and questioned us on it. We began to explain:

Me: "Checking in comes from this social media app called Foursquare. People check into places to accumulate points and it becomes a game for friends to try and get as many points as possible to beat each other. And you try to become mayors of places!"

Jason: "But it's also a really great social networking tool for businesses. A lot of places will have specials or incentives to get people to enter their business. For example, Starbucks will give the mayor a free cup of coffee as a way to keep them coming. It also is a way for other patrons to try and become mayor to get the free coffee. On the app it shows a list of specials in the area that people can browse."

Patrick at this point looks utterly confused. I take out my phone.

Me: "Here, look." I open up the Foursquare app on my phone and click "Places." At the bottom of the screen there is an orange bar that says "27 Specials Nearby." I click it. A new screen opens up and I show Patrick the businesses that are using and promoting items on Foursquare. I happen to see that Koji will give a free scorpion bowl to the mayor of it's restaurant. I make a mental note to myself.

I give Patrick my phone and he begins to scroll through the specials. He peers over his glasses and, although he still looks confused, I see him taking note of some of the other local bars in the area that are utilizing the app.

Foursquare is getting more popular especially among businesses. I know when I'm new to an area I look at the specials on Foursquare to see if I can benefit from anything. Couple that with Urbanspoon or Yelp and I'm completely covered with restaurants and other businesses.

I highly suggest that you and your business use Foursquare if you aren't already. It's a great way to retain customers and to entice new ones. And the next time you're in New Haven, check to see if you can grab a free pint at Anna Liffey's.

-LV