I remember how some years back — I was working a traditional MLM business at the time — I heard a fellow distributor recount his activities for the day on a team call (a daily routine instituted by the leadership to further accountability)….
 
I remember how taken aback I was to hear how this particular distributor – let’s call him Nick – had gotten into talking with a lead he called for the purpose of getting a product sample out to the person, and that the chat had (get this) turned into a 1 hour long dialogue…
 
A conversation about sports and travels, and goodness knows what else — anything BUT Nick’s business or products. As the phone call came to a close, the prospect agreed to take the sample pack, but, as Nick himself admitted to us, the guy likely did it only because he felt he owed it to Nick after taking so much of his time.
 
Even Nick realized how completely wasted that hour was. He could have made ten other calls to prospects during that time and gotten a whole bunch of sample packs out. Instead — thinking that if he just did a real good job of befriending the guy, he would want the product — he got caught in a conversational trap he couldn’t get out of.
 
And…yes, you guessed it…in spite of Nick’s unsurpassed amicability, they prospect did NOT become a paying customer.
 
This was a few years back, and I’ve since made the transition to online marketing. Now, as Internet marketers we don’t dial for dollars, and so we don’t need to worry about getting stuck with prospects who aren’t right for our business. Or do we…?
 
Well. Just because we do a large part of our marketing online and spend less time on the phone, it doesn’t make us immune to vampires of our time.
 
And social networking sites can be dangerous that way: You log onto a place like Facebook to check your messages for a few minutes, and lo and behold, “pop” – that tiny pop-up window appears, and one of your many (way too many) Facebook “friends” demands your attention.
 
You don’t want to be rude to your “friend”, so you politely reply…and before you know it you’re dialoging about the weather, about what an amazing movie Avatar was, and about whether Tiger Woods deserves a second chance.
 
You may even be sharing ideas about marketing, crossing your fingers and hoping the dialogue will lead the other person to ask you about your business so that you can direct them to your website…
 
But, of course, nine out of ten times that doesn’t happen.
 
Don’t get me wrong…I love social networking. Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, LinkdIn…all are powerful marketing tools for us online entrepreneurs — if used correctly.
 
Five minutes here and five minutes there…before you know it, you’ve spent an hour in unproductive dialogue. And just like Nick could have spent his hour getting bunches of sample packs out, you could have spent your hour, too, on REVENUE producing activities.
 
So what are revenue producing activities? Two things: marketing and talking to people. Which means that if you are engaging in conversations with people online, you are in fact doing something right!
 
You’ve just got to make sure you get your message across to as many individuals in your target market as possible, all at once, and don’t get sucked into lengthy discussions one-on-one with people who may or may not be looking for what you have to offer.
 
In all your marketing, be it pay-per-click, article marketing, social media marketing, or anything else that you use to drive traffic to your websites — you’ve got to think VIRAL.
 
Fortunately for us Internet marketers, there’s a whole bunch of tools we can use for that purpose: automated Twitter tools, video distribution tools, article submission software, and the list goes on.
 
Think MASS communication. Successful marketing has always been and always will be about numbers. And social media marketing is no different.
 
 
 
 
Successfully,
 
 

 
 
More here:
 
Meet me on Facebook
 
Watch me on Youtube
 
Work with me in PRO
 
 
 
 
 PS: Agree? Disagree? Feel free to re-tweet this post and/or to leave me a comment below!
 
 
 
 

Random Posts

• Why don’t I personally answer my emails? Am I just a snob?! (LOL)
• The only difference between ‘try’ and ‘triumph’ is a little ‘umph’… (How to rise above your circumstances and take back your life)
• “The Cows And The Rhino” A Story About Leadership, Courage, And What It Means To Be Truly Free
• Success in MLM: do you REALLY need to have your own product…?
• How not to have to worry about making money ever again (this works!)

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 24th, 2010 at 1:39 am and is filed under Lead Generation, Marketing Strategies, Social Media Marketing, Sponsoring & Recruiting, Time Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.