Facebook’s Approach to Control SPAM by Limiting Friend Requests

On October 15, 2010, in Attraction Marketing, Network Marketing, by Jim
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Facebook originally was created for use by college students and now has become the largest social network, by surpassing rival MySpace and now receives more weekly visits than Google.  Unlike MySpace, Facebook has been very tolerant of unsolicited promotions, although its policy states that “You will not send or otherwise post unauthorized commercial communications (such as spam) on Facebook.”

Facebook’s recent approach to this issue has been to control the types of friend requests that users can make.  Age and other factors now limit the ability of users to connect with other members who are in different generations and/or have few mutual interests.  For those using Facebook as a source of potential marketing leads, what are the implications?

Social networks expert, Max Steingart, believes  that these changes won’t significantly impact the marketing methods that he teaches his students.  This is because to some degree what Facebook is doing makes sense and shouldn’t really be limiting to those pursuing a viable strategy.  It doesn’t make sense to recruit outside your own age group, anyway, because of limited common interests.

The underlying premises may be flawed, however, and he expects Facebook’s stringent rules to evolve over time.  Facebook, in fact, would stand to lose some of the momentum it has built up if its changes limit the flexibility of its use by its fastest growing segment:  women between 45 and 55. How will a grandmother now be able to connect via Facebook with relatives to see pictures of the grandchildren in far away locations?

As pointed out by Steingart, the main issue is network marketers who send unsolicited ads to others via Facebook.  As mentioned, rival MySpace has long prevented this type of activity by more closely adhering to its terms of service.  Facebook appears to be making an attempt to control spam by limited marketers’ ability to connect with friends and expand their networks.   The question is, how can Facebook determine the “intent” in a friend request?

Making friends socially is something that every marketer needs to do.  When their “enthusiasm” leads them to post or send unsolicited links to their business websites, it is only at this point that Facebook’s terms of service have been violated.  There is nothing in the Facebook terms of service that prevents making new friends.   Like it or not, network marketing activities will take place on social networks.  But, network marketers don’t need to be banned unless their activities warrant their removal.

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Are Social Networking Websites A Good Source of MLM Leads?

On October 11, 2010, in Attraction Marketing, Network Marketing, by Jim
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Many leaders in network marketing today teach their teams that the Internet and other online recruiting doesn’t work effectively, while still sending them out to shopping malls, and gas stations to find prospects.  Of course their brute force  methods work, but generate extremely high attrition rates. Today, Facebook has over 500 million users and MySpace 263 million.  And, it is now possible to use social networks to build a worldwide business, rejection free, never leaving home.

The demographic and personal information about people in these social networks alone is staggering.  Search tools provided enable marketers in almost any industry to easily identify hundreds of targeted prospects for just about any product or service.  If it works for regular business, why not MLM?  In fact, network marketers have already started using Facebook paid advertising to generate high quality MLM business leads.

Although the 3 foot rule has been used effectively in network marketing for over 75 years, there have also been many networkers successfully recruiting teams online since the days of America Online over 15 years ago.  Now with the easy availability of all this demographic information at your fingertips, why haven’t more in network marketing “broken the code” on the social networks?

We believe that today’s networking “professionals” have been very poorly trained, and are trying to market on social networks with a clumsy and almost dangerous approach.  Most, in fact are trained in the use of “elevator” speeches, which they’re supposed to quickly deliver in order to generate leads for their business, and have imported these techniques to Facebook and MySpace.  The problem with this, especially when used in the context of social networks is this behavior is nothing more than spam.    Whether used in elevators, or on Facebook, people have become very resistant to these approaches.    And,  MySpace considers it a violation terms which will quickly get a person’s page canceled.

So what is the answer?  Can the social network sites provide a good source of MLM leads?  The answer is a resounding yes, according to Facebook and Myspace expert Max Steingart.  His training has produced top earners in many different network marketing companies.  His methods teach a low-key sales approach, modeled on the basic concepts of Dale Carnegie and others, which are based on first creating genuine relationships with prospects.  People buy from people they know, like, and trust.

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Attraction Marketing Blueprint for Social Networks

On August 17, 2010, in Attraction Marketing, Network Marketing, by Jim
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In this article we discuss the concepts of attraction marketing as they pertain to social networks.  Although the strategy used isn’t the classic attraction marketing approach of making a compelling offer in order to capture email address/build a list, etc., the concepts are similar.   Instead of a free report or training offer, the “bait” is your profile and interaction socially with prospects.  So, to get started, you need to set-up your pages on Facebook, and/or MySpace, etc.  Then determine what strategy you want to use.

There are three types of pages on the social networks:

  • Total commercial for one’s business – This type of page is viewed as a salesperson trying to sell something. This may lead to spam complaints when trying to connect and isn’t recommended.
  • Part personal, part business – People will communicate with reservations, waiting for the page owner to hit them with their sales pitch.  A better approach but still not recommended, unless you are already a 6-figure earner or better.
  • All about you, no business – Magnetically attracts people to you.  This is the recommended approach.

There are three ways to brand yourself:

  • As someone happy and/or wildly successful – This is the best strategy, even if you are at one of the ladder’s bottom rungs at this point, e.g., just getting started.  One way to leverage this method is to post motivational messages on your profile at least a couple times daily.  What quotes and authors have helped you in your life?  Share these things with your network.
  • As an expert – Also a good approach, but requires some expertise and credentials already in place.
  • As a successful network marketing professional – Limits you to only those already in the network marketing  industry.

Once your pages are created and/or adjusted for your particular strategy, then begin connecting with old friends and making new friends.  Use a memory jogger list, similar to those found in any network marketing training course to “remind” yourself of the people you know.  If you’re not familiar with network marketing, you can just use the Yellow Pages categories to remind you of people to add to your network.

If you’re in network marketing, you probably don’t want to listen to the trainers in your company.  That is, especially if they’re advising you to be aggressive in approaching your social media friends with an “elevator” speech.  This is what all the amateurs are doing, and it won’t work.  Rather you need to question them conversationally to determine a need in their life for your products and/or business opportunity.  The rule is never to approach anyone without first determining their need.  If done correctly, your friends will ask you what you do, believing that it was their idea for you to share information with them about your business and/or products.

Further information and social networking strategies are available in our attraction marketing system including Wednesday evening webinars (see opt-in box at right), and  a recent Facebook training course by one of the most successful social media experts today.

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Direct Marketing Strategy – Using Social Media to Build Your Business

On July 12, 2010, in Attraction Marketing, by Jim
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In this article, we specifically discuss social media and a strategy for attraction marketing.  How can you attract customers and if you’re a network marketer, business partners?  Not surprisingly, the best advice comes from going back to basics and using timeless advice from classics such as Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People.”

Attraction marketing on Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn and other social media sites is best done following a specific process of making friends.  We’ll use the paradigm of network marketing to explain this strategy in more detail, but the same concepts apply to any business model.  We’ll also use Facebook as the main example, although most concepts apply to other social media as well.

The first thing to realize is that Facebook is meant for social interaction, rather than business building.  That, however is not a problem, since the underlying strategy is first making friends.  So in this regard, Facebook is perfect.

Since Facebook is not for business building, any reference to a business or products you sell should not be present on your page.  How many marketers violate this principle?  Nor should your profile contain links to your company’s business website.  You should also not have “Likes” related to your company or products.  Does this sound like different advice that you have been getting from your network marketing company itself? How is their “advice” working for you so far?

Next, you need to do something to attract interest to you on a daily basis, such as posting a generic motivational video.  In addition, social media guru Max Steingart recommends using a catchy status, such as “Jim Green is ready to help 4 more people earn a fortune online,” and just change the numbering every day.

Then try to connect with old friends and/or invite them to join Facebook, while looking for new friends with similar interests on a daily basis.  The Facebook advanced search feature can quickly locate potential people that might be prospects for your business.  You are then in control of exactly you “invite” as friends and who you attempt to develop a relationship with.

Then when someone accepts a friend request from you, or you accept a new friend that requested you, develop a relationship first and attempt to qualify the person BEFORE trying to share your business or products with them.  Also when someone comments or asks about your daily status, you can assume they’re attracted to you and possibly a candidate for your business.  Only share your business with qualified prospects who express a need for what you can offer them.

We highly recommend Max Steingart’s Endless Free Leads course, bootcamps, and coaching for further information and assistance with your direct marketing strategy.

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