8 Reasons Every Direct Seller Needs a Facebook Fan Page

By Guest Blogger Karen Clark

Social media is a natural match for direct sellers who want to reach more people in their businesses. After all, the entire business model of direct sales is based on being social! Home party businesses thrive on word of mouth marketing, relationship building, and active participation. Direct sellers love to share their excitement about new products and the benefits of being involved in their company, they love meeting people where they are and inviting friends to join in. And most of all, direct sellers want to have FUN! Besides the traditional methods, all of this can also be accomplished through social media today, and one of the most effective platforms are Facebook Fan Pages.

Facebook Fan Pages are distinctly different than your regular Facebook Profile that you get when you log in. Your Profile is your personal space on the Facebook ‘web’ and you get to pick and choose who you let into your circle, what items people can see, and how much you want to see of theirs. Even though you can have up to 5,000 ‘friends’ it really is a closed network, and is not designed to be used for business purposes. In fact, most people are offended when they receive marketing messages from their Facebook friends, because their primary reason for being there is to keep in touch with people they know, and follow what is happening in their lives.

A Facebook Fan Page on the other hand, is completely public, you have no control over who joins in or not, or which items they see on your Fan Page. Everything is visible to the entire Facebook ‘web’ on a Fan Page. However, when you’re in business, public is a good thing! Public, and being visible to “everyone” on Facebook means exposure to new people you would not normally be exposed to, and aren’t we all trying to create NEW business for ourselves? Fan Pages have this advantage and I believe every direct seller – unless company policy forbids it – should have one. Here are eight reasons why:

1. Fan Pages are indexed by the search engines such as Google and Yahoo because they are public. Profiles are not, because they are private. This means that your Fan Page becomes like a mini-website, another doorway into your business that the entire world could have access to with a few clicks. Use some good keywords that people are searching for when you post and you’ll be on your way to establishing an online presence in no time.
    
2. Fan Pages are highly customizable, whereas Profiles are not. With the Static FBML application, you can create custom welcome pages, product pages, a page about your Why story, or about the benefits of hosting a party with you – just about anything is possible! This cannot be done on the Profile.
    
3. People who “Like” Fan Pages are opting in to hear about your business. They are taking an active step to participate in conversations with you as a business person, to hear the occasional marketing message, or to find out your latest specials or new products. This means that those who are on your Fan Page are highly qualified leads – they want to hear from you! They’re looking forward to hearing from you. When someone befriends you on Facebook, they are not necessarily interested in your business.
    
4. Fan Pages can be personalized so that you have your own home on the web even if you do not have your own website or blog. With company replicated sites, our options for expressing ourselves are limited – sometimes the only thing we can edit is our contact information, with a few exceptions. Through your Fan Page, you can share your stories, give advice, share helpful information or articles about related topics, and be of service to your Fans in ways that can’t be done through a shopping site.
    
5. Fan Pages give you a chance to engage and interact with your customers and potential customers. As you share information with them, they comment or “like” your posts and you are able to respond and have two-way or even group communication about the topic. This leads to rich interaction which builds trust and rapport with your visitors. On a Fan Page you all share something in common to start with – the love of your product or business opportunity. There’s lots to talk about, and your Fans enjoy interacting with you.
    
6. Fan Pages breed advocates for your business. When you share a video, a link or a photo, clicking the Share link is so easy to do! Your Fans will then share your information with their friends, which exposes your business to even more people. On a Profile your friends will share to their friends as well, but you will only receive exposure for your personal profile that way, and if their friends are not your friends already, the only way for them to find out more about you is to request friendship. With a Fan Page, your Fans’ friends can easily click your Fan Page name, and click Like to get involved.
    
7. Fan Pages are measurable. When you manage a Fan Page, Facebook installs “Insights” which are statistics about your Fan Page. Facebook will tell you how many times your posts received comments or “likes” as well as how many Fans came on or left, and where they came from. It will give you a chart over the last month that shows interesting facts about the success of your Fan Page, and you can easily monitor and adjust your activities. There is no such thing on a Profile so there is no way to measure your success other than watching the number of friends go up and down, which is a very poor judge.
    
8. It’s free! There is no better value for your time or money as a direct seller marketing online than creating a Facebook Fan Page. Go to any Fan Page, and on the bottom left is a link for “Create a Fan Page for Your Business.” Click that link and follow the instructions. A basic Fan Page can be created in under 10 minutes. You can find tutorials online to teach yourself how to customize it even further or if you are pressed for time, there are social media consultants like myself who will walk you through it or set it up for you.

Take advantage of the opportunity we have within Facebook. It is not going away any time soon, and creating a Fan Page presents a fun, free, and fabulous additional doorway into your business. For more information and training about Facebook Fan Pages for direct sellers, visit my website at http://www.mybusinesspresence.com. Click Products to download a Fan Page audio recording, and enter your email address for a free Do’s and Don’ts of Facebook report. Do you have a specific question about Facebook Fan Pages? Feel free to ask the question in the comments below and we can all learn together!

---

---

Taking her own business as a direct seller to the highest level of the compensation in less than seven years was just the start for Karen Clark. As the Director of Consultant Development for the corporation, she created training programs for the entire field before founding My Business Presence. Now a popular speaker and author, Karen is dedicated to helping all independent distributors master the world of social media, including effective blogging, web design, netiquette and search engine optimization. Karen has co-authored two books – Incredible Business and Direct Selling Power, and is the Northern California Chapter Coordinator for the Direct Selling Women’s Alliance. Karen has been honored with two awards from the DSWA, the Spirit Award in 2008 and the Ambassador of the Year Award in 2010. She lives with her husband and 3 children in Sonoma County, CA. Find out more about My Business Presence and connect with Karen on Facebook at http://www.mybusinesspresence.com.

Bloom Where You are Planted in Your Direct Sales Business

By Guest Blogger Shannon Bruce, PCC

In my work as a professional certified coach, I’ve found that women in business often look outside of themselves to gain answers to their questions for their lives and businesses, which can be both a blessing and a curse.

You definitely want to gather best practices and insight from the experts who are proven successes in their field because you can learn great tips from them. This is the blessing of working with companies like Julie Anne Jones, Inc., who have resources, coaching, and training to help you and your teams grow to the next level of mastery and excellence.

At the same time, you can become too outward focused to the point where you lose sight of who you are and what you want to create. If you spend all of your time gathering information from the experts, you can become distracted, overwhelmed and lose your focus which can become a curse that diminishes your results in both your business and your life.

So what’s the answer? In my opinion, it’s about learning how to bloom where you are planted by going inward to discover the answers that live within. Once you have this insight, you can blend this knowledge with tips from the experts to catapult you to a flourishing business that is sustainable and prosperous beyond your wildest dreams.

So how do you get there?

As coaches, we use a tool called the Wheel of Life which helps you assess your level of fulfillment and satisfaction in eight different areas of life, ranging from career, fun, family and finances to your spirituality. After working with this tool for over 6 years, I began to realize it took my clients out of the heart and into the head, leading them to answers outside of themselves as they tried to “figure out” how to build prosperous businesses and balance their careers with the other areas of their lives. The end result was often overwhelm, frustration and lack luster results.

I now use a new tool called the Flower of Life to support my clients in creating thriving lives and prosperous businesses. As you’ll see by the image to the right, the center of the flower is your spirituality where the core essence of the authentic you lives. The center of this flower represents the heart of you which holds the answers to your unique values, identity, mission and purpose. With this inner wisdom, you can use these filters to make purposeful and intentional choices which produce improved results in all areas of your life as represented by the petals of the flower. Notice the impact will benefit your business, relationships and more.

The bottom line here is that knowing who you are at the core provides you with filters (i.e. your values, identity, mission and purpose) that will propel your direct sales business to a new level, allowing you to flourish in your work as you thrive in your life at the same time.

Now is the time to bloom where you’re planted. Begin today discovering who you are within so you can flourish personally and professionally during this fall selling season.

© Copyright 2010, Shannon Bruce

---

---

Shannon Bruce, PCC is a Mompreneur Success Coach, Trainer and Co-Author of the book “Direct Selling Power: Expert Advice to Accelerate your Business”. As a catalyst for life transformation, Shannon empowers self-employed women to break through their barriers to reconnect with what really matters, calling them forth to boldly go after their inspired life vision with courage, confidence and authenticity. For more information about Shannon and her work you can visit www.shannonbruce.com and www.yourgreaterpurpose.com. Receive a free audio download of Shannon’s Direct Selling Telesummit Training on her book chapter, “Ignite your Passion and Live with Purpose” when you e-mail shannon@shannonbruce.com.

Tough Going, Get Going

By Guest Blogger Lisa Robbin Young

Today, I was sitting in the E.R. with my 4 year old thinking about how Julie Anne couldn't have picked a better topic for me to share with her readers. When we first "met" I was some kind of a basket case: my son's psychological and emotional disorders were wreaking havoc on my personal and financial life, my marriage was stressed to the limit, and there were any number of other straws waiting in the wings to break the proverbial camel's back.

That was last year. Today, I was feeling like it was the same stuff; different day. Different kid, different havoc, but same ol' uncertainty staring me in the face.

And then I realized I sort of ENJOYED it.

Not that I enjoy the shrieking of my child when he's in pain – or that I even enjoy the adrenaline rush that comes from living a life of chaos. More because I get hyper-focused in times like this and can accomplish much more than anyone expects.

People don't expect much from you when things are hard. Which kind of makes it easy to surprise them.

"It's only natural to want to spend time with your son." People would say to me.
"No one would blame you if you canceled your event." I heard repeatedly this time last year.

And yet, I was holding conference calls in hospital rooms and hosting my first ever live event to the surprise of several close friends. Call me a trouper, but I've always believed that "the show must go on." It's part of what keeps me sane.

Now, your definition of "carrying on the show" will obviously be different than mine, but if I can offer a few lessons learned:

1. Don't sell yourself short. In stressful situations, I function better with a to-do list that keeps me distracted – er focused – on the daily must-do's in my business and life. Skipping out on making those host calls will only make the mountain of follow-up that much bigger when you're back on track in a month or two. Plus, believe it or not, people will be tripping over themselves to support you as you try to keep your head held high. If you're really a wreck, give yourself a time limit to grieve/process/etc., but have a game plan to get back on track fast. You're tougher than you think you are.
    
2. Have an emergency plan. Things get tough, but business marches on. The only thing uncertain about an emergency is WHEN it will happen. As a financial advisor, we were taught that "life happens" every six months. How would you handle business if life happened today? If you're truly running a business, not an expensive hobby, you need contingency plans in place. Take the time to make those plans BEFORE you need them.
    
3. Not everything is a crisis. Slumping sales or bumped bookings isn't life threatening, but it can sure send you into an emotional tailspin. Recognize that the setback is temporary. Scruitinize your business for leaks and loopholes. Are there successful strategies you've left by the wayside in the past few months? Did you stop following up because you got "too busy?" If nothing has changed, but business is slipping away, consult your coach, talk with your upline, and get help to keep a positive attitude while you learn new strategies. Sometimes markets shift. A savvy business owner will stay on top of their game and the trends in their industry.
    
4. Stay consistent. Sometimes slumps are seasonal, and if you just keep plugging, you'll come through. If you give up every January, you have to start all over every March. If instead, you choose to keep making the calls, hosting a few shows and staying top of mind with your clients, your March calendar will already be full by the end of February.
    
5. Be honest. A client of mine had a family trauma that leveled her business. Her own fear kept her from approaching family and friends when she wanted to re-start her business. In our discussions, it became clear that the people that were closest to her were incredibly understanding, and that she was assuming a negative reaction in order to "save herself" from being let down when her circle of influence said no. I told her to make the calls anyway and be honest. Tell her family and friends (many of whom already knew her situation) that she had been through a tough time and she was ready to step back into her business – and could she count on them for support. The results spoke for themselves: every call she made resulted in a booking or a sale. This was a crowd that knew her, liked her, trusted her, and wanted to see her get back on her feet. When you're honest with your clients, everyone walks away with a win. Besides, your closest clients want you to succeed because they like doing business with you. They WANT you to win because it's easier than finding someone new to fill your shoes.
    
6. Have support. If you're a leader, at some point you'll need a VA or another helper to deal with paperwork and office minutiae. If you're a young consultant, you'll need your upline sponsor to answer questions and keep you pointed in the right direction. It goes without saying that everyone needs a coach or mentor to help them navigate business and see things from a different perspective. Sometimes we're too close (or too far) from a situation to focus clearly. Our support system helps us keep things in plain sight. They can prop us up when a slump drags on longer than we would like. They can give us fresh perspectives and new ideas to try. We need to remember the interdependent nature of humans. We need each other – not for everything, and not all the time – but when we need help, we need to know where to turn. Your support network will provide you with any help you'll need. Cast a wide net, and you'll always have the support you need when things get hard.

The best advice I ever got about navigating tough times was to put my own oxygen mask on first. If you're not taking care of your own needs, how can you possibly take care of someone else? The same holds true in your business. If you're not tending to the needs of your business on a consistent basis, you'll constantly be in crisis mode – and that's no place for a leader to live.

Do what you know needs to be done, take care of the dimes and the dollars will take care of themselves. In direct sales, like baseball, consistency is the true measure of success. Your actions, over time, will determine your results. A crisis – even one that lasts a couple of years – is only a blip on the radar of a successful long-term career in direct sales.

Take it from the mom in the E.R.

---

---

Lisa Robbin Young is a Direct Sales Coach and Trainer and has an extensive coaching and training background. Beginning with her team development in direct sales, Lisa’s coaching and training expertise spans nearly two decades. She is a certified Elite leadership trainer (DSWA), and is purusing certification as a credentialed business coach. Her specialties are online marketing, goal attainment, and self-worth.

Check out her services at DirectSalesClassroom.com.

Next Page »