Every time I talk with a network marketer … after a couple of exchanges, they start telling me how hard prospecting is.
How much they LOVE the business. But absolutely HATE to prospect.
How they’ve recruited some people, but can’t get them to stick, because many of them are the WRONG kind of people.
And in spite of being “excited” about the biz, overall they’re feeling down and somewhat disappointed with their results.
Or I should say – LACK of results.
It’s the same story each time.
I can honestly say…
I know the pain and can FEEL it in their words …
Because not long ago, I was in their shoes.
Adding strangers and sending copy-paste messages, all day on Facebook, prospecting in malls, grocery stores, networking meetings, cold calling for 2-3 hours per day – with almost no results. Trying to keep my excitement and enthusiasm about the business and the opportunity. Yet totally frustrated, disappointed, burned out and even somewhat depressed.
Know what I’m talking about?
And the truth is, the majority of companies and leaders in network marketing has no system to get in front of people.
The only system they have is called “hustle”… do whatever it takes to find someone and drag them to a meeting or a one-on-one or a 3 way call …
So, the question is:
How do you find enough of the right people for your business without hustling and feeling slimy?
One of the first questions you need to answer is whether you’ll use your personal Facebook Profile or create a “fan” Page to promote your products and services.
In this post I’ll share the pros and cons of each approach.
It’s important to point out that you can have success utilizing both.
But one method is extremely limited, while the other one is highly scalable, so the choice that will scale is naturally a better option to successfully build your business long-term.
And you do want a long-term business, right?
Right! So let’s dig in, starting with …
Personal Facebook Profiles Vs Fan Pages
The main problem with a Personal Profile is that you’re capped at 5,000 friends on a personal Profile.
That’s a firm limitation, which you can’t pass, because Facebook doesn’t want you to use your personal Profile as a vehicle for building your business.
In fact, it’s against their rules.
If Facebook ever saw that you were using your personal profile for business purposes, such as posting a bunch of links and crowding everybody else’s News Feed with a bunch of self-serving junk they’re not really interested in, then you could have your account suspended.
The consequences are worse if you use private messaging in the wrong way—you could be permanently banned.
Most importantly, you’re not able to run ads on your personal Profile.
Now, that might sound weird to some of you in traditional network marketing.
You might wonder, “Why would I want to run advertising if the name of the game is to personally sponsor and recruit people?”
Well, it’s because you want a large audience to be exposed to your business, and you can only get that from ads.
Now using ads isn’t required in this strategy, however it’s powerful when used correctly and will build your network 10x faster in comparison to not using them.
Let me ask you a question…
Do you know anyone that has hopped into network marketing and 6 months to a year later they’ve hit the top ranks of their company?
Maybe you’ve witnessed it first hand in your own company.
Does it make you wonder “What does that person have that I don’t have?”…
The answer is simple… They have a network!
They have a network of people that already know, like and trust them. It doesn’t matter what that person does, their network wants to do it too.
What it comes down to is if your prospect doesn’t know or like or trust you, they aren’t going to do business with you and they aren’t going to buy from you.
You need to stop branding your company and the products you promote and start branding yourself.
So with that said, let’s switch gears and look at… Fan Pages.
In a nutshell, the cons of personal Profiles for business are solved by creating a Fan Page.
With a Fan Page, you can run ads to the 1.86 billion monthly active users, so there’s a practically unlimited audience.
Let’s explore that a bit more…
A Facebook Page is intended to have as massive of a reach (the number of people who see your updates) as possible.
Facebook fully supports you building a huge following.
In fact, it’s central to their business model. So a fan page is the perfect place to grow that “network”!
Keeping Business and Life Separate
One of the things I always hated, was having my personal life and my business life mixed together on Facebook.
As I’ve already told you, in the beginning I did what a lot of networkers do…
I added a bunch of people I didn’t know onto my friends list.
I would also approve anybody that would send me a friend request, and before I knew it, I was maxed out on my Profile.
…and I had all these people in my News Feed who I didn’t know and didn’t care about.
…and, to top it off, all those people were just posting stuff about their business, because I was targeting other entrepreneurs who were mostly network marketers.
Ugh!
I quickly grew tired of seeing my News Feed filled with a bunch of people I didn’t know, and I had pretty much lost any meaningful connection with my friends and family.
In fact, they had probably blocked me, because I was just spamming and putting crap up about our business, and they frankly didn’t care about our business.
I know this because I had already tried to recruit them!
So first and foremost, a Page allows you to separate your personal life from your business life.
Now that we’ve separated all of our business and personal stuff, it’s been great!
You can certainly post on your personal Profile and invite people to check something out, but the strategy I suggest is to use your Fan Page as the central “hub” for all business things.
This legitimizes you in the eyes of Facebook.
And it’s more professional because that’s what real businesses do.
Once you start posting your business content on your Fan Page, your friends and family won’t be inundated with junk in their News Feed from you, which means they’ll (hopefully) be able to tolerate the stuff you post again.
It’s liberating because your personal Page can focus on your personal interests, so you can connect with your friends once again and delete and unfriend all the people you don’t know on your personal Profile.
Prospects and Sales Generation
Facebook Pages are intended for an ever-expanding audience with the purpose of generating leads (prospects) and sales.
And as a business owner, that’s what you want, right?!
Now, what does that mean in the context of a healthy business?
Well, on my page, I add almost 200+ new fans every month.
Pretty cool, right?
These people aren’t random strangers that I go in and add to my page myself either. They have to physically “like” my page themselves, which makes them a higher quality prospect from the get go!
That wouldn’t be possible using a personal profile, because it’s capped. It’s also full of your friends and family and probably a lot of people that don’t like network marketing, let alone your opportunity.
In fact, right now I have over 4,000 fans of my Page, and that means bigger leverage.
Those are all people I can promote stuff to and share value with, in the context of network marketing and direct sales.
Building An Asset
The real advantage of having a Page is that you’re building an asset with tremendous leverage.
Once you’ve set up your engagement strategy, you can walk away and your business will essentially work on autopilot.
Compare that to a personal Profile, where you have to constantly post new stuff (that’s only going to annoy your friends and family), and it’s gone in the blink of an eye, likely without gaining much traction or interest.
Plus, other network marketers you’ve friended are probably doing the exact same thing as you too, so you’re basically just spamming each other, and everyone cancels each other out.
No thanks!
So, as opposed to wasting time doing all that stuff, a Page allows you to generate exposure passively, so you can generate prospects, customers, and recruits while you sleep, or are out to dinner, or out at a baseball game.
You get the idea.
Active vs Passive Recruiting
Before we close, let’s quickly talk about the difference between active recruiting and passive recruiting…
The posts I share on my Page are planned well in advance.
In fact, I always have days, even weeks, of posts scheduled and ready to go.
And they’ll go out without me even being at my computer.
You can’t do this on a personal Profile, which only allows for real-time updates.
On top of that, I generate 200+ fans every month, without having to hover over my Page constantly.
Most importantly, I am able to run paid ads on my Page that generate prospects, sales, and new business recruits on autopilot.
That’s the power of a Page: you’re able to leverage Facebook’s industry-leading advertising platform.
It’s the final strategy, and it’s my favorite because it’s 100% passive.
In fact, there is no way I could produce the results I do just using my personal Facebook Profiles.
I generate between 10-20 leads per day and approximately 1-2 customers per day.
And I am able to recruit approximately 2-5 serious business builders per month.
That’s powerful, and it happens 100% on autopilot.
Now, that doesn’t mean I don’t work my business, but…
I am working on my business as opposed to in my business.
I don’t have to worry about going out and finding people or sending spammy messages on Facebook anymore because people find me!
Reclaim Your Life
The real benefit of running ads, scaling your reach, and scheduling your posts is that you can reclaim your life.
When I got online, I was finally able to build my network marketing business without having to pester friends and family, and without having to talk to strangers in public places.
Now we can enjoy our life in public like normal human beings.
As I started succeeding in my business using Internet strategies, we got to go to nicer and nicer restaurants, nicer and nicer places, and more exotic locations, and never once think about prospecting or recruiting anybody.
All because it’s already happening passively on the Internet!
Positions You As A Leader
The final thing I’ll say is this…
If you want to build real relationships in this industry, beyond a few scattershot private messages, your audience needs to see that you’re up to something bigger.
And that bigger thing can, in fact, be that you’re building a legitimate business Page—you’re building an asset, you’re generating leads and followers, and you’re doing it passively.
When people in the network marketing space see that, they’re going to be impressed and they’re going to want to know what you’re doing.
In fact, people in any business will want to know what you’re doing!
All of a sudden, you become interesting and attractive in a different way.
It’s not about your company, it’s not about your products, services.
It’s about what YOU, as an individual, have to offer.
That’s going to be what takes you to the next level in your network marketing business.
READY TO GROW YOUR FANBASE AND MASTER PASSIVE RECRUITING?
Then you need a proven system to follow.
So if you’d like to see example Page posts, which you can model for your business to explode your audience, increase your reach, and engage your fans…
In closing, here are the biggest things to take away from this training:
- A Facebook Fan Page is the way to go if you’re looking to build your business long term.
- Spamming your company link ANYWHERE is a big no no… That includes in a status update, on your profile page, in groups, or through a message. It’s a turn off that repels the people you’re trying to attract.
- Your primary company does not matter. You are not trying to brand your company. You need to brand YOU.
- Remember the algorithm! If people like the content you provide, Facebook is going to put you in front of more people. (How do you know if people like your content? They’re liking and sharing it.)
- cold prospecting methods are almost dead
Facebook IS a very powerful tool that, when used professionally and in the right way, can help to create a huge momentum in your business.
I hope you find the same success I’ve been able to find in building our business online and look forward to seeing you in the online recruiting boot camp!
And if you found this content helpful, I would love to read your comments below!
Sincerely!
Ioana
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