Why should I give you my attention?
How many times have you had someone send you a friend request on Facebook and then straight away before you've had time to take a second breath they have asked you for something, demanding your atention, whether its to check out their group, look at their website, join their MLM program or Get rich Quick scheme. What these people maybe fail to realise is their approach is getting them entirely the opposite results than they might expect. The reason being is they fail to see the message they are sending from the other side or think a little bit about who they are sending to. Without having this view you assume that the whole world will naturally be interested in everything you are doing and you demand that they give you attention.
Relationships first - deals second
Trying to sell yourself or your products without first taking the time to build some sort of relationship is not going to be the most effective strategy in today's web 2.0 world.
Serve others first and you will be rewarded
When you friend someone don’t ask them for something straight away, take the time to send a personal message and ask what you can do to help them. If you want to get your self really noticed then you are going to have to learn to give before you receive. This will instantly set you apart from everyone else and will show that you are actually interested in them and not just in serving yourself or your business. Serving others is one of the highest virtues you can adopt and is one of the quickest ways to have your own needs met as well. People will always remember you in a positive light and that is what can influence them to open your emails, listen to your sales messages and buy your products or services in the future. Attention is one of the most valuable commodities that all businesses are competing for.
Don't be too aggressive
Once you have their attention and you have started a conversation you can decide if you want to mention what It is you are promoting. If you are too aggressive in your marketing or sales approach you can turn people off very quickly It's easy to spot people who are not genuine so be very careful here and make sure you do this in a skilful way, a casual mention of what you have to offer can be much more powerful than the direct approach. People hate being sold to but they do like to buy. If you position yourself in the right way, you can be the person they choose to go to when they are ready.
Consider Starting you own group
If you want to get a targeted group of people all in one place then consider forming your own group, you can invite all your friends and in this way, only the people who are interested will be subjected to your marketing messages and they have the option of leaving the group at any time. Selling directly to new friends via their profile, instant messenger or wall is one of the quickest ways to start losing friends and as spam becomes more widespread more people are becoming less tolerant of unsolicited messages in their inbox.
I join a lot of groups to see what they have to offer, one thing I have noticed is the difference between how some of the group leaders treat their members.
The Trusted Friend
Some Facebook groups send me a continual stream of messages promoting this product or that service, I have to admit that I tend to ignore most of them, Its like I almost don't see or hear anything of what they are communicating, I filter it out and it just goes in the noise and distraction file. There are however a few group leaders who have adopted a different strategy, they keep sending me useful information and good links to things I am interested in, and they have a totally different way of communicating. It's not that they never try and sell me something its just they do it in a different way so I don't mind because I have placed them in a different file, that of the trusted friend. If you are networking, planning on using facebook to promote your business or you would like to start your own Facebook group in the future, I think there is an important lesson to learn here.
Share a Part of Your Life
Take Travis Greenlee as a good example, he was the person who inspired me to start the Facebook Made Easy group, His videos impressed me so much that I wanted to share them with as many people as possible. He has carefully positioned himself as a thought leader, and highly respected businessman here on Facebook, a person to look up to and one who sets the standards for others to follow. Notice how he is also sharing a part of his personal life too, uploading his home videos. This is a great relationship building strategy and allows you to connect in a way that you could never do personally to so many people.
Another person who always sends interesting content is Russell Birtwistle, He runs his business from Thailand , I look forward to his network marketing group emails because he shares a lot and tries to educate you to understand how he approaches his business and what tools he uses to stay successful and to stand out from the rest of the crowd. Just today he sent an enticing email describing his lifestyle and his love of fine food and golf. This style of marketing is very effective, how many people do you think there are who would like to trade places and live a similar life in paradise. These are all his potential customers who are being reeled in by his interesting stories, his direct honesty and transparent openness.
Another Facebook Leader who I admire is the copywriterr Jim Turner. Last week I was reading an article in his blog , Pit Bull Marketing where here he was talking about these same issues. I asked Jim if I could quote directly from his article and he agreed
"First off, your group or JV opportunity has to be focused on something that I’m interested in. If you can’t get past that hurdle, forget it! "
"People in general are very self-centred. So when you put together your pitches or group invitations you need to make sure you let the reader know what’s in it for them… and it has to be believable.
Once you get me in your group – the real work starts. You see, now you’ve got to keep me there. The best way to do that is keep feeding me information that I can use and benefit from… not more and more pitches."
"I would like to hear from you no more than a couple of times per week. Anything above that and you run the risk of annoying your members. Annoyed members hit the remove link real fast."
"it’s important that you know that I’m not against offering a product or service to me or your group members. I realize most of us are in business – that means that at some point a financial transaction must take place, or we won’t be around very long.
But be willing to provide training and educational resources pertaining to how to be successful with what you’re promoting."
To read the whole article you can follow this link - or you can joins Jims group Social Media Marketing Mastermind
Don't be a Spammer
So remember don't keep messaging your group 3 times a day. Most people find it annoying and if you are not giving any value or content and only self promoting what you are doing is Spam and not only will Facebook flag your account and send you a warning but you will also damage your reputation with all your friends. Spend the time to develop relationships with your group and your friends. Be respectful, these are real people so treat them that way.
Build Solid Foundations
Don't think of Facebook and social networking only as a way to make a quick buck. Think about it as a long term business strategy , lay the foundations in the right way and you will have people visiting your house every day. Ignore this vital stage and whatever you build will likely come crashing down around you and all your hard work wasted.
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