Blind Loyalty a Death Trap in Network Marketing

This article is intended for true network marketers – those individuals who joined a company with the intention of going beyond mere product consumption. These are the people with an earnest desire to build a business and create a full time income for themselves. If this is NOT you, close this window (or tab), go to the kitchen and pour yourself a nice cold glass of your company’s product. If this IS you, then read on – this article could save your business.

Pitfalls and Death Traps

One of the most important tenets of successful Network Marketing is belief in one’s products and company. This is certainly true for how can one effectively promote a product and company if he or she does not believe in them?

But there is a major pitfall to this, a near fatal business mistake that effects a large number of Network Marketers, including myself at one time. BLIND LOYALTY.

Don’t get me wrong. Like I’ve said, it’s important to believe in and be faithful to the product and company that you’ve teamed up with. The trouble is that networkers often follow this to the nth degree and become so enthralled in their company that they end up throwing all rationality out the window. They stick by their company and defend it fiercely, rabidly even and it becomes the center of their business world.

How can you make sound business decisions when you’re looking through the tainted eye glasses of emotion? The answer is YOU CAN’T.

Strong emotional attachment to anything will cloud your judgment and hinder your ability to make smart business decisions. So it’s important that we maintain clarity when we’re building our Network Marketing businesses because it’s exactly that – A BUSINESS. Approach everything analytically and rationally. If you’re company is putting up good numbers, you’re making money and management is making smart decisions that benefit the distributors, then by all means stay with your company. But if the numbers are down and your checks are down and the management is making mistakes, it may be time to reconsider.

Some Advice

Education is the key to making sound business decisions. If you make certain that you and your team are educated on the ins and outs of the Network Marketing industry, you are ensuring that they are properly equipped to make the right choices at the right times based on reason and not emotion.

No matter how you might feel about your company and its products, you must not allow your emotions to sway your business decisions. Now, because we participate in a largely a relationship touchy-feely business, this can be difficult. But you have to remember that keeping emotions separate from business is what distinguishes a Network Marketing leader from a Network Marketing consumer.

Which one are you?



UPDATE (5/12/09)

Reading back over this post I realized that I left out an essential point:

IN NO DO I WAY ENCOURAGE OR ENDORSE THE BEHAVIOR OR PRACTICES OF MLM JUNKIES.

You know who I mean. A notorious bunch that hop from company to company, cross recruiting and making a quick buck selling their training materials or promoting affiliate deals. NOT COOL. You’re a stain on the good name of Network Marketing and I personally want nothing to do with you.

I wrote this article with the intention of helping people make smarter business choices. If you’ve been with a company and have been working it hard for a couple of years and you’re still not making any money, then it may be time to reconsider. No matter how much you love the product or the company, it gets to a point where you have to step back and say enough is enough because the truth is there may be a company out there that is a better fit for you. Conduct your business objectively and you’ll save yourself time, money and heartache.

Twitter for the Newbie: a Network Marketer’s Guide

For various reasons, many people in my Network Marketing organization have shied away from the social media colossus that is Twitter. Some misunderstood the service, stating that they have no interest in reading about what breakfast cereal people are eating or what TV show they’re watching. Others have been completely intimidated by it fearing that there’s no way they can manage multiple thousands of friends. Whatever the reason, it all really just stems from not being familiar with Twitter and therefore not seeing its true power as a social networking tool.

Now, I didn’t “get” Twitter from the beginning when I first created my profile. When I started, I did exactly what most people do – tweet about what I was doing. “Driving to the store” or “Having sushi for dinner. Yummm” were typical posts from my early days on Twitter. Epic Fail.

When I started taking Twitter more seriously, I finally began learning how to leverage it as a networking tool. And after weeks of really examining how everyone communicated on the service, I finally attained (though self-appointed, wink, wink, el oh el) the title of Twitter Badass.

So, I’ve put together this guide for Network Marketers new to Twitter so that you guys don’t have to go through the same embarrassments and frustrations that I did.

• First, make certain you have a profile picture, one that you feel speaks to your character and personality; remember, social networking is about letting people get to know YOU


• Following that train of thought, fill out the Bio section. Don’t say that you’re a guru of web 2.0 or that you’re an expert of attraction marketing because there’s tons of people that calling themselves that. Be original. Again, let people know YOU


• Once you’ve gone about the business of setting up your profile; you can now set forth on the task of acquiring followers. You can start by following people you know or know of, especially those with already large followings. You’ll pick up a few followers just by doing this. The basic principle is follow and be followed. There’s a neat little service call Twollo where you can set it to automatically follow people who tweet certain keywords. For example I have mine set to follow anyone tweeting “network marketing” and “attraction marketing” and “MLM” just to name a few.


• So, you’ve got your account set up and you’ve started following and being followed. Now what? Here’s where a lot of Network Marketers start making mistakes.
  
  What NOT to do: do NOT post silly irrelevant tweets about what you’re doing right now. That’s boring and un-engaging. Do NOT post tweets that blast your deal or affiliate program. No pitching or you risk being outright ignored. If your tweets sound more like classified ads than a conversations, that’s probably where they belongs.
  
  What TO do: Tweet with value, things that people can learn from and use. If you have a blog with helpful information on building a business, tweet it. If you recently wrote an article on new prospecting methods, tweet it. Offering value not only catches people’s attention but it also gets the conversation going. And that’s the most important thing to remember. It’s all about the conversation, about connecting.

The power of Twitter come from the speed and ease at which one can connect with other people. As a Network Marketer, it’s really a dream come true because it has the same vast reach of other networking sites but without the frills and distractions. The simplicity of its format caters perfectly to starting conversations. So, when you get on Twitter, talk to people. Engage them. Take the skills you learned off line and apply them online. Build your list by building relationships. Increase your credibility by letting people get to know you, like you, and trust you. Do this, and you will have tapped into the massive leveraging power of Twitter.




Interested in learning how to leverage social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook and Youtube? Register for FREE at www.RonnieCruz.com to learn the basics of Online Attraction Marketing.