Networking on Facebook

October 19, 2011

Today’s blog is about building a network without building “relationships”, because few people actually recommend anything to anyone when they want to make money from their friends. Friends do not always want to help friends “get ahead”. Strangers are more likely to help you build your business if they see some value in what you have to offer. It’s not always cash savings or sales but people want value in products and services they know are guaranteed to deliver even if they never know who you are. Why even call it networking.

Networking is cheaper, more affordable, economical, and even green. I tried this product, became a member and told others. They in turn did the same. We never met. What is so hard about that? On a recent web site I read… “It’s no secret: U.S. consumers continue to spend increasing amounts of time on Facebook”. “…Facebook also allows them to grow their business in a way that is familiar …through word-of-mouth marketing.”  Yet Facebook may not be the ideal media for building a network market. Setting up a page requires a link to your personal page and finding new contacts outside your contact list is next to impossible.

Most people find it difficult to get friends and family involved even on Facebook. There must be a way to reach likeminded strangers over the internet without targeting your “warm market”. Network marketing on line has to be different from conventional online marketing, email marketing, paid per click advertising and other website ads. How do you reach someone new on line and promote your product one on one to someone you have never met, using the each one reach one concept, finding likeminded marketers?

I don’t want to commute back and forth to an office location. I really don’t want to go to meetings or seminars. I do want to promote products and services I believe in and this should all be possible on line, from anywhere I can get internet access…we have the technology, its available, so what’s the problem? What makes this even more dynamic is the way it should enhance promoting a product to prospective customers. I have always believed that in order to promote anything you have to first try it yourself. All of my products and services are available through web sites; adding value to your life. It is duplicable.

I opened a site recently for free called Café 2000. I thought it was a good idea to promote a device called Roku and open dialogue about movies we might all want to see from books. Take a look: Movie Café 2000 , it only took me an hour to build the site and they host the site for free. I like Roku because it only cost me once to buy the unit, was really easy to set up and gave me access through my WI-Fi at home to a lot of movies, news and educational material for free…how cool is that? It would be even “cooler” if someone ordered a Roku from the site because I joined on as an affiliate. Wix allows us to build a free site with free hosting. I built this site to promote Roku which I think is fantastic...I got one months ago when I got tired of paying for cable and streaming Netflix was really cheap. I want people to tell their friends but it would be more effective if strangers visiting the site had a way to tell other strangers.

I have been using Traffic Swarm it’s a site that helps build traffic to your web sites and blogs. The problem I realize is that I don’t surf these sites to see someone else’s product as much as I do to build traffic to my own site. If I upgrade to “Pro” then I’m not surfing at all. So, it’s more than likely that most other members are doing the same and no one is getting any new customers. I still like using the site because it reaches out to strangers and cost me zero. I only need to reach one person that understands networking and is willing to duplicate the process. That one person is worth it even if I pay to upgrade to pro.

In closing today’s blog I want to share that I have learned that applying the law of attraction is about taking action with intent…whatever that intention may be. Today I was looking for you, whoever you are, to join my network.