Social Media Marketing Etiquette

Marketing through social media is considered an essential addition to your business. Through networking, you will be able to increase exposure to your website. However you must be careful when using different social media platforms. When using different social media, you must be sure to follow the guidelines set forth in friend requests and posting on others’ walls.
When I first began my network marketing career, I began joining groups and adding friends from these groups I was joining. Everything I read on the “net” stated that Facebook was a social media marketing powerhouse. Yet, no one explained to me the way to make this marketing techniques work for my business. There is a rule of “etiquette” that must be observed when using social media to market a business or products. By following social media etiquette, you will be sure to gain friends and followers who may eventually convert to clients or customers.
My first experience with “when social media marketing goes wrong” was with an older lady I requested as a friend on Facebook. After, joining a work at home group, I requested various individuals from the group to be friends. A day after requesting her friendship, she sent me an irate email. In her email, she called me and everyone in my organization multiple names. She begged me to inform everyone that they were abusing their use of Facebook. She also stated that many of her friends had the same opinions and were sick of the unsolicited messages from different distributors in the company. I wrote her back and informed her that it was not my intent to harass her through the site. I was connecting with others of “like” minds, who may be interested but I was also looking to learn more marketing techniques from others in my field. She accepted my impromptu apology and we never spoke again to one another.
From that one experience (and a couple others), I learned about “how-to” and “how-not-to” use Facebook or other social media platforms to market. The lessons I learned are as follows:
1. Request individuals of similar interests or within the same organizations you are a member.
Through this process, you ensure that you and the requested friend have something in common.
2. After individuals have accepted your “friend requests”, avoid sending unsolicited messages to others. When posting information, have individuals “inbox” you. This will ensure that they are interested and are accepting receipt of the information you were offering.
3. Use the event calendar to post information regarding website additions, information meetings and showcases. Invite all and those who are interested will have the option to attend. I always set a time limit to make the event appear to be for a limited time. This information can also be posted your wall.
4. When possible, correspond with your new friends (potential clients/customers) by making comments to posts or even just simply wishing happy birthdays or anniversaries. Even though this process can be time consuming, people tend to buy or show interests in things presented to them by people they know or trust. Relationship building is key.
5. Post often and be sure it is a mix of your business information and other information. I like to use motivational quotes, tidbits about my day or opinions about current events. Business only posting can turn individuals off.
Though, the bad experiences at the beginning set me back a little. I learned that it was all part of the business and it was a lesson learned. The same information that I am sharing in this article, I shared with a young lady who had been sending me 8 emails within an hour for over 5 days. I finally responded to her emails and informed her of how often they were being sent to me. She apologized but I also told her because of the multiple emails, it was a “turn-off” and I never read any of them. I continued speaking with her and shared the above hints to help her in her recruiting. The young lady thanked me and the messages stopped. Network marketing can be a daunting task, but if you remain patient and diligent, it will pay off. I absolutely believe that social media marketing is well worth the work, as long as you do it the right way.

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