Network Marketing and the Internet

With the advances in technology growing your network marketing business via the internet has become much more practical, even easier. While I would hesitate to say all of the most successful network marketers are tapping into the power of technology and the internet, there may be a handful that don’t. By virtue of the fact that you are reading this, you are probably finding it difficult if not impossible to believe that there are networkers that are not tapping into the power of the internet.

With today’s busy hectic schedules you must be able to work with people when and where they are available. As such an on-line network marketer is in a much better position to be able to respond to the busy schedules of their prospects. More importantly a successful network marketer can literally be anywhere in the world when connecting with their prospects, showing presentations, providing training and more.

In the past network marketers where limited by distance, time, schedules, inconvenient forms of communication, lack of training, limited marketing and let’s not forget the all important sells skills. However, we worked with what was available and many obtained significant levels of success. Today we all have choices.

The majority of network marketers that I work with today know it is not a choice that they learn new to work with technology and to take advantage of the internet. As a simple example a well designed and current website will greatly increase your sales, new business builders and opt-ins for more information.

I am going to preface this information with the statement that “with all of the options that are available to you it is essential that you do not neglect your primary business”. Remember you are using the internet as a method of generating new prospects and marketing your primary business. In essence a large part of what you are using the internet for is your Marketing.

Which brings us to the question of where you will want to start your marketing activities?

While there are a large number of marketing strategies and sites to make use of some of the more popular sites are: Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Squidoo, Digg, Forums, E-zines and the list could go on. With all of these venues the consistency of use is probably more important than anything. If you post a large amounts of content once per month and ignore the sites in between you will not be nearly as effective as the person that posts small amounts of content on a daily basis.

As an example: when joining social networking sites, forums or other groups it is important to stay connect with the other affiliates and network marketing prospects. Because many of these groups focus on topics that are of interest to your target market they provide an excellent way of interacting with and building relationships with your target market. Don’t be so narrow minded as to forget that many of these sites become excellent resources of learning and/or getting specific questions answered to questions that you may have. If you are having a challenge, chances are there are other experts on these sites that have struggled with the very same problem.

While I am fortunate to work with a large number of Network Marketers that understand the importance of being professionals and take pride in being leaders in the industry, you will inevitably run into those that do not understand this concept. These individuals tend to standout list a neon-light because they are the ones spamming everyone and trying to sell everyone they interact with. I personally try to help them because many are new to the industry they are excited about their opportunity and simply have not been mentored by anyone. Now, I am also quick to dump those that refuse to learn and will not listen to good advice.

In line with being a professional and establishing yourself as a leader in the industry it is important to follow up with your new prospects. If you are not making use of an auto-responder make sure that you respond to all requests for information within a 24 to 48 hour time frame. Additionally, I personally HIGHLY recommend that when possible you pick up the phone and call your prospects to introduce yourself and let them know you are available to answer their questions. Remember that another word for the Network Marketing industry is Relationship Marketing. You may be marketing great products and the best opportunity ever made available, but you are still in the people business.

As with your overall business, if you have any expectations of success it is important that you have a plan that defines where, how and when you will be marketing your primary business opportunity on the internet. If you will recall I recommended that you keep in mind that you are using the internet as a method of growing your primary business opportunity and that the internet is not your business. One way to ensure that this happens to put together a simply on-line marketing plan that defines the marketing strategies that you will use, how much time you are going to devote to each strategy, and most importantly what you expect to gain from your efforts. This will allow you to stay on track with your marketing efforts and provide you with the guidelines to measure your results.

As a professional you will want to know which sites work best, which marketing strategies, which affiliate programs and how many prospects you are generating as a result of your efforts. In the cases where things are not measuring up to your expectations you will need to decide if it should be dropped in favor of something more productive or if a change can be made to improve the effectiveness.

While I still actively participate in traditional forms of networking and prospecting, I can say with a very high level of confidence that network marketers not tapping into the power of the internet have GREATLY limited their chances of success. Advances in internet technology have made it such that taking your network marketing business to the internet is not only practical…..it is now a must. To Your Success!

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