Category Archives: Home Improvement

Alternative MLM Lead Generation Using Internet Attraction Marketing As a Powerful Tool

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I have been involved in Network Marketing for about 10 years now. I have had pretty good success but I found myself wanting more, more, more. After all, who doesn’t enjoy getting up whenever you want, going where ever you want and being the master of your own time. No one puts time restrictions on me and I love that!

I have read every self help book, written & rewritten my prospecting list, ran through my memory jogger again & again, attacked my warm market, called leads, followed the 3 foot rule, did 3 ways, duplication (make it simple), watched webinars, did thousands of conference calls and so on. Sound familiar? I was what you would call, a traditional network marketer. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with the old system and it still works today for many people including myself. I still prospect the traditional way, that will never leave me but, I have added an additional prospecting tool…the internet. Here is how that happened:

I had begun to get stale with the old style prospecting and started my search for new ways to reach large groups of people. After all, I had become one of the most well versed people in my company about my products & leadership but, I needed to be able to share that with the masses.

I met with a local Chamber of Commerce group called SCORE. SCORE is a group of retired business people that were/are highly successful with their ventures. They take a look at what you are doing and they give you ideas on how to achieve the next level of success. Weirdly enough, I was the very first network marketer that they had counseled with. Even so, they really dug in and came back with a smart business plan for me.

They told me that I needed to position myself as an expert in my field, someone that people wanted to feature at meetings or on websites etc. That would be easy enough…I had giant knowledge on my product, I love to get in front of a group of people and I had become a leader that people respected. They told me that as I was positioning myself as an expert in my field I needed to begin Social Networking. I was unaware of that term at the time but soon after that I began to read about it everywhere. They mentioned that I needed to get very familiar with social websites like MySpace & Facebook. I needed to learn their rules and begin networking…as an expert…on those sites offering more than just my product, there are millions doing that. I needed to offer them something different than all of the others, an experts view with useful information. Attraction marketing, attracting prospects to your expertise and/or useful information.

Wow, I was excited! I was going to go right out and get myself in front of the masses…right? Hold up, not as easy as it sounds without connecting with someone who really knows about exactly how to do it. Time went on, I searched all over the internet for information on how to begin my quest at Social Networking. Luckily I found Ann Sieg’s 7, Great Lies of Network Marketing, which lead me to a couple of e-books that I bought that were exactly what SCORE had been talking about, how to get into the social network. I read both of them front to back, highlighted, turned pages down, underlined and basically destroyed the books. I was even more excited now, there were so many ways to do social networking, I was going to be an overnight success.

As I began my research on a few of the avenues, I became highly overwhelmed, there was so much to know! So much that I sat back and said…if I, of all people, am having trouble absorbing this and even knowing where to begin…how in the world am I going to get my team members to duplicate? Roadblock!! Or, so I thought. All I needed to do was learn all of it and then put it in a simplified version to all of my interested team members, right?

Many late nights of studying this type of marketing for prospects continued to solidify in my mind, this IS going to be the way to go, I must learn. I just need the right coach…someone who has positioned themselves as an expert on this info. I am going to become the expert in my field but to do that I needed the help of an expert in another field…makes sense. Just what the SCORE group said, I was beginning to believe that they actually knew what they were talking about. Wow, good advice for free, how uncommon.

There was a ton of information in the e-books I had ordered and the companies that I bought them from followed up with great emails about Social Networking. I was jumping all over the place trying to compile as much info as I could when BINGO…there it was!

A Social Marketing University, right there in one of my books. A University that I could join for only $40 a month that would teach me everything I needed to know, and in the order I needed to know it. They basically took my hand and guided me like I was a kindergartner through all of the different avenues I could use to market. They walked me through a step by step tutorial on setting up anything I was going to need to become successful at this. They also hooked me up with the right resources (priceless) that I would be using, and they taught me how to do all of this at a very minimal cost to me…most of it is free. They even taught me how to make money with some of these sites while I was prospecting so I could recover some of the costs I would incur, including the $40 monthly membership…this is called monetization, very powerful. Thank You Ann Sieg for leading me there!

Yes, it was time consuming to go through all of the modules but, when I think of the time & money I saved myself by letting them guide me through it…I am amazed. (not to mention I probably would have gotten too bogged down with my research before I succeeded, and put it on the back burner).

They set me up to succeed, which is exactly what I am doing. With my knowledge I can market how ever I want. I can market my product, my self and my opportunity all in a way that people come to me for these things. The days of talking someone in to joining my team are over! I have people that want to join my team that don’t even know what my product is. The University taught me that too. Like I said, a priceless tool.

Social Marketing is just the answer I was looking for, SCORE told me that for free and now I am doing the same, sharing good information! Nothing comes without some work but, the effort you put in up front with this program will certainly pay for itself over and over again. I love this quote…it makes all kinds of sense: If you get a chance, take it! If it changes your life, let it! No one ever said this would be easy, they just said it would be worth it.

The Best Twitter Marketing Software of 2012

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Let’s say you’ve got an awesome twitter growth strategy. You’ve got quality content coming from your blog. You’ve got kick-butt social marketing integration that really ties the room together. There’s no question, if you tweet it they will come-but how do you steamline your social media for faster results, less invested time, and greater ROI?

Well, that’s easy. You let the wonders of technology do the heavy lifting for you.

At this point in the game there are only two pieces of twitter marketing software that you will ever need: HootSuite and TweetAdder. With them you can accomplish every task your little blue bird heart desires, including tweet automation, follower management, keyword searching, and more.

Getting Followers While You Sleep with TweetAdder

I have so much praise for TweetAdder’s marketing tools that in our upcoming “Essential Guide to Getting Twitter Followers” eBook I’m devoting an entire chapter to it. It’s the must-have twitter software for marketers, and that goes double if you’re managing multiple accounts. At $55 for a basic license (less if you use Retail Me Not) it isn’t cheap, but if you’re serious about marketing this tool will pay for itself a thousand times over. Here’s a quick breakdown of features you need to be using if you want to step up your social media game.

RSS - To gain followers organically you need to tweet, and tweet consistently. TweetAdder’s RSS function lets you automatically tweet new blog posts from your favorite sources throughout the day so that your feed never gets old. You can control the maximum amount of daily updates and variable timing between tweets. You can even set different hashtags to pin on, such as #marketing, so that you get the most interaction possible from each update.

Follower Management - Automatically follow those who follow you, and stop following once you hit a certain ratio (1.2 follows to followers, for example.) You can automatically unfollow accounts who do not follow you back after a certain amount of time, and control it so that only mass-added follows made with TweetAdder are affected.

Find New People to Follow - Search based on keywords to target accounts in your industry or area. For marketers, search your demographic and start reaching out. Add these accounts to a list that you can follow all at once or gradually follow over a period of time. You can automatically stop adding new follows once you hit a certain ratio.

Thank You Messages - This is a critical area for marketers, especially when we get into the hundreds of reasons you should be content marketing. Automatically direct message a thank you and an ebook, a blog post, or an offer every time you get a new follower so that you can drive traffic to your website or landing page.

There are oodles of other features in TweetAdder, but I consider those the most critical. Other features, such as automatically generating tweets, auto-RTing, and auto-replying, are tricky to use without making it blatantly clear you’re using a twitter bot. With TweetAdder you can manage additional accounts (for an additional price) making it very worthwhile for when you have a ton of clients on your plate. Just be careful with TweetAdder and user your powers for good, not evil. Nobody likes a spammer, and if you’re using the program correctly nothing should look out of the ordinary.

HootSuite: Monitor Everything You Need

TweetAdder is fine for automating your workload, but what about when you need to get hands-on? HootSuite is the best management software for the job, and if you’re part of a marketing team, it only gets better. Here’s a breakdown of my favorite features:

Full Social Media Integration - HootSuite isn’t just a twitter tool, it’s a social-everything tool. Post updates to multiple twitter accounts, facebook accounts, linked in groups, and more all at the same time. Or don’t. Post messages, photos, links, and more to only one of those things. It’s your tool, man, I don’t judge.

Monitor Multiple Feeds at Once - At a glance, monitor your outgoing tweets, your direct messages, your news feed, keywords, and people talking about you all in side-by-side feeds.

Tabbed Browsing - Switch between different feeds by clicking on tabs. How cool is that?

Detailed Analytics - Basic analytics support (interaction, click-throughs) comes from ow.ly, but if you’re willing to spend a little bit extra you can get incredibly in-depth breakdowns of your growth rate, interactions, follower demographics, and more. This is FANTASTIC when you want to be able to show quantifiable results for your brand or client.

Project and team-based collaboration - You can create projects, assign teams of users, and manage to-do lists all from within HootSuite, letting you effectively communicate with the rest of your marketing team.

HootSuite and TweetAdder aren’t the only game in managing your Twitter account, but they’re the big dogs for a reason, they’re comprehensive, and the price tag that comes along with TweetAdder and HootSuite Pro is low enough to not be an issue. It’s your ticket to better results, and you’ll notice the difference immediately.

If you’re an agency, another option well worth mentioning is newcomer Sprout Social. For managing clients and creating in depth reports, their eye-catching interface and analytics can’t be beat. at $59 a month per user it’s the Rolls Royce of social media management services, but in this consultant’s opinion, if you can afford it, it’s worth every penny.