It's a rainy day here as Hurricane Harvey continues to make it's landfall. The roads are flooded, schools are closed, and to beat the shut-in blues, I turn to my trusty journal to look over some fun content. Today brings me to a subject that most business owners can appreciate and hopefully use. Hopefully, for the sake of us all some will read this, right? Do you ever scroll through your newsfeed and do the dreaded eye roll? Usually that's a sign that someone isn't using their social media savvyness. It may also mean, they forgot their social media etiquette or perhaps never learned it all. We've all been there, learning to navigate online, So here's some help. In fact, these five things can cause you to lose a lot of followers, social media friends, break some DSA Ethics rules, and even lose some respect in the real world. Who would have thought, right? Let's get started...
1) Let's start with Prospect Poaching. Who knows if it's a real term but it's what I call it for sure. I know it's hard to believe, but Prospect Poaching is happening and they are lurking behind the screen of your computer doing it every day. Yep, all those customers, team members and followers could be receiving messages from another "not so ethical" business owner. You may have spend months or even years building a network traveling many miles, investing in others, and with a keystroke they are trying to persuade them. How do they get your contacts? Well, here's some of the prospect poaching games they play:
A) They infiltrate your private customer group and then begin adding them as friends and adding them to their group or messaging them. I know tacky right. So to the GirlBoss, be careful who you add to your private group and my virtual office staff immediately removes people they see selling a competing product from my groups. It's just to risky to have my clients spammed and annoyed by someone unethically connecting with them.
B) They are a former member of a company and use contacts from that organization to move them to a new one. YIKES. This is BIG as some are company hoppers. So, let's put this into prospective..... you, with all the courage and grit and commitment you can muster, build an organization from the ground up. You have team members that you have met, built a relationship with, mentored them in business, poured into them and sent dozens of gifts, applause, recognition, and for some you even traveled to invest in their growth. And then...you have someone who moved on to another company (maybe their 3rd, 4th, 5th) and they begin soliciting your team to buy, host, or even sell that product. Your top people privately message you and let you know that they are being approached by this person. Sadly it happens. As a rule of thumb for those building a new business, Be willing to do the hustle. Shortcuts lead to long delays of real success. You might have some instant results, but building your business on someone's hard work, courage and grit will leave you with no longterm success and lots of internal integrity issues. What I learned in doing the real work of building an organization is all that i needed to know to sustain and pass on to others. Imagine trying to teach your downline how to build with integrity if you did not. I mean do you really plan to teach them poaching from another company? Nah
C) They are commenters. Not a real word yet according to Webster but I predict it will be soon. These are people commenting on your post. They are competitors on fb and instagram using your hashtags and commenting on your posts with the sole intent to catch the eye of your customers and followers. It's all good unless they are trying to connect with them because they sell a similar product. (Insert, MAJOR EYE ROLL). That changes everything because that means they are trying to take that business away from you and to them. You can delete the comment, block them, or ignore. The game usually subsides once they are not noticed or ignored. I once saw someone Brand Bashing (#2) my brand and then commenting niceties on all my posts. Umm, ummm that's not how this works. You get to choose your followers, colleagues, friends and lifers and if someone deliberately tries to negatively impact your business, they are not a true friend. True friends ROOT for your RISE! Let's be clear, They celebrate your wins and want your success just as much as you do.
2) Brand Bashing. Seriously I'm not even believing that I'd ever see these things happening in today's world. It happens every day on social media and it's saddening. So moral of the story... you should never, not ever, speak the name or show a product of another company. Yep, you heard it from my lips. Typically, when you are comparing to another product, you are basically saying they are the leader of your industry. When you speak negatively or boast your superiority, you're audience will see through it. For example, when someone talks badly about another person, how do you feel about the person speaking? I immediately know they are not someone I want in my circle or someone I will trust. So when you speak negatively of other companies and brands, the same happens. Building trust and integrity with your clients is most important to longevity. You can always share the perks and benefits and educate an audience WITHOUT bashing another brand or person. And legally, you could get in some trouble if you make inaccurate claims about another company's product or marketing plan. I recently had someone tell me how their marketing plan was superior to mine in a certain way and what they said about my marketing plan was completely inaccurate. They had no idea what they were saying and i guess they assumed I wasn't truly informed myself. Well that was insulting, unethical and untrue. NO wonder no one has heard about that company in months---- when you base your presentation on bashing, comparisons, inaccuracies, etc, you will lose respect and a following. Simply educate about your brand and if it's a need in their life, you'll have a follower and maybe even a lifer.
3) Facebook Flooding - oh my gracious, where do i begin. Buy a social media book, take a facebook lesson, or simply analyze your own FB habits and thoughts. If your last 7 messages are about your business, If you have posted 2 or 3 times today about your business and what is being offered, If you have posted selfie after selfie, or photo after photo of your product, If you are begging people to join, buy this, last DAY for my goal and you do it nearly every month - THEN I"M GOING TO SHARE 2 PROFOUND WORDS that can IMPACT your life - STOP IT!! You are being UNFOLLOWED all the time and pretty soon you will have NO AUDIENCE at all. And while you might have some initial success, it will fade. People do not get on FB to see your 42 posts that week about your product or business. Develop a new habit, mix it up. Attraction Marketing versus Crazy-Person at the Mall Kiosk Begging. And if you do some how build a team doing your business this way, they will do what you do. Monkey see, monkey do! So pretty soon you'll have an entire team of women flooding facebook and then a whole organization not using social media etiquette. Do you see your insurance agent on FB begging for someone to come have an appointment with him? Do you see a local physician on FB begging for someone to come into his exam room to help his office reach their 30 patient goal? Do you see a successful hair stylist begging for someone to come get their haircut - NO way! For the love of everything green and good, STOP IT! You are diminishing the image and professionalism for all of those in the direct selling industry. Just STOP IT and learn to mix it up! ;)
4. Exaggerated Product Claims - Have you ever seen a before and after photo comparison and noticed that something was fishy. Yep, like the lighting was better in the after or noticed a hint of touchup in the after? Or the difference in someone using professional lighting and cameras as if they will have them follow them around all day for that gorgeous glow. I see it all the time. It is by far one of the biggest turnoffs to your brand and you. Making claims of cures for illnesses is actually a good way for your company to get federally investigated. Making exaggerated product claims definitely raises a brow about you and your company. Your product loyalty and reorder rate should exemplify the effectiveness for each customer. And letting your customers share their personal testimony versus you sharing building authenticity. Idea, give an incentive for your customers to share and create a unique hashtag for your client base. Instead of sharing it all yourself, let people see all the true customer testimonials by sharing your #Hashtag!
5) Exaggerated Earnings Claims - This can prove to be a risky endeavor. When you stay the course in direct selling, you see a lot. I can see a person claiming they are making $5,000, $10,000, $15,000 a month and then 3 months later they are on to something else or working min wage in a store. Ummm... that just doesnt add up, maam. If you were working part=time earning that and claimed to LOVE IT SO MUCH and everyone should join your team, wouldn't you still be doing it. Stay with the facts your company has provided. Share the whole story. The worse thing you can do is bring people into your business with inappropriate expectations. I love to show a weekly summary sheet--- showing the work I do and the earnings from it. They can see an accurate description of the effort and the results. And, over time, people will know your success by the way you give and the way you live.
So, there are my top 5 Tips and No-Nos for Social media. I hope they help you or if you see someone doing it all wrong, simply share my blog and maybe they will stumble across this post and learn a few pointers to get them back on track and building authentic business while maintain business respect and a growing following in the social media world. Until we meet again, let's keep it classy ladies. And here's the link to the SNL STOP IT Skit that I play in my head as a scroll through social media and unfollow folks - https://youtu.be/LhQGzeiYS_Q
