Gary Vaynerchuk Website

Building Personal Brand Within the Social Media Landscape. Note: This presentation contains adult language.

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I remember feeling quite guilty... Almost depressed for some of the people's lack of success on my team. If you are a network or internet marketer you can relate to the frustration of not being able to find prospects that succeed and stay in your business opportunity long-term.

You probably feel that no matter how hard you try to help prospects start their business, If they're not making a living in 12months...they're over it.

You continue to try various ways to encourage them, however, duplicating yourself just doesn't seem to happen. Why? Every network marketer with at least 50 reps will start to wrestle with this question at some point.

When this happened to me I started spending the vast majority of my time developing new websites, new systems, and new tools in order to help them achieve the success they said they so badly wanted. I basically stopped sponsoring all together and got into the dreaded "management mode," where 90% of my time was spent on training and tool development.

But the funny part, is that nothing ever changed. It didn't matter what I did for them. It didn't matter how bad I wanted "success" for them. The people who were getting results, continued to do so, while those who were treading water, kept treading.

Understand this right now: The only thing you can do that will truly help your business and your team members is to lead by example. Just do the things that you need to personally do on a daily basis to build your business - Advertising, prospecting, follow-up, and new rep orientation.

One training call per week for new reps, tops... Spend more of your time one-on-one with your producers, and that's it.

Just as it is a sorting game to find new reps, it is a sorting game to find reps that will work and achieve once they join. The sad truth is that 90% of those who start a networking business aren't really serious about becoming self-employed. They are just looking to "buy some hope," so they can quiet the voices of discontent in their heads.

Soon enough, they'll find an excuse as to why "it didn't work for them," and quit. And there's nothing you can do about it. So:
* Don't spend your time and energy worrying about it.
* Do not cater to their weakness.
* Do not change your tools if they are working for you.
* Do not change your website if it is working for you.
* Do not change your system if it is working for you -just because it doesn't work for others. It never will work for them, and that is their issue, not yours.

Build YOUR business. Lead by example, and the right one's (the few), will follow you. Put your blinders on to everything and everyone else. I tolerate zero negativity in my life now. Someone sends an unfriendly email... Adios. They're off my list and out of my life.

I was at a convention once and I asked a whale of a network marketer what I needed to do because my down-line had gotten stagnant(I had basically stopped recruiting). "Find new blood" was his answer, and he was right. You're not here to save people.

You're here to give them an opportunity to save themselves. Most won't. And only they can ever change that.

As a business owner, it's much smarter to find "doers" and leaders than it is to turn people into them (which is basically impossible without their personal conviction to do so).

It is also very important that you leverage large numbers in your business building efforts, because you won't even notice the whiners, complainers, and quitters when you're dealing with thousands of people. The best way to do that is to start advertising, then build and maintain a list that you drip on over time. Each new contact will bring new, interested prospects and reps to the table..

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Many home business owners are realizing that using “old methods” to generate leads is becoming outdated in the Internet Era. It’s true that they are very aware of internet marketing since they use it themselves to conduct their own personal searches every day. Though, they really have no idea where to start when it comes to marketing their home business online. Most of them do not have the knowledge, skills or ability to create a functional and attractive marketing system for themselves. They just have no idea how to create highly converting capture pages, how to write compelling ad copy, and how to structure follow-ups and sales funnels that would help them generate leads and sign up new distributors into their business.

Many dedicated entrepreneurs put in years of hard work without ever making any real money. They hang in there watching the Top Producers bringing in the people and realize that in order to be successful, they probably need to be talking to 20-50 prospects/day. Unfortunately, there are only so many people in their warm market and most of them are not really very interested in starting a home business.

It’s because of this that most Network Marketers will never have the success that they want and will continue to struggle by using outdated and ineffective tactics that were being used 10 years ago.

The good news is that anyone wanting to earn more money can learn how the Top Pros in the industry do it. There are unique strategies that can be implemented using the internet that will help home business owners, from all types of industries, begin to generate more leads and build their business faster online. Some of these strategies include…

1. Writing articles, blogs and press releases.
2. Placing ads on the internet.
3. Using email lists.
4. Using video and Google.
5. Using social sites like MySpace and Facebook.

In today’s very competitive marketplace, Network Marketers need to start using the power and leverage of the internet along with their very own attraction marketing system. They can then start using Automated Systems to generate more distributors and begin getting themselves on the cutting edge of where this industry is going..

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You've worked with a client for some time. You perceive they are happy with your work. And naturally, you're expecting them to refer business to you and send you new client referrals. Yet the reality is that this person may have certain reservations that he or she has never directly voiced to you (or perhaps subtly hinted about.)

This undertone of Perception vs. Reality is sabotaging your chance to get more referrals and referred business from them. Let me explain.

Positioning, or perception of you, is how the client imagines you versus other choices - namely, your competitors. The fact that their may be a limited supply of your competitors readily available to your client, means the client has limited choices. This can be good for you as short-term retention tool, but it can also sabotage your long-term consistent referral efforts.

For example, let's take a niche such as physicians. Doctors are a busy group. They run hectic practices and hire administrators to oversee their operations. Let's say you are a marketing consultant that helps a doctor increase his or her referred patients. Your expertise is referral marketing.

A doctor may know other professionals, true. But they probably don't know very many who are honed at practice management and referral generation. This reduces their supply of marketing consultant "relationships." While this is an advantage to you as the consultant (limited supply of competitors) it can seriously hurt your relationship. Why?

Human nature being what it is, means worry, concerns and angst will eventually creep in, silently reminding the physician, "You could be getting more referred patients, and there must be someone else you can work with who is good at referral strategies."

The problem is relational-disconnect begins to form. This hurts opportunities for word-of-mouth introductions.

For whatever reason during the time you have worked together, the doctor's perception has now become that you are not as talented as he or she once believed. They may start to imagine and perceive even more: That you are preoccupied. That you've become too busy. That you really aren't as responsive as you once were. And those perceptions - false as they may be to you - continue to grow and grow into accepted reality of the doctor.

The truth is that, we as people, in our distracted, hectic lives, won't always stop to "fact-check" ourselves and our misguided perceptions - to see if they are indeed real. Much like the Doctor, in my example.

To improve you referrals, word-of-mouth marketing and referred business, make sure people you are working with have opportunities to check their perceptions of you versus the reality of the situation. One of the easiest ways of encouraging this is via honest open communication that encourages complaints and objections.

Try saying, "Mr. Client, I've enjoyed our relationship. I'd like you to refer others to me. But before we discuss that, I'd like you to be perfectly candid with me: What have I been doing that has bothered you?"

The comments you hear will go a long way to helping you open genuine communication. They will also impact your chances to get more referrals..

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Referral generating activity from many people often comes from a flaccid, passive role. They sit their and expect word of mouth and customer referrals to magically appear.

No matter their professions, their expectations of referrals are strangely different than the referral results they're getting. And when they finally have the chops to admit it, naturally their frustration over their referral results surfaces.

So what's really going on here with their referrals?

Well under the surface I can tell you that referral frustration (from lack of being active with referral generating activities) is rooted in a mindset. And it's a bad one. It's not grounded on intentions of furthering "progress-based" impressions with the other person.

What do I mean by this?
I mean business interaction involves influencing others. Whether it's direct, indirect, intentionally, or in a passive fashion, that's not the issue. The issue is this: building relationships based on interactions and impressions is at the core. The culmination of success is a "trust-bond" that is formed, to which others become introduced and referred to you.

But you've got to start somewhere. And it starts in a way that means getting to know what others mean to help them advance and progress. When you get to know others, the opportunity for them know you, and your work, is forced to the surface.

However, generating consistent referral flow, or a referral system from that process, takes time. It is a relationship formed on the promise of making progress together--sometime in the future. And that patience is a difficult pill to swallow. You can summarize it as follows:

1. What you know about me;
2. Who you currently know, right now; and,
3. How you creatively use that knowledge to share experiences with others.

If your referrals suck, it's probably because you are not providing progress to others and their lives. Because when you do, they can't help but open their mouths and tell others about you.

It's an approach that is rooted in helping the other person advance and progress based on their needs, NOT your own. And if your referrals do suck now, I'll bet that you've got the equation backwards. Remember, people trust people who bring progress into their lives.

You can do this simply as follows:

1. Genuinely care about the other person's business success.
2. Offer value to them willingly, and often times unexpectedly
3. Allow these benefits to shine so they recognize they will gain much by being associated with you and in an active relationship.

Go for it!.

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Having been involved in on-line communities (social networks or forums/Yahoo! Groups, etc.) for a long time, I have a theory… well, I am sure there are already proven psychological, sociological, and anthropological theories that already exist about organic and inorganic communities from people who are much smarter than me, have PhD after their name and explain it with words that take a dictionary to decipher their meaning. So, I’ll keep it simple and focus on my thoughts (perhaps that’s a better word) from a marketing and social media perspective.

Both communities, from my experience, have several characteristics (and I am sure I won’t capture them all and mileage may vary based on individual driving experience):

Organic Communities:

* Are borne out of passion
* Seem to pop up overnight and attract “like” people that immediately provide conversation/content
* Don’t typically self promote and grow organically by word of mouth
* Have a culture that is specific to their community
* Feed off one another (self-induced psychological pressures, “I want that!” “I need to share this!”)
* Raise up people who contribute to and enhance the community
* Help one another via cross pollination of information
* Encourage sub-communities to form
* Don’t like to be controlled
* Get protective when people interrupt the natural flow of the community through disruptions (the community will self-heal in one way or another)

Inorganic Communities:

* Are created for a specific reason (i.e. to promote, sell, research, connect customers, listen, customer service, etc.)
* Need to work harder to attract members and need to create conversation/content to induce new conversation/content (that ol’ chicken & egg syndrome)
* Often rely on self-promotion to grow
* The culture is that of the company that created it (i.e. passionate about a particular company, cause, etc.)
* The organizers tend to be the experts
* Are more focused and controlled
* Have rules of engagement for members

Now, these might seem like extreme differences and I am sure companies like Communispace, HiveLive and Neighborhood America and community creators/managers probably won’t agree with my list of characteristics of inorganic communities. And that’s okay, they are the pros after all (please chime in, but please don’t promote your products/services). But, after trying to build a community* from the ground up as a company versus easing myself into an organic community on Twitter as an employee, I’d say the latter was much easier and led to natural conversations. I don’t mean to sound negative towards inorganic communities, that’s not my intention. I just think they are harder to produce and don’t typically have the same purpose, culture, need generation, or levels of evangelism. Overall that’s my completely non-scientific theory in a nutshell.

[*I am no longer employed by the company that started the forum.]

Here are a few thoughts for how businesses can leverage organic communities (they have been with me since I wrote about the Pepsi social media campaign back in October):

* Join the above forums/groups and listen to what the community, especially the evangelists, is saying about your brand (but don’t interrupt)
* After a listening for a while (maybe even a long while), join the conversation
* Know and respect the rules of the community (i.e. don’t force yourself into an organically established community)
* Be yourself, not ‘corporate’
* Do not be overtly promotional, but answer questions when they come up
* Take time to find out how the community feels about your brand
* Share some ideas about new product/service concepts and listen to the feedback
* Occasionally offer special deals to the community
* Understand that fragmented conversations happen and have the potential to leave the community - it’s your job to follow them.
* Continue the conversation…daily, on-going, as long as the community exists. (i.e. DO NOT use the community for your branding efforts!)

So what do you think? Have you experience both kinds of communities? Do you think companies would benefit from engaging an organic community versus starting an inorganic one?

[Added: This post has nothing to do with tribes or Seth Godin....haven't even read the book review. I have had these thoughts for years after being an active member of three on-line groups and experiencing first hand what happens within them and how companies don't engage or appreciate organic communities that embrace their products.].

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