66 | Four Key Alternatives to Social Media When it Comes to Building Your Network Marketing Business
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[00:00:00] Hey friends. And welcome back to the call to lead podcast. So today I'm going to be continuing the conversation from last week's episode. Which was looking back over my year of it being off of social media and stopping my focus from trying to grow a social media following. And instead taking my full focus, eliminating social media and focusing on other strategies.
That could build my business without social media. And so today's episode is going to be a continuation. If you haven't listened to the last one, definitely go check it out.
But essentially in that episode, I broke down four ways that you can choose to leverage or not social media in order to build and grow your network marketing business. And those four ways were ignore. By ignoring social media. The second way was by becoming an online influencer or going the influencer route. The third way was the investment route. And then the fourth way, which is what I'm choosing to move into because I'm officially [00:01:00] back on social media friends, starting with baby steps with Facebook.
So I've come back to Facebook socially as of this week, and it feels pretty good to be reconnected, but I'm going to be doing lots of content in the coming weeks and interviews around all of the different strategies of how to do it. But today in this episode, I'm going to start specifically on the first option, which is the ignore method for those of you guys who truly, and again, I think this is a small percentage, but for those of you guys who truly want to know what are the alternatives for building your business?
That do not involve social media. So whether or not you want to go the ignore path and you want to just completely delete Facebook or delete Instagram, even if it's for a season in your business. I've talked about this on previous podcasts as well, where sometimes you might just want to take a break. Maybe you're a little bit burned out. So maybe it's a break for a month or even a week, or setting boundaries for yourself to do without it for one week, each month or one month, each quarter. [00:02:00] So however you choose to do it.
Today's episode is all going to be focused on the ignore strategy and four key alternatives that I have been focusing on over the last year. That even if you are staying on social media, these are ways that you can take baby steps towards building deeper connections through the ways that we're going to talk about today.
Okay. So before I get into the four key alternatives to social, you might want to know ~like, ~okay, wait, why the heck did you decide to completely step away from social media for an entire year? And essentially that all starts with the fact that I see a problem in our industry and in the company that I'm in, in social selling, which actually social selling is ~kind of ~the problem. ~If I'm, ~if I'm being real, where people have felt that the only way to build a business is by growing a social media following.
But I have seen that to actually be a problem for those who want not to build their own business or not to become an online influencer, but those who [00:03:00] want to be able to build a business on duplication and building a passive income on a lot of people, being able to do this business because not everybody's cut out for all of that.
So I am a problem solver by nature and I. I'm not scared to do things in a different way. So that's why I decided, all right, I'm going to see. What this looks like to completely run my business for a year with no social media. And so what, the things that I'm talking to you about today are things that I have focused on over the last year. And I'm going to go into why I think some of them are absolutely things that you can and should be focusing on in your business.
Okay. So the four key alternatives to social media are number one in person. Whether that's an in-person get together about your product, whether that's small classes or larger parties, whether that is doing, for example, talking about ~your, ~your,~ um,~ your distribution opportunity or someone joining or enrolling in your company, but doing that in an in-person endeavor, right?
Not online. So we're going to talk about that first, first and foremost in [00:04:00] person, number two, we're going to talk about networking, which I thought about full disclosure lumping those together. But I think because of that has been a specific strategy that I will continue to focus on through specifically B and I, which we'll talk about in a second.
I'm going to group that as a separate one. So networking is the second key alternative. The third one is referrals, and this is super powerful. And I would say this has been one of the most impactful on my business over the last year. Okay. And then the fourth option is tech alternatives that aren't social media, but they are ~kind of ~stepping into the wave of the future and meeting your customers right where they are and simplifying things like your customer service in order to serve your existing customers.
~Well, ~to make sure that your new customers or potential customers or your new artists or your new distributors. Are well taken care of. Okay. So those are the four areas. And I'm going to talk about each one of them in this episode today. So the first one, let's talk about in-person. So in-person is something that you're probably actually hearing a lot of buzz about, [00:05:00] regardless of whether it's in the network marketing industry, because in a post COVID world, people are craving connection. And we've ~kind of ~been ~in a, ~in a season and a few years now where we have been ordering a heck of a lot of things online, and that's great that we still have that option, but people love.
Number one, the option to try whatever product that you're selling and representing in-person to see it, touch it, feel it, taste it. If that's applicable. ~Right ~to experience that, but then also people are craving the literal connection with another human, I think now more than ever, because we're just ~kind of ~tired of that online world. ~Right. ~So if you can focus your strategies, whether again, that's in a, one-to-one where ~you're, ~you're inviting someone over to just give your products a try or you're inviting them to go to coffee, to maybe even talk about the business model that you have and your.
You know what it looks like to do, what you do with the business side of it. ~Um, ~or whether you are doing what I love, because again, if you're going to have one person ever, why not have a handful? Why not have 2, [00:06:00] 4, 6 people. Over at once. It's just more fun that way, because people ~kind of ~feed off of each other. Again, people love an excuse to get together. Maybe for like wine and cheese. Hello. Charcuterie boards have ~like ~blown up. So why not have a little.
~You know, ~wine and cheese party showcasing your product. You can start with you. You don't have to go out and find hostesses. In fact, if you're worried about what your home looks like, or, ~you know, ~if your kids are going to be there, I'm telling you sometimes the more relatable, the more real, the more impactful it can be for someone I'll never forget. My very first in-person.
Was actually for another,~ uh,~ art, another distributor on my team, but we just literally sat around her coffee table and she invited her mom and some neighbors and we played makeup. We, none of us really knew what we were doing because we were all new with it, but we just had so much fun getting to know each other and actually still one of the ladies is a customer and I see her at church all the time.
And so again that we have a deeper connection and deeper relationship because we got together in person in a very simplistic way. Another [00:07:00] thing, and this is not something that actually was able to do this past year, but it is something I've done in the past that is super powerful. And I've heard of people specifically in the, in this industry doing really well with in-person prospecting events. And what I mean by that is like a meet whatever the name of your company is, where, ~you know, ~you might rent out a little room or a banquet room at a Mexican restaurant, or again, you have people over to maybe a hotel conference room or just to your home.
Or maybe you're a clubhouse in your neighborhood and you just invite people who might be interested in doing what you do to learn more about it by meeting your local teammates. This is something that is super powerful, that absolutely can build your business. And it gives you number one, a tool to invite, and a tool is just anything other than yourself, whether it's an event, whether it's a video, whether it's a person, a third party tool is something other than you that can share the power of what your product or what it is that you do.
And having an event [00:08:00] like that is a powerful third-party tool for you to invite that dream TV that you just think would be amazing with, ~you know, ~for your business and invite her over to this little event that you're hosting. Okay. And it does not have to be huge. It can be smaller and intimate that way. People really get to know each other. You can, again, invite your sideline TVs. You can invite your downline. You can, ~you know, ~anybody that's local in the area can use that as an option to get together.
I also have tag team on a training at the end of this before where say for the first hour, it's ~kind of ~a mix and mingle where anyone's welcome. And then the second hour is a training where I invite some of my local leaders to speak and we, if someone decides they want to join. And dive in. They can get trained right then and there and learn from people. So they have the option to stay if they want to join and enroll on the spot. So this is something again that his people have been using. This is not new. This is not even innovative. This is something that even my previous company that I was with, [00:09:00] gosh, it was probably eight years ago at this point.
This is something they, this is how the business was built. They did this, I think, once a month and they rented out a hotel room and they would have ~this, ~this training slash get together. And it was, and they did recognition and it was just ~really, ~really powerful. So this is something that you can do too. And I'm telling you this number, this first alternative, and it might be a little bit of an obvious one, but it's one that I'm telling you. If you just try it out.
You might find that it's fulfilling for you too, because you're going to be meeting with real life people. You're going to get to see your product in action. And it's going to be building your business in a different way. So the first area is in person. Okay. The second one. So again, I thought about combining them because they're ~kind ~similar, but it's just good old fashioned networking. So any business owner, whether maybe you're a wedding photographer or a realtor, or maybe you've sold insurance before, you know that finding connections and meeting people who might be a potential customer.
A lot of times just comes from getting to know [00:10:00] people and telling them about what it is that you do in case they need your product or services. And the same can go for network marketing. So I have been a member of BNI business networking international since last August. And I'm loving it because it's connecting me not only with a community, it's ~kind ~like having a team who's there to support you and connect you with other people because they've gotten to know me every single week for the last,~ well,~ however many months that is since August.
They've gotten to know me and not only are they ~kind of ~an advocate for my business, but they've introduced me to other people. And so it's the power of networking and ~like ~meeting one person and how many people do they know? And then, ~you know, ~like we've got a class set up. ~Um, ~later this month with some of the networked re.
~Uh, ~relationships that I have built from BNI. So business networking international, or just good old fashioned networking events, like business events, women's conferences, things like that can be a powerful way for you to meet people because what's the first thing they ask you. What do you do? [00:11:00] And you can say I help women.
XYZ, whatever your product does, whatever problem your product solves. Okay. So Bob Heilig is famous for his, I help statement. So I know he's got some podcasts out there. If you want to determine what yours is, but. It's as simple as somebody asked me, what I do is I help women simplify their makeup routine by consolidating their makeup into one custom compact. ~So, you know, um, ~it helps women do their makeup fast, easy, and feel beautiful. And the process and people are going to be like, wait, oh, wait, I have that problem.
~Like, ~I would love to have a fast and easy makeup routine and it comes off so much better than if I was like, oh, I'm an independent distributor with St. Beauty. ~Right. ~So coming up with that answer and leveraging something like a networking event or a conference that can be a ~really, ~really powerful way for you to get to know other people. And, okay. So I know this is supposed to be the going deeper on the ignore option.
But if you are listening to this and you are on social, what's really cool is you can then become friends with them. Because again, if you're going to go [00:12:00] the route that I'm recommending, which will come a little bit later in depth, but that's the integrate method. If you're going with the integrate method, this is how you can build those connections from something like a networking event or,~ um,~ or ~like, ~gosh, when I did come back to social media, I posted ~kind of ~a year of updates on my timeline.
~Um, ~just to update my friends who haven't heard from me in a year on some of the things and. And one of the things I posted was a picture of our Bible study, which happens on Mondays and is growing like crazy. ~Well, ~I don't talk about my business at the Bible studies. I have, ~you know, ~when I've done in-person events, I've invited them and given them the option to come in a couple of our customers, couple where customers actually before, one of them is a distributor on my team. ~Um, ~but I'm not looking at my Bible study as an active way to promote my business.
But what I ended up, what I did do when I came back to social, I realized there were at least three of them that I wasn't even friends with on Facebook. Because why would I be even I've met them in person? ~Um, ~I'm not on, I wasn't on social at the time. So what did I do? I added them as a friend. So the next time actually post about my [00:13:00] product or my business.
I don't have to be the one that's ~like, ~Hey, Susie. ~You know, ~do you want to try my product? She might reach out to me because she sees it because I'm integrating it into my social media. Okay. So I know that was a bit of a digression, but I wanted to use that as an example of the power of just networking and getting to know people.
And whether or not you choose to integrate that or, ~you know, ~bring that some of those relationships online on to something like Facebook or Instagram, that's up to you because you can absolutely do it by just good old fashioned, getting to know some folks and sharing what it is that you do. So that's the number two alternative.
Number three. And this one was the most surprising for me, but it's ~kind of ~the most obvious. And it's one that actually am planning to focus a lot more on here in this next coming quarter. And that is the power of referrals. So if you have raving fans in your business, and if you've been in your business at any point in time, you do, you got, ~I mean, ~it might even be a handful for me. I've got, I think about 1200 ish customers.
And so I have about 10, maybe 20% of them that are [00:14:00] absolute raving fans. And so one of the things that I did and I ~kind of ~integrated the tech piece in this is I invited my customers who were raving fans to set up what I call a VIP link. Our company calls it a party link, and it's essentially a way that I can create a unique referral link that she can either shop through or she can send to her cousin or her sister or her mom or her daughter.
And if. They want to try it. She's going to earn the rewards. From someone ordering through that party link. So she's incentivized to share, but it's also a way that's that subtle reminder that ~like, ~Hey, you might know somebody. You might not want to do what I do. You might not want to become a distributor, but if you love this makeup or whatever your product is, why don't you just have a VIP link?
And share it with anybody that ~you, ~you. ~You know, ~that might want to do it. And this has been so powerful for me, you guys, because just by inviting my customers to do this. And staying in better contact with them through the power of the tech components and upping my customer service [00:15:00] game through like text marketing, which can we'll talk about that in a second.
Absolutely. The referrals from my existing customers have started flowing in. And so absolutely referrals can be an amazing way for you to build your business. You just need to ask and leverage things like a party link or a VIP link or whatever your company or an affiliate code or something like that.
~If your, ~if your company offers that and just ask them, okay, so that's my number three way. And then fourth and final key alternative to social is the tech piece. So this is something that I am absolutely. Obsessed with it's something that has been super fun to be able to set up my systems on project broadcast and full disclosure. I am working so hard to finish up this amazing course. That is, it basically ties together. All of my customer service automations into a working funnel, to where my customers are automatically served when they send me a color match for my product, when they actually order when,~ um, you know, ~they need a follow-up a week later when they need one, two [00:16:00] weeks later.
And it's super cool. It's a very affordable, and it's not hard to do yourself before. I had a similar system that I had paid a, an arm and a leg for. ~Um, ~and I know a lot of people that use that. And it's awesome if you're bringing in the, ~you know, ~Five tens of thousands of dollars in sales and getting just this tremendous volume. I think it's awesome. But if you're looking for an alternative to that, my automate to replicate course, which is so close to being done is I think going to be an amazing solution to you as I walk through and literally give you my exact systems, my exact, like they call them landing pages and project broadcasts.
And I'm so excited about that. So if you want to be on that waiting list for when that course is available, you can go to Heather K berge.com. Com slash automate a U T O M a T E. And get on that waiting list for when it's done. I'm like I'm tr. I literally, I told my suite assistant that it's happening. I'm finishing it this week.
But it's a matter of finding the time and filling all the things that I'm not by done yet. So be patient with me it's coming and [00:17:00] I can't wait to share it with you when it comes together. So the tech piece, and I could probably, if you guys want to, I can even do ~like ~an entire episode. This will probably be a minute on all of my favorite tech tools, but the ones that have made the biggest impact on my business in the last year are obviously project broadcast.
You can definitely check a link to. ~You know, ~get started on that. I'll drop it in the,~ um,~ the show notes here for you to listen. But project Brock has been amazing and integral at having texts communications with my customers. Number two boards. If you do not have this app go download it immediately. It is free. And it is honestly, probably the single handed biggest game changer in my business, because what it does is it hooks up your, to your keyboard, to where those messages that you tend to send over and over again, are the links like even like my zoom link or my color match form, or the link to this podcast or the link to schedule a podcast when I'm, ~you know, ~looking to interview someone.
All of those things I can, with one click, I can copy [00:18:00] and paste those messages. Same thing with pictures, images, graphics, things for our comp plan, whatever that is that I need, like at my hands to either serve my customer, my team using the boards app is just, oh my gosh. It is ~so, so, ~so good. So boards is an, is a ~huge, ~huge benefit.
~Um, ~a lot of people have asked about my email marketing. And if I use that in addition to project broadcasts, and yes, I do. I use flow desk love flow desk. And the reason is they're just really pretty. So over the last year I knew people wanted to my customers, my friends, my family, And the people I've connected through, even through the podcast, wanted to learn more about the things that were going on in my life, because I had people who were like, I didn't even know you were in Costa Rica, or I had no idea you were hosting a Bible study or whatever it is or that your daughter's switched schools.
So I send out a monthly, less connect E newsletter. To really anybody that wants to know what's going on. So I share a little bit about the makeup. I share a little bit about the podcast and I share my personal updates [00:19:00] on there once a month with key links, key messaging that has all the scoop that anybody could want to know with how to work for me.
Or work with me. And so flow desk is the way that I love to do that. And the automate to replicate course actually shows you how you can tie that into your automations as well. So that when someone does send, for example, a color match form for me, or if they send like a customer capture, lead captured like a quiz type thing for you.
There, their information is automatically added into flow desk as a new subscriber so that when I send these people, get it. So if you want to see what it looks like, and you want to get on that email list, you can actually text the word connect. To my business project broadcast number 9 1 2 4 0 5 8 9 1 2. And you'll see how these automations work using project broadcast right away.
And it will also trigger to add you onto that email list. Within flow desks. So you can stay in touch on all these things and you can see all the examples. So those are three examples for how I [00:20:00] have chosen to use and leverage checks tech tools over the last year to ~kind of ~have key alternatives to social.
One more quick thing on that, that I think is super important. Is if you are on social media. And you are continuing to use social media. So if you're going to use any of the other three ways to, to build your business and grow your business. So that's the influencer way, the investment way or the integrate way.
You're going to want to bring those conversations off of that platform and bring those contacts more particularly off of that platform. So that's the cool thing about using something like project broadcast or a flow desk or. ~You know, ~doing the DIY automation setup from my automate to replicate course, those are reasons why you absolutely should be sending people over from whatever platform that is into your contact list, because you don't own your Facebook followers.
You don't own your Instagram followers or Tik TOK contacts. ~I mean, ~she could go away tomorrow. You guys. Okay. I know that there are, there's [00:21:00] like a huge governmental push, so like it's banned on certain college campuses and all the things. So you certainly don't own your tick-tock followers. All right.
So finding ways to bring those connections off of those platforms onto your text and or email or both in a very simple way. That is what is going to be able to help you build those conversations. Okay. So those are my four key alternatives to social media. In-person networking referrals and tech tools. And I hope that this is helpful. I would love to know if you have any other things that have worked for you in the past. Because again, this has been working for people for generations. I actually ran into a friend at coffee, my,~ um,~ my yoga teacher, and she was sharing with me.
I mentioned something about BNI to her and she was like, oh, I used to be huge in BNI when I was with Mary Kay. So she was,~ uh, uh, ~dry or,~ uh, Uh, ~car cat car earner. With Mary Kay. And she was like, I absolutely crushed it when I was with Mary Kay using BNI, because this was ~kind of ~[00:22:00] back before social media was even a thing. And I was like, what? That's so cool. So again, people have been used to doing this. You might be listening to this going yes. Heather preach.
Like I have been a leader in network marketing and all of these things have worked for me and worked for people in my company. And so that's why I'm here is just to share these alternatives, whether or not you choose to go the ignore route. Okay. So I hope you'll have a beautiful day. Don't forget. You can also text the word podcast to that same number 9 1 2 4 0 5 8 9 1 2. If you want to get plugged in to the called Toledo community and that's where you can let me know what has worked for you and the awesome conversation that happens every day or every week.
So thank you guys for listening to this, or if you're watching this on YouTube. Hi. And I am so excited. ~Um, ~to share this with you and continue the conversation on the ways that you can build and grow your business using social media or not. So thank y'all. Yay.
