I believe that one of the biggest negative against MLM or Network Marketing in the era of the internet is lack of inclusion and teamwork. In the 90′s, the industry was built locally and mushroomed out from a central point of momentum. In other words, people were mostly attracting people that they knew; usually close to home. In-home meetings and large focused gatherings were critical to building a solid downline.
Now there’s an entire industry that has grown up around building a network marketing business through effective marketing on the internet. I’ve been involved in one very effective program for quite a while. My current downline is peppered throughout with people that have joined my primary business as a result of my efforts on the internet. But here’s the rub. Over time, I realized that retention becomes a problem if you have someone out on an island so to speak, without a local support network. It took losing some of those people for me to finally realize that there had to be an even more aggressive sense of inclusion if those people were to stick around long term.
While internet marketing has the potential of building a geographically fragmented downline, if handled correctly, the internet can also be used to provide that team with a sense of inclusion. If you have one rep alone in Minnesota when the majority of your downline is mostly from Florida, for example, you need some way of making sure that this lone rep is not left on their own to flounder and struggle. So how do you do that effectively?
One of the key components of internet marketing is learning to use a Blog as sort of the central nervous system for all of your activity. This approach is effective, but most people using this approach unwittingly build their blog centered around themselves and their primary business, affiliate offerings, etc. After I had my Blog clicking along for about six months, it was getting tons of hits, was very well constructed and performing as I was taught. The problem was that it was all about me. So what did I do?
I did what every effective network marketing blogger should do. I started another blog centered around my team. My primary business participants now have a place to go to feel included in the process regardless of where they live or how isolated they . Each person is prominently displayed there with a picture, a personal bio and a link to their individual corporate site. I still send out articles and other content from this site, but in addition, I allow my teammates to do the same. Anyone who wants to submit an article or video simply submits it to me and I syndicate it from our team site. The results?
An effective team site where everyone feels included. A site where all of us have a more personable place to refer potential new reps. A site that belongs to the team, not just to me. In addition, with all of the various content being submitted from ALL of us, this site is quickly climbing in the rankings and having an impact on our placement for Google searches.
If you have an effective blog, you are way ahead of the game. But if you want to take it to another level in order to reduce your attrition rate and help your team members in the process, consider taking the steps described here in order to move your business forward. Feel free to refer to my team site for ideas on how to do this effectively.
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