Building a Social Media Presence
I have been fortunate enough to work, in the last several months, with direct sales consultants from several companies in the “party plan” industry: Biltmore Inspirations, bamboopink, Rodan + Fields, and To The Nines. I have watched some of these consultants go from having virtually no web presence to suddenly being all over the place and doing extremely well!
All of these clients have Facebook pages… that’s a no-brainer. Many of them have Twitter profiles and some even set up YouTube channels to showcase their company’s products. However, in spite of the fact that these direct sales companies always offer their consultants a customized page with company branding, etc., the majority of these consultants have opted to have me build blogs for them.
Meet Hiedi Scott, Biltmore Inspirations Consultant
To help shed light on this issue, I interviewed one of my clients, Hiedi Scott from Biltmore Inspirations to ask her opinion regarding the success of her blog and how it has helped her.
Hiedi is originally from Idaho, and in a previous life, she worked as a trial attorney. Upon becoming a stay-at-home mom, Hiedi got into the direct sales business… at first just to help bring in a little extra cash. But now, she is one of 12 Home Direct consultants at the new party plan business, Biltmore Inspirations.
(1) Why shouldn’t you use ONLY the company page they give you? “Your company website is only going to let you personalize a very small portion of it. With a website or blog of your own, you can personalize the entire thing. This gives you the chance to use it more as a tool to share information about your products, business opportunities and hosting opportunities. It also makes you stand out when compared to others just using the company website. If you are serious about your business and want it to be a career rather than a “hobby” then I would recommend it.”
(2) What are the benefits of having your own website/blog? “Another benefit is that your blog will more likely be pulled up in a Google search than your personal company-branded website. This helps with sponsoring other consultants, selling your products and finding hosts for parties.”
(3) What do you like about having your own blog? “I love the creative aspect of writing blog posts. I can choose what topic to write on and which images to post. I also love it when someone finds my blog and contacts me for information about becoming a consultant. My blog has been a major tool for recruiting other consultants. I would estimate I’ve brought in 10 consultants who found my blog online and decided to check me out, but I receive emails from potential consultants several times a week.”
(4) What features do you find most useful about your blog? “Being able to target my information to my specific business goals and reach a much larger group of people.”
Hiedi also realizes that her blog is a living, breathing thing. She contacts me frequently to add new features or make changes. That’s one of the beautiful things about having a WordPress blog!
So how do you decide if a blog is right for you?
You need to ask yourself these questions:
(a) Your role as a direct sales consultant is not just a hobby, but rather you are serious about it.
(b) You want to stand out above all of the other consultants from your company.
(c) You enjoy writing, and think you could crank out at least 1-2 blog posts a week.
(d) You’re willing to do extra work to help market yourself.
Quite frankly, setting up the blog is the easy part. If you’re going to go to the trouble of setting up the blog, you need to be committed to zealously marketing yourself and your blog.
Hiedi has done an amazing job at networking online, through Stay-At-Home mom forums, some inexpensive advertising, and even paid Google advertising (which she didn’t find to be so helpful). Hiedi has also worked very hard at reaching all of her personal network, and diligently includes her blog address in the signature of every email she writes, and forum in which she participates. Of course, she does other things as well, but these are a few of the basics.
She told me the other day. “This really works!”
Of course, all of these components are crucial to marketing success in this business, but the blog is the centerpiece for all of Hiedi’s marketing efforts. Check out Hiedi’s blog to see what a successful direct sales consultant blog looks like!
