In October 2009 I was interviewed along with others by Barbara Seale for an article in Direct Selling News titled “Building Relationships with Social Media”.

For an industry built on relationship marketing, the advent and proliferation of social media raises a lot of questions—and opportunities. The relationship between a direct seller and its prospects is a long way from the ones found on Match.com or eHarmony. But they do have things in common.

On every social media site or blog, everybody hopes they find people with mutual interests, and in the best of all possible worlds, you strike up long-term relationships.

But it’s a delicate balance in our industry. We’re learning that there’s no payoff in a “Join my company!” or “Buy my product!” approach. Instead, relationships in the virtual world are built in much the same way as they are face to face. They evolve slowly and intentionally. But whether the relationship develops over a cup of coffee or a keyboard, the relationship itself is the key to having people know, like and trust you.

Relationships Are the Cornerstone

Jennifer Fong, who consults on the use of social media in the direct selling industry, notes that relationships are the cornerstone of social media. More and more, she says, sites such as Facebook and MySpace are how people are connecting, even if they already know each other personally. They develop and deepen true relationships without the restrictions of having to be available at the same place, date and time. And the relationships can develop with multiple people simultaneously—a big plus in today’s time-strapped society. She gives examples from her personal life.

“We joined a new church, but before we had a chance to talk to people that much, a whole group of us joined a group on Facebook,” she says, noting that Facebook seems to be today’s “hot” social networking site. “We started learning about each other there. Then when we saw each other on Sunday, we had context. It made our relationship deeper.” She adds, “I think there is a tendency to think that there’s only one way to build a relationship, and that’s to sit across from someone face to face. My personal experience with social networking started in 2001 when I started the process to adopt my first child. The adoption agency had a message board where prospective parents could survive the wait together. Through the process of adopting all three of my children, I was on that board for seven years. I developed tremendous relationships with people I’ve never met. If I were in their town and called them, we’d get together and be old friends. Online relationships don’t lack quality. People intrinsically connect. Their relationship is still a relationship.”

Others in direct selling are having the same experience. Shane Martindale, Buzz Manager for global nutrition company XanGo, manages the company’s online experience. He notes that social networking sites provide great opportunities for communication with distributors, as well as with customers.

“Through Facebook, I’ve established connections with different distributors that I probably never would have met just by attending conventions or regional meetings,” he says. “Social networks allow me to solicit feedback on what people are thinking and doing. I can post a comment or question and get feedback from distributors on a new product or a change we’ve made. I can learn what they are thinking about our next convention or event. I get a feel for what’s going on out in the field.”
Distributor Connections

XanGo’s own Web site actually encourages virtual relationships among distributors that enhance their face-to-face relationships. The XanGoSphere post blogs, photos and videos to the XanGo version of YouTube, XanGo TV. But its corporate presence is also on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace and LinkedIn, as well as in blogs. Martindale spends a portion of his day on the different networks, as well as evaluating new entrants to the social media world to decide whether the company should spend time and resources participating in them. He monitors conversations about XanGo and contributes to some discussions. He notes that the sites provide an opportunity for XanGo as a corporation to keep enthusiasm going and to provide information and informal recognition to distributors as they build their businesses. He has noticed that distributors also encourage each other on the sites.

Consultants for wickless-candle marketer Scentsy, as well as the corporation itself, make liberal use of social media marketing. Chief Marketing Officer Mark Stastny says that consultants build their business in a variety of ways, utilizing everything from home parties to fairs and local events. A few have built a business exclusively on the Internet. But no matter what venue they use, he says that the fundamentals really differ very little.

“It’s all about relationships of trust,” he says. “As people initially start their businesses, they go through friends and family fairly quickly because they have years of building those relationships. So business is easy at the beginning. For anyone who continues to grow their business, they have to find ways to enlarge those circles and find people beyond their existing network. Whether they’re doing that in person, through instant messaging or Facebook, the fundamentals of developing that relationship are similar. They must develop a relationship of trust for someone to be willing to pursue that conversation about the opportunity or product.”
Best of Both Worlds

For 4-year-old ViSalus, the decision to encourage distributors to build relationships through social media was a no-brainer. It was a matter of efficiency, as well as vision.

“Network marketing is about creating relationships and communication and working together,” Chief Marketing Officer Blake Mallen says. “The new social media tools are the most effective platform to communicate.”

The wellness company so strongly believes that social media marketing is the future of the industry that it has coined the term fusion marketing, which takes the tried-and-true traits of traditional direct selling and unites them with today’s technology.

The cornerstone is Vi-Net, an invitation-only online community of distributors—and customers—on ViSalus’s Web site. Vi-Net is the company’s go-to place for online training, sales tips and business-management tools. It’s home to blogs, pictures and chats among the ViSalus community. But here’s the differentiator: Vi-Net also provides instant connections with key social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. Anytime a member updates Vi-Net, the system automatically updates their sites on Twitter, MySpace, Facebook and others.

The effect of Vi-Net on ViSalus’s growth has been amazing, Mallen says. “We’ve seen retention go up and new enrollments increase. But the biggest thing is that it’s just fun. It brings out people’s personalities and creates an awesome culture that helps bring people together and make them feel like they’re part of something. It’s all about fostering relationships.”
Strategic View

Every company Direct Selling News interviewed said that they’re integrating social media marketing into their marketing plans. For example, Amway recognizes that its independent business owners and customers spend a lot of time on social networking sites, so they got involved there, too. And they’ve noticed that the social media phenomenon is global and across age groups. But, just as they would in other media, they build their participation around business objectives.

“A lot of what we do is based on connection modeling,” says Michael Edwards, Amway’s Director of Digital and Consumer Experience Marketing. “We try to understand where the targeted group is connecting. The social media space is one piece of that. Social influence marketing is having a significant effect. From there, we determine how that plays in the overall mix of our marketing campaign. It fluctuates based on our campaign. Social networks on Facebook may play a role in one campaign, or we may find that blogs play a larger role in another.”

Edwards’ colleague Dino Baskovic, Manager of Corporate Communications, agrees, adding, “There’ll be customers who prefer to stay connected online. They may enjoy face time but prefer computer time. That’s fine. We’ll respect that, and we’ll explore and leverage it.”

Like other companies, Amway recognizes that its distributors are every bit as involved with social media as the corporation is, and they’re grappling with the right way to address social media in corporate policies. They want to be sure they’re doing it right.

“Suffice it to say, we want our distributors to succeed, so we want to empower them and give them the right tools for the job,” Baskovic says. “That includes the right rules of engagement when it comes to social media.”

Edwards adds, “Social media can be a game changer for a lot of companies. If they strategically do it right, it will change their placement in the direct selling industry. But if people jump in before they’re ready, it will have a negative effect. For those who do it right, it will have a positive effect.”

As he looks to the future, Scentsy’s Stastny is both concerned and excited. He thinks the direct selling industry is behind the learning curve of using new types of technology to bring people together. But he thinks that the promise of social media to enhance the way distributors connect with and support each other is enormous.

Noting that Scentsy’s culture already encourages cross-team communication, he says, “When you get into using social networking for team development and nurturing, I get excited. The whole concept of communication with Scentsy consultants who are oblivious to their upline and downline linkages and who connect with each other to share best practices—if people’s hearts are in the right spot and they share openly with each other, great things can happen. We’re already working on bringing that concept closer to home at Scentsy.”

Such connections will help develop new leaders from among today’s youngest—in age and spirit—distributors. As she consults around the country, Fong counsels her clients to embrace social media marketing and tap into its promise. But, she warns, be patient. After all, you’re building relationships.

The world’s first Social Media Club awards event was held in Utah on Nov. 6, 2009. The Social Media Club of Salt Lake City began efforts to present the Utah Social Media Awards earlier this spring. Those efforts culminated in presenting 20 Utah Social Media Awards to individuals and companies in Utah accomplishing great things in the social media space.

The Utah Social Media Awards, affectionately known as the USMAs (#usma on Twitter), recognized 18 people with awards for the best use of a particular new media platform and provided two overall awards, the People’s Choice and Best of Show Utah Social Media Awards.

“More than 140 people gathered at Noah’s in South Jordan for the awards networking, dinner, keynote address and program,” said Pete Codella, program director for the Social Media Club of Salt Lake City and chair of the Utah Social Media Awards. “We couldn’t be happier with the support we received and the outcome of the first annual Utah Social Media Awards. Congratulations to each and every recipient.”

Best of Show was awarded to XanGo for its “impressive online and social media presence, from Web sites to blogs and podcasts,” according to the USMA judges, comprised of members of the awards planning committee with help from the Social Media Club of Phoenix. XanGo also received an USMA for XanGo.tv for Best Video Blog.

The People’s Choice recipient received an impressive 15 percent of the overall vote. It was clearly a crowd favorite. Comments included: “Tons of new content — podcasts, stuff to read, recommendations, Tweet stream and tips,” “A crisp layout, great navigation, right column showcase of ads, links to iTunes feed, RSS, Twitter, etc.,” “This is the cream of this crop,” and “I absolutely love this site.” The People’s Choice USMA was awarded to The FredCast by David Bernstein.

Utah Social Media Awards recipients received a custom made acrylic trophy with the USMA logo etched into it, a printed certificate, an electronic Web banner to display online that they’re a 2009 Utah Social Media Award recipient, and a rose with the USMA logo printed on it courtesy of Speaking Roses.

The judges said XanGo has an impressive online and social media presence, from Web sites to blogs and podcasts. Even in their sponsorship of a Utah sports franchise they use YouTube in addition to traditional media to broadcast commercials. The judges did note this recipient’s apparent large budget and complimented them for producing beautiful Web sites, using video effectively and engaging with their audience through interactive content and on various social media platforms.

I was given the privilege to accept the award for XanGo. It was a great evening for myself and more importantly for XanGo. We’re doing great work there and this is only the beginning.

The Utah Social Media Awards were presented by the Social Media Club of Salt Lake City, with support from the Social Media Club of Utah Valley and Cache Valley, to recognize excellence in social media practitioners and practices throughout Utah. SMC of SLC plans to build upon the success of this year’s event when it presents the second annual Utah Social Media Awards in 2010.