thirty-one
You Are NOT Your Company!
Is your Facebook timeline actually leading people AWAY from your business?
I need everyone to repeat after me…you are NOT your company!
A huge mistake I see from so many fellow direct sellers is that they have their timeline profile linked as “I work at this company” and they link the company they sell for. Let me tell you how this is leading people away from you and how to FIX IT!
Facebook has over 1.91 billion people on it. Make sure you’re leading them to the right place!
Learning how to set up your Facebook Business page and your personal timeline will serve you well in the long run!
You have to be willing to learn new things and work smarter, not harder!
Don’t’ forget to SHARE this with your teams so they can do it too!
And follow me here so you don’t miss a beat!
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Directly Social FB Group
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Melissa Fietsam
4 Types of Posts to Increase Engagement in your Customer Facebook Groups
Your customer groups on Facebook are an extremely important part of your business.
I’m going to give you 4 ways to increase your engagement with your customers.
Why is this important?
Because this is your tribe. These are your people, your posse. They are in that group because they chose to be. So make it worth their while. You have to create a community for them. Teach them things, make them smile, touch their heart, interact and get to know them. Because people shop with people they know, trust, and love. And you can’t build a community without some effort.
“Nobody comments on anything”
I’m the last person you want to say that to. Because I will be the first to tell you…if your customer group sucks…it’s probably cause you’re doing a sucky job as a consultant. Let’s not sugar coat it.
Either, they’re reciprocating YOUR attitude and effort, or you simply need new people. In every aspect of my business, I create a funnel to get new people into my customer group. Every month, every party, every fundraiser, every newsletter, everything. Always be growing your tribe.
Focusing on increasing engagement in your customer Facebook group will never be a waste of your time and energy.
So here’s 4 ways to Increase your engagement in your Facebook customer groups:
#1 Giveaways:
Do a weekly giveaway. Friday FUNday. Now before you cuss me out and tell me you can’t afford to do giveaways every week, hear me out. Five dollars. You can afford $5 a week for a giveaway. You can send a $5 Dunkin Donuts gift card via text or email. You can send a Starbucks giftcard for $5 via text. You can do anything you want.
By doing a weekly giveaway, you have them do something to earn it. It does not always have to be about your business either. And shouldn’t be.
- Add 5 friends to the group (with their permission. Don’t get me started on adding people to groups without their permission)
- Join this opportunity event (give them link to your next one)
- Comment on this question (post an engagement graphic)
- Anyone who books a party today (post an awesome reason to)
#2 Engagement Questions:
These are simple questions to increase engagement. But you know what the best thing about it is? When they answer, you get to know them. You start creating conversations with your customers and then something crazy starts happening. They start creating relationships with OTHER PEOPLE in your customer group. And then BAM! You’ve got a tribe. A place they want to be. A happy place in a crazy world. And that’s what it’s all about.
Here’s an example of an engagement post. And here’s an entire album of engagement graphics from Cinchshare:
78 FREE ENGAGEMENT GRAPHICS
#3 Cutest Pet Contest
Everybody loves their pets. Some people love them more than their kids…ask my mom…just kidding mom!! Kind of…
Every single time I’ve done a cutest pet contest or a cutest kid contest, I’ve had huge engagement and added tons of people to my group.
Basically, you run this for like 1-2 weeks. They add their picture to your group and the picture with the most “likes” wins. Now the key…is to get them to add their friends to VOTE. And the prize has to be REALLLLLLY GOOD for this one. BIG!
#4 Add a Friend Post
First, don’t EVER EVER EVER add people to your customer group without asking. You do NOT want to be that girl. I run contests all the time and tell them to add 5 people, or 10 people, or person who adds the most people. But I always make sure to tell them to ASK before they add. This will grow your page if you do it consistently. Here’s an example of one of mine. And this is GREAT for your weekly giveaways. Do once a month or every other month. Not too often!
So here’s 4 ideas…let’s brainstorm and let me hear what YOU love doing to get more interaction in your customer groups!
Melissa Fietsam
Hostess Coaching Challenges, Get Your Hostess Working!
My parties were going kinda slow this month, so I decided to try something new.
And guess what? IT WORKED! Because the fact of the matter is, if you’re not working…neither are your hostesses. And I’m totally guilty this month because I’ve been super busy. So what did I do?
Check out this video and then let’s talk about 3 hostess challenges you can do to:
- increase sales
- increase engagement
- increase your hostesses rewards. Happy hostess=happy business
Hostess Challenge #1:
Facebook Live: I have a monthly group for all of my hostesses for that month. I did a quick Facebook Live video and asked them to go live on their Facebook page. I asked them to say 3 things: 1) I’m hosting a 31 party and i want tons of FREE STUFF! 2) The customer special is the large utility tote for $10 and you need one! 3) post below if you’re interested and I can send you the information and get you added to my Facebook party. And if the hostess did…I would give her $5 off her order.
Now, I told her to tag me in the video and I would post her party link and event link for everyone once they started responding. And guess what? THEY DID! #HOLLA
Hostess Challenge #2:
Talk to 20: Today I will be messaging each of my hostesses with a specific “text” to send to 20 people. It will be a reminder of her party, link to shop, link to catalog. Super easy, super simple. Text 20 people this reminder. If she does…and snaps a pic of her messages/texts…I will add another $5 to her order.
Hostess challenge #3:
Last Chance to Order: On the 14th, I will give them a graphic and text to post on their Facebook page and grab some last minute orders. If they tag me…they get $5 off their order.
Love these tips? Follow my pages for more:
YouTube
VIP Group
Facebook Page
Hostess Coaching is one the most important things you can do for your business, and often the most overlooked by consultants.
You can’t expect your hostess to know what to do. Here’s an example for you to think about:
I went to Laser Web with my kids. We all know what to do, right? DUH…pick up the laser gun and whoop your kids tail and make sure they know mom’s still the boss. But…when you go in, they separate you into 2 groups. One group grabs this color, the other group grabs another color. And you’re like…oh…they’re smart.
Then they walk you through the laser tag course and all the rules and most importantly…how to WIN.
We all know how to play laser tag. But if we didn’t get that specific “walk through” and rules of the game…it would not have worked. And more importantly…it wouldn’t have been much FUN.
So think about that. Yeah…our hostesses know how to have a party. But did you give them the tools to be successful and have FUN doing it?
Now, next month, I will be thinking this through thoroughly in order to get the ball rolling on these hostess challenges way in advance and get them possibly: selling a certain # of specials, collecting a certain amount of orders “pre-party”…let’s start brainstorming!
Happy Hostess Coaching ladies!
Melissa Fietsam
What’s the BEST Business Card for Your Direct Sales Business?
Video Posted on
I am STOKED about this marketing tool for my business! I love it and I want to make sure everyone knows about it.
So let me ask you, what does everyone woman carry in her purse-besides a pen? CHAPSTICK!! I have found a website that is super affordable to buy lip balms that are blank on the outside. And then you can also buy the labels for them and print your own labels with your business information!
That is TEN TIMES better than a business card! Cause no sane woman would ever throw away a lip balm, right?!
I bought pens and used them for years. But I like to be different. And this is definitely right up my alley!!
So check out my own below
Now WHAT are you going to do with these?
1. You can give them to cashiers
2. You can put them in the tubes at the bank drive through
3. You can leave them for servers
4. You can hand to ANYONE you’re having a conversation with about your business
5. Give them to your friends and family so THEY always have your business information on them! They may have your regular information…but would they know your BUSINESS information? I think I’ll give my mom some extras to hand out FOR ME!
6. Use these at your parties for prizes and giveaways. Everyone loves lip balm! And that is SO cheap for a giveaway! Heck, it’s so cheap that you could give EVERYONE at your home party at checkout!
7. These would be great for vendor events
8. Great for Nurses and Teachers week!! Pass out mini grab bags. Or any type of swag bags you were asked to donate.
9. What about Halloween?! You could make little bags for the moms!
10. How about Christmas gifts to all your hostesses for the year? Keep your information in front of them!!
11. These would be great to pass out at your kids ball games. “Hey anybody need some chapstick? I just got these in and I love them”. Oh, yeah…sly as a fox…LOL!!!!
The possibilities are truly endless.
The most important thing in your Direct Sales business is to STAND OUT in the sea of consultants in your area. It doesn’t matter how many consultants are in your area. If they’re not marketing their business in a FUN way, or not even marketing at all, people will choose to shop with YOU. And that’s a fact Jack 😉 I am constantly looking for ways to stand out. To reach new people. To make conversations easier and more fun. To get my information into more people’s hands in an effective way. So what are YOU doing?
Here is the website to order your own blank lip balms:
Round lip balm:
http://www.bulkapothecary.com/white-lip-balm-jars-filled-and-unlabeled/
Now I’m not talented enough to make those cute little labels. So Kim, from Night Owl Custom Design on Facebook, made them for me!
You can click the link below to order your own labels if you order these. They’re super affordable and totally worth it!
Here is the link for the round labels:
https://nightowlcustomdesign.ecwid.com/#!/Labels-Personalized-Lip-Balm-Round-labels/p/52409193
and here is the link for the tall lip balm labels –
Happy Marketing ladies!!
#marketing #lipbalm #31 #31bag #31bags #thirtyone #thirtyonegifts #directsales #marketyourbusiness #chapstick #bulk #networking
Starting a Blog for your Direct Sales Business
About 6 years ago, I got the grand idea that I should start a blog.
Like…the chic who knew nothing about blogging, or what platform to use, or cost, or anything really. I just knew I wanted to do it. So I spent an entire weekend learning how.
Was it easy? Not really. Was it worth it? Yep. One of the best things I ever did for my business. Most good things aren’t easy though, right?
So now I blog a couple of times a week, and in fact, I have THREE blogs. So I want to show you how it can help your business.
What is a blog?
A blog is simply an extension of your voice. It’s writing about what you are passionate about. It’s teaching others, sharing with others, and engaging with your audience.
How much does it cost?
It’s totally free. I highly recommend WordPress.com. It was very easy to choose a theme and start plugging away. Any time I had questions or couldn’t figure something out, I Googled or watched YouTube videos.
What can a blog do for your business?
Well, I have one for my Direct Sales business:
https://melissafietsamblog.wordpress.com/
I have one for our team…and then the one you’re reading this on right now:)
The one for my business serves a ton of purposes:
Landing Page: I can create a well scripted post with links, videos, and graphics and then guide my customers to a professional looking page in order to view the information they are requesting. Want to know more about the opportunity? Great! I have a link for that. That’s a landing page.
Searchable Content: By creating all this on a blog, it’s now searchable content. So you’re actually getting 3 times the punch, out of everything you do. It’s working smarter, not harder.
Shareable Content: Talk about working smarter…I can share my blog in one easy click to Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Facebook, literally anywhere. So people ask me all the time how I do EVERYTHING. Well, I really just work smarter. I make one post and share in multiple ways on multiple platforms. That is what Cinchshare and WordPress can help you do. My two favorite platforms!
Tell a Story: You can tell a story that resonates with people, but isn’t “in your face selling”. And it leads them to your page and your information. THIS is where you build an audience and engagement. By being REAL. Here’s an example:
https://melissafietsamblog.wordpress.com/2017/05/01/message-to-my-sons-preschool-teacher/
Help People: This is a place where you can give valuable information about your industry. For example, my personal business is organizational products and bags. So I’ll be posting more about Organizational Tips and home hacks. NOTHING to do with my business, per say, but giving valuable information to my customers and potential customers. Because when I share those posts all over social media channels…it leads them right back to my blog full of business information.
Customer Group: This is a great thing to keep you consistently posting in your customer group. Make it a goal to write one blog post a week and share that into your customer group. That’s my new goal. To be a VALUE and a SERVICE to my customers without selling to them.
Time Management: I love that I can post something once, and I always know where to find it. My blog is a brain dump for me. Instead of doing things in a messy and non-consistent way, I make one organized post that takes me about 10 minutes longer. And now, I have it FOREVER. Literally. I can search and share with my team, my customers, whatever I want…whenever I want. So it saves me TIME.
What do you need to know about blogging?
Here’s some quick fire tips you need to know.
- Go to WordPress.com and just play around. Start it, create some graphics and banners, just JUMP. And keep at it for 3 months. The more you do it, the easier it is. And now that my page is set up, it’s as simple as writing and clicking publish. That’s it.
- Share to ALL your social media channels. Create original graphics for each post and share them to your Facebook business pages, your customer groups, Twitter, Pinterest, everywhere!
- NEVER take someone’s content or graphics. By law, anything I write on my blog is my personal property. So if you take someone’s “words” you’re actually committing a crime. A blog is to be ORIGINAL, not a copy. Make it personal and you will see the magic happen when people resonate with YOU and your words.
- Never take graphics from Google and put them on your blog. Same thing, you don’t have rights to those graphics and you can get in trouble for it. Use sites like Pixabay.com for graphics and then edit them with your branding in Canva.com.
- Make sure your title of your blog is NOT your company. You are not your company, you are an individual. So get creative or simply use your name!
- Make sure your blog post titles have tons of keywords in them. That is how people will find your content in searches.
- Schedule your posts (so easy to do in WordPress). I would say posting twice a week is good. Once is totally fine. But make a goal and stick to it. And then take that published post and schedule it out to all your other social media channels via Cinchshare (you can schedule the link to your blog).
- Keep it short and sweet! A blog post should be 300 words minimum in order to be indexed by Google. If you write TOO much, people will lose interest. And there’s actually research that shows that shorter blog posts get shared more! People’s attention spans are like squirrels anymore! So…I was gonna write 10 tips, but we’ll stop at 8! HAHA!
Love you guys! Happy blogging!!
Melissa Fietsam
Do you SUCK at Hostess Coaching?
I have some really great tips for all your hostess coaching this morning!
If I could say there’s one thing in your business that needs consistent work, it’s hostess coaching. You can have the best Facebook script in the world, the best party presentation under the sun…but if you’re not coaching your hostess-your party is going to FLOP!
I want to show you a few easy things you can do to get your BASELINE hostess coaching done in less than 5 minutes every single month!
STEP 1: Create a hostess group
Create a closed group on Facebook every single month for your “VIP Hostesses”.
In this group, you want to add:
- All of your hostesses for that month
- A Photo album with some photos they can share of customer specials and such.
- Copy of the customer special flyer
- Copy of the order form they can print if they run out
- Copy of digital catalog (that you’ve already uploaded to issuu.com)
And WHY would you want to have all that in a group?
How many times is your hostess at work and forgets her catalog?
How many times does she send you a message and say, “What was the customer special again?” “What patterns does it come in?”
Stop wasting your time! And hers! Now you can immediately go to your VIP Hostess Group and tag her in that post she needs. BAM! LIKE A BOSS!
STEP 2: Create some Google Surveys
Every month, I create 3 google surveys for my team.
Hostess Coaching #1: gets sent the day she books her party
Hostess Coaching #2: gets send the day her party starts
Hostess Coaching #3: gets sent 3 days before her party ends
Here’s an example of this month’s Hostess Coaching #1: https://goo.gl/forms/YU0OxSYffCLbvplu1
Once these are set up, all you have to change every month is the MONTHLY SPECIAL! And our whole team has these awesome hostess coaching links they can TEXT, Facebook message, or post in the VIP Hostess Group!
STEP 3: Now schedule some posts
Now all you have to do is schedule a handful of hostess coaching tips into your group for the duration of the party! You want to give them some challenges and schedule those Google Surveys you just did!
Here’s some examples of my posts and how I scheduled them in 10 minutes, check this out:
So tell me below what YOUR favorite hostess coaching tip is?!
Melissa Fietsam
Create an EASY Professional Video for Your Business with Facebook!
Easy and FREE. Two of my favorite words!
I’m going to show you how to create a professional video for your business, right from your Facebook business page!
Creating original content is simply a requirement if you’re running your own business. And Facebook has so many amazing tools to help you do that.
Once you make this video, you can download it and SHARE it to all your social media platforms:
- Facebook Customer Group
- Your Facebook party scripts
- and so much more!
Learn how to make your own awesome video in less 5 minutes!
Happy video making! Post a link to YOUR video below!
And don’t forget to follow me on Facebook: Directly Social
Melissa Fietsam
FREE Direct Sales Training from Steve Wiltshire
You are not going to want to miss this FREE Direct Sales training on how to rock your business on Facebook from Steve Wiltshire
Steve Wiltshire and his team will be sharing their amazing tips on how to make Facebook Parties beneficial to your business!
And that is something we ALL NEED!
Don’t forget to share with your teams and join us TONIGHT!
Click GOING on the event so you don’t miss a thing! You can go back and view the training at any point after that! But the FUN will be joining us live tonight so you can ask him questions!
CLICK HERE TO JOIN: https://www.facebook.com/events/386514285042747/
Melissa Fietsam
Thirty-One Facebook Party Planning
Facebook parties are a HUGE part of Direct Sales these days. Wouldn’t you like to spend some time increasing your recruiting, booking, and sales?
Well, I am. And I made this form to help me PLAN my party better. Check this out:
Things you need to think about planning in your party. Here’s a simple rundown of what I think is important to include:
- Holiday relevance to your product and how it relates to any upcoming holidays
- Games
- Booking- hostess specials
- Join your customer group
- Recruiting Information
- Your personal booking incentive
- Live FB video
- Monthly Customer Specials
- Introduction
Once you have the important things plugged in, then you can fill it with fun “selling” posts showing off your product.
**And ALWAYS try to ask a question in each post to keep it interactive!
Since I’ve started planning my Facebook parties, they simply FLOW better. They just make sense. So I highly encourage you to really take some time and put some thought into what it is you would like to do with your Facebook parties and get creative!
Here’s our team file I made to plan your own Facebook party if you’d like:
https://1drv.ms/b/s!AkYgT2PVhSEHjAgNUF20H58_v1ec
Hugs and happy planning!
Melissa Fietsam
January Booking Idea #6
Here’s your January Booking Idea #6!
THE OUTLET SALES!
I tell my team over and over…a sale is a DEAD END if you don’t make some kind of lasting relationship with your customers.
You have to take this outlet sale as a way to get these customers into your customer group!!
If you don’t get them into your customer group and stay in front of them, they won’t have the chance to see all the amazing things for the Spring catalog. They’re going to be getting a new catalog in their outlet sale order. Do you want them to remember your NAME when they find something they love and want to order? Because that catalog isn’t going to have YOUR NAME on it. So you better be following up with every single customer who orders from the outlet sale.
Here’s my suggestion:
Every time someone orders, send them a TEXT with a “thank you” graphic like this with TEXT like this added. You can literally copy/paste this message all day long as people are ordering from the outlet sale:
Hi there! I simply wanted to say thank you for your order today! And…I wanted to let you know you will be receiving a brand NEW Spring 2017 catalog in your shipment!
And if you’d like to get a head start and never miss a deal, click on this link and join my customer group on Facebook! Because you were ALSO entered in to win a free prize just by ordering on the outlet sale! ((INSERT LINK TO YOUR CUSTOMER GROUP))
And if you missed how to ROCK your Thirty-One Outlet Sale…check out this training to maximize your outlet sales:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1399855380038527/
Melissa Fietsam, Ind. Executive Director at Thirty-One Gifts
#thirtyone #thirtyonegifts #31bag #31bags #2017
