Professional Social Media Accounts: The Essential Secret

When I started out as a writer/contributor for Comic Booked.com, I was briefed on the importance of social media networks for online businesses. We needed to publicize ourselves, our articles, and the site as a whole--and the more sharing, the better. We had to build our follower bases as much as possible and then tweet/share/+1 everything we wrote on as many platforms as possible. That makes sense, of course... but then people lost interest in everything I had to say. I started losing friends and followers that were people I knew and cared about, because as far as they were concerned I was just spamming them with the latest comic book news. Ouch.

I've mentioned this before on this blog, and I have to say that it's one of the trickier dilemmas I've had to face as an online professional. I found a solution to the social media problem soon after I started writing this blog by opening up a separate Twitter account for E.O.I.P. (@onlineincome19), where I focus exclusively on tips relevant to my business and this blog. My followers here are not my personal friends, and neither are those I follow. Instead, I use this account as a way to connect solely with professionals and information sources who can help me and/or hopefully benefit from what I have to say. I have only experienced growth from this account, and only positive reactions from others who have found it. Why? It's targeted. I'm sharing information with people who actually want to hear it, while at the same time preserving my other social accounts for my personal life.

Three questions that come up regarding professional social media accounts are when, why and how. I've already tackled a lot of the why. The timing depends on your business. You should open new social media accounts as soon as you're ready to start seriously promoting whatever you have to offer. "How" is a bit trickier. I want to stay as far from spamming others as I can, and I also want my updates to be regular and consistent. There's a super easy way to manage a professional Twitter account: find good sources of information and subscribe to them. Every blog has an RSS feed that you can find if you look around a bit, and if you go to your new Twitter account information, you'll find a place where you can input the RSS feed. That way, whenever the blog updates, the new article will show up on your Twitter account without your having to do anything. This has helped build my following and establish my reputation even though it took only a few minutes to set up.

If you run or are heavily involved with an online business, a professional social media account is essential to your success. It's also something that takes only moments to start on and no time at all to monitor, and will bring you traffic and popularity in a way that nothing else can.

MLM: Scam or Opportunity?

When it comes to work at home job opportunities, MLM's are some of the most prominent offers out there. Name a product, any product, and type it into your favorite search engine with the word "affiliate" next to it, and you'll get results. (I tried that exercise myself and was surprised at how many affiliate marketing opportunities there are). While not all of these are multi-level-marketing, many of the more publicized versions are, including Mary Kay, SFI, and others. If you get paid to refer others and then get paid again based on their own earnings, it's MLM. So... is that a bad thing?

There are definitely things to be worried about when dealing with multi-level-marketing schemes. Almost no one who gets involved actually makes money, and in fact many people lose money from buying the very products they need. So there is a big difference between MLM and "easy money." Another thing that marketers need to be aware of before joining is the emphasis of the program itself. Are you joining Avon because you love their products or because you're desperate? If it's the latter, don't bother--you'll only lose money in the long run and there are many other ways to make money online or at home that won't hurt you like that. However, if makeup is your forte and you really love telling your friends about an amazing new product you like, then sure--this is an opportunity just for people like you.

Some MLM's have what I call "squint" products: if you squint hard enough, you can see the product, but it's not really there. One popular such program is the Feeder Matrix, a forced matrix pyramid scheme that technically sells marketing and publicity e-books... but most affiliates probably don't even know about them. The Feeder Matrix is about building down your pyramid as quickly as possible, and I will admit that it does a good job at it.

So all things considered, are MLM's a bad thing? One of my frustrations joining SFI was its dependency on an active downline. While you can earn quite a bit by selling things on TripleClicks, your earnings will never really take off unless you have at least one or two active affiliates in your own downline so that you can earn from them. It's something I really don't like about SFI, but still a lot of people do make money from it and it has a good reputation among Internet marketers. It wasn't until I found some products on TripleClicks that I actually wanted and liked that I decided to work at it--and that's what makes the difference.

Products might not be as big as active downlines in MLM's, but you won't get that downline or the necessary enthusiasm unless you're genuinely excited about what it has to offer. I bought a set of Russian flutes from Triple Clicks last month. I love them. They're beautiful and fun to play, and I have no trouble talking to others about where I ordered them. It just works.

My conclusion about MLM is this: if you like the product, go for it. If not, then don't. It's great to get paid for telling people about stuff you genuinely like and use, but it's a chore to advertise something that you're not even sure about yourself. If you've tried MLM and haven't had any success, you might want to rethink. Find something you're passionate about and go with that instead. You'll love the difference!

Beware The "Prelaunch" Specials: The Newest Scams

I've been reflecting on my online progress over the past few years, and naturally some patterns have stood out. There is one in particular that I fell for twice, and lately I've been seeing ads for several similar types of programs. What eye-catcher is this? The all-new, completely revolutionary earning system... _________ now in prelaunch! Join now and be on top of everyone else when it starts!

Yeah, it's tempting. That's why I fell for it twice. You see a short video or read some info on this brand new program, and it looks remarkable. On top of that, you can have the "privilege" of being one of the original members, practically one of the founders.... It's too good to be true. And yeah, it is.

So what's wrong with joining a pre-launch? Isn't everything brand new at some point or another? Every trend has to start somewhere. Well, yes. But unless you were seriously a founding member of Google or Amazon, you've probably noticed that you've really never been involved with the beginning of a trend. Trends start with a very small group of people, often only one person, who has a great idea and who gets it starting, eventually making it public. There is no in-between. Either it's in development or it's already out, and if it's something you can already join... it's out. You're not one of the first; you're one of the many.

Rippln was my biggest mistake in this area. I joined Rippln just over a year ago and was, as I remember, very excited about this new social network. I sent Facebook messages to people telling them about it (sorry to any of you who are reading this!) and chatted with the other members about how great this was going to be. Apparently, people were signing up on the pre-launch left and right, and it was no wonder: this was going to be a social network that pays you! But, as the days to the official "launch" drew nearer, Rippln started to change. It wasn't a friendly new social networking site... it was an expensive pyramid scheme. They began to email me, asking for hundreds of dollars so that I would attend special "training" webinars, and the fun games that they promised were just gimmicks in the end. There wasn't even a decent product with Rippln, just a promise and a feeling of being a part of the beginning of something big. No one joined under me, but as I saw the true nature of the scam, I was relieved and decided to quit before they took any of my money away. My question was, "Since when have social network media required hundreds of dollars just for basic training?" Yeah, I failed big.

My Perfect Inter.net was another pre-launch that I joined. It was not an all-out scam like Rippln, but the quality fell very far from the ideals that it projected beforehand. It was supposed to be the perfect "Internet," with everything you wanted all on one page--emails, games, sales from your favorite stores, latest messages and updates from friends, and news. Oh, and it also pays you to refer people. I joined and made an account when it was still "WazzUb" and didn't think much about it. After it officially launched I visited my page, looked around and played a game of solitaire, and then left. I've only returned two or three times since then. Yeah, it has what it was promising... but the layout is awful! Brightly flashing colors, more ads than features, and an overall headache of an experience was what I found.

Moral of the story? Don't fall for the pre-launch. It's an illusion, a way for people to profit off of you without having to give you anything at all right away. If you're seeing ads for it, it's too late to be one of the first members anyway. Look for something established and proven, something that has both positive reviews and positive results. Clixsense, Amazon Turk and SFI may not be fast earning opportunities and they may not look exciting compared to others, but they have a track record.